Present Tense

Things will now start to get tricky, as we'll now introduce verb tenses, and because this is the first tense, there is a LOT to take in!

What is a tense?

This lesson is on the "present tense". This describes what is happening in the present i.e. now. There are three was of translating the present tense into English. The example is using the verb "to carry".

1. I am carrying
2. I carry
3. I do carry

To decide which one to use, just pick the one that makes the most sense in the sentence. Usually, the first version ("I am carrying") makes the most sense.

What is a conjugation?

In Latin, there are four different groups of verbs, known as conjugations. There are many verbs in each conjugation, but 3 is the biggest.

What does "first person plural" mean?

In both English and Latin, there are different "person"s and each can be singular or plural:

Person	Singular	Plural
First	I	We
Second	You	You
Third	He/She/It	They

In Latin, depending on who you are addressing, the verb will have a different ending. Often, the words for "I" and "you" aren't used, so sometimes, you can only translate the sentence by recognising the verb endings.

In the second person, there is a difference between the singular and plural forms. The second person singular is used when addressing one person, but the second person plural is used when addressing multiple people.

Infinitives

The "infinitive" is another ending of the verb. The infinitive of a verb in English is "to" do something. Examples include "to play", "to run" and "to jump". In Latin, the inifintive ends in -re, but will vary depending on conjugation.

When you see a Latin word, in the dictionary, the infinitive will be listed. For example, if you look up "carry", it will show:

porto, -are, -avi, -atus

The first means "I carry" and the second ("portare") means "to carry". You will learn the meanings of the other two later on.

The following table shows how the infinitives are formed along with meanings:

Verb Conjugation	Verb	Infinitive	Meaning of infinitive
1st	amo	amare	to love
2nd	moneo	monere	to warn
3rd	traho	trahere	to drag
4th	audio	audire	to hear

Note that 1st conjugation verbs have "-are" infinitives, 2nd are 3rd both have "-ere" and 4th conjugation verbs have "-ire".

The present stem

In Latin, every verb has a "present stem". To form this, you take the infinitive, and remove the -re from the end. The only exception is in the third conjugation, when the "-ere" is removed and an "i" is added. For the examples above, the infinitives are "ama", "mone", "trahi" and "audi". In the present tense, the endings are added to the "present stem".

Endings

The first few Latin tenses that you learn tend to have the following endings:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	-o or -m	-mus
2nd	-s	-tis
3rd	-t	-nt

The verb table below shows the endings for each conjugation using an example verb. The table lists the verb and the conjugation it is in:

	1st conjugation	2nd conjugation	3rd conjugation	4th conjugation
1st person singular	amo	moneo	traho	audio
2nd person singular	amas	mones	trahis	audis
3rd person singular	amat	monet	trahit	audit
1st person plural	amamus	monemus	trahimus	audimus
2nd person plural	amatis	monetis	trahitis	auditis
3rd person plural	amant	monent	trahunt	audiunt

There are some commonly made mistakes when learning this table. Make sure you remember the following:

• In the first conjugation, in the first person singular, the "o" ending is added to "am", rather than the present stem ("ama"). This is probably because "amao" would hard to say.
• In the third conjugation, even though the infinitive ends in "-ere", the present stem ends in an "i" ("trahi").
• In the first person singular and the third person plural in the third conjugation, the ending is added to "trah" rather than "trahi".
• The most common error is mixing up the third person plurals of the 3rd and 4th conjugations. The third conjugation ends in "unt", but the fourth conjugation ends in "-iunt".

Check your understanding

Once you think you have learned the table, you should be able to recite the verb table for any of the conjugations.

All 1st conjugation will follow the pattern of "amo" and all 2nd conjugation verbs will follow "moneo", and 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs will follow the patterns of their respective examples.

To check you have learnt the tables, you could attempt to write out the endings for the verb "lego, -ere, -i, lectum", meaning "to read" - it is a third conjugation noun. Then, right out the meanings for each ending.

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First, it is worth recognising that the infinitive ends in -ere, so it must be a 2nd or 3rd conjugation verb. Here, you are told that it is third conjugation, meaning that it has the same endings as "traho, -ere".

The first person singular is given to you - "lego".

Next, you should find the present stem. It is a third conjugation noun, so you have to remove the "-ere" and add an "i". The present stem is "legi".

The other thing to remember is that the third person plural will end in "-unt" rather than "-iunt".

So, the final table looks like this:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	lego = I read	legimus = We read
2nd	|legis = You read	legitis = You read
3rd	legit = He/She/It reads	legunt = They read

Well done if you got it right! If you didn't, it would be worth looking back over the page, until you are confident.

A slightly harder example would be to write out the present tense for the verb "venio, venire".

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In this example, you are not given the conjugation that the verb is in. However, since the infinitive ends in "-ire", it must belong to the fourth conjugation. Therefore, it must have the same endings as "audio".

Next, you need to find the stem by removing the "-re" off the infinitive. The stem is "veni".

Finally, add the endings to get:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	venio	venimus
2nd	venis	venitis
3rd	venit	veniunt

If you got both of these examples correct, you are well on your way to mastering the present tense.

A third question would be to translate the following sentences into Latin. Remember that in Latin, you don't have to put in the words for "I", "You", "He", "We", "They" etc. You only need to have the verb with the correct ending.

The following vocabulary should help.

Latin	English
laudo, laudare	to praise
rego, regere (3)*	to rule
video, videre (2)*	to see

• The number in brackets represents the conjugation that the verb falls into.

They rule.
She is praising.
You see.

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For the first example, note that the pronoun "they" means that it must be the third person plural. The present stem for "rego, regere" is "regi", since it is third conjugation. Add the "-nt" ending to get "regent".

The pronoun "she" means that it is third person singular (as the third person singular means he/she/it). Taking off the -re gives the present stem "lauda". Adding the "-t" ending gives "laudat".

"You see" can be translated two ways:

If you are talking to one person, then the second person singular should be used - "vides". However, if you are talking to more than one person, the second person plural is necessary - "videtis".

If you feel confident with using the present tense, then click below to view the next lesson.