Latin made easy #4 (Verbs, first conjugation active voice)

“You all speak Latin, you just don’t know it yet! And I am here to show you that you understand!” - my Latin professor, three years ago 

This is a part of a series of blogs where we learn Latin together, if you haven‘t seen the previous one, you might be a tiny bit lost. 

Hello, my diligent pupils! As I promised last time, today we will finally get to form our very own sentences! 

Now, what do we need to form a sentence? We need a subject, a verb and maybe an object. We already know our nouns and adjectives, so subject and object are done. So let‘s take a look into verbs, shall we? 

Verbs describe an action, a state or an occurrence. There is very little information you can convey without the use of a verb. There are some, yes, for example agreement. 

"Sic." That‘s it. You agreed. It means yes, but in a broader sense. It‘s a sign of agreement, not a direct translation of the word yes. 

But THAT is not the sentence we want to form, no. The sentence I am about to show you is much more interesting. 

"Lego." That‘s it. That‘s the sentence. No, really. Let‘s unpack it together. 

Latin verbs are complex. They are composed of a root and a suffix. The root gives the basic meaning and the suffix gives the grammatical categories. 

What are those? I am glad you asked! 

PERSÓNA 

Person. Same as in English, there are three persons. 

1st. (I), 2nd. (you) and 3rd. (he, she, it). And while in English, the only person you can distinguish is the third (I read, you read, he reads), in latin, each person has it‘s own special suffix. 

Therefore in the sentence "Lego." there is no need to name a subject, it is already inside the verb. The suffix -o is reserved for the first person only, therefore we know it is me who is performing the reading. 

NUMERUS 

The number is something we are already familiar with. There is singular and plural. Each has it‘s own ending. 

MODUS 

Mood is a manner in which the speaker conveys the message. 

There are three: 

1) indicátívus - indicative, you are relaying an information. No question, no order, just stating facts.

2) coniúnctivus - subjunctive, you are speaking of something not necessarily true. It‘s hypothetical, potential or non-factual. Wishes, hypothesis, dreams, what could have been if we‘ve done something differently. 

3) imperátívus - imperative, you are ordering something to someone. You are the ruler and your words are commands. And of course, each has it‘s own suffixes, but they are pretty intuitive, I promise. 

TEMPUS

Time. This will one day be the death of me. (My native tongue has only three, past, present and future, so languages such as English and Latin that have like thirty seven and counting fry my brain on a daily basis. Excuse my outburst,let us continue.) 

1) praeséns - present tense, what is happening right now. 

2) imperfectum - happened in the past, the action is not finished yet.

3) perfectum - happened in the past, the action is finished.

4) plusquamperfectum - happened way into the past BEFORE another past event we are going to talk about in the same sentence or paragraph. The context is really important in this one. [morphology window: the word plusquamperfectum is really easy to remember and logical as well, you can decipher it‘s meaning thanks to the word itself: plus + quam + perfectum it literally means more than perfectum, so it‘s further back in the past than perfectum] 

5) futúrum I. - future tense 

6) futúrum exáctum (also known as futúrum II.) - future tense used for situations, that will happen before something else in future (so closer to present time). This one is also heavy on kontext. 

GENUS/VOX 

For some reason, this is also called a "gender," (sometimes also a "voice") but don‘t let it fool you. [To avoid said confusion, we will stick with calling it a voice.] 

Voice in verbs is áctívum or passívum, so active or passive voice. We use active voice when the subject is doing something, and we use passive voice when something is being done to the subject.

Now that we‘ve gotten rid of the ugly theory, let‘s get to the new and fun suffixes. 

To keep things simple, we will discuss only active voice of the first conjugation. Now you are thinking, AND WHAT IN THE CAESAR SALAD IS A CONJUGATION? 

If you are not, you are not paying attention, and we should do something about it. Anyway, a conjugation is a group of verbs that are being "bent", or in other words modified in the same way. 

There are four groups, really, nothing too difficult. Let‘s see, the first conjugation is the a conjugation. We use it for all of the a verbs. 

How do you know a verb is an a verb? Easy. Dictionary. To demonstrate, we will use a verb to praise. Laudáre. 

In a dictionary we would find this: 

• laudó, -áre, -áví, -átum - to praise 

There is a lot to look at, but for now, only the first two information are of any value to us. Laudó is first person, singular, present, active form. The form is "I do X." The next information is the infinitive. Laudáre means to praise. 

Notice the root here is laud- and you are adding suffixes. The infinitive suffix -áre tells us that the verb is from the first conjugation (a), because there is a very prominent a at the beginning of the infinitive suffix. 

Now for the suffixes themselves:

ÁCTÍVUM

1st person, sg.   laud - ó

2nd person, sg.  laud - á - s

3rd person, sg.   laud - a - t

1st person, pl.   laud - á - mus

2nd person, pl.  laud - á - tis

3rd person, pl.   laud - a - nt

Notice how every form except for the first person singular contains a. That‘s what it means to be an a conjugation. 

Lets try some of the long promised sentences. 

I praise a girl. = Laudó puellam. 

The information that I am the one doing the praising is contained in the verb laudó. The girl in this sentence is a direct object, so the case of the noun is bound to be accusative (therefore we‘ve used the accusative ending of the first declension -am). 

• cantó, -áre, -áví, -átum - to sing

The women are singing = Féminae cantant. 

The subject are women, so we use nominative plural suffix for the word woman. For the verb we use 3rd person plural suffix because Who is singing? They are singing = 3rd person plural. 

That would be all for today, but before we part ways, let me provide you with some exercises first. Do you know what that means?

DICTIONARY TIME!

• amícitia, -ae, f.                  - friendship
• amó, -áre, -áví, -átum       - to love
• avoló, -áre, -áví, -átum      - to fly
• cantó, -áre, -áví, -átum      - to sing
• céna, -ae, f.                       - lunch
• coróna, -ae, f.                    - wreath [notice the fun etymology of the word crown]
• educó, -áre, -áví, -átum      - to educate
• erró, -áre, -áví, -átum         - to make mistake / to be wrong
• fábula, -ae, f.                      - tale
• fortúna, -ae, f.                    - fate
• habitó, -áre, -áví, -átum      - to live (somewhere)
• herba, -ae, f.                      - plant
• história, -ae, f.                   - history
• imperó, -áre, -áví, -átum     - to reign
• laudó, -áre, -áví, -átum       - to praise 
• narró, -áre, -áví, -átum       - to talk [notice the fun etymology of the word narrative]

Now use your imagination and all resources available, and form some simple sentences! Good luck to you all!

And remember, to stay curious! And as always, if you have any questions or something was explained poorly, let me know in the comments, we will work it out.

XOXO, 

Rebeka