Chapter 8: The Present Tense of Latin Verbs

Brainstorming What is a verb? What is a tense? What does it mean to conjugate a verb? What is a pronoun? Does English need pronouns? Why? Does Latin need pronouns? Why (not)? An action word (example: write, read, carry) A verb tense shows WHEN the action takes place (examples: past, present, future). Conjugating verbs is when you change the ending to match the subject (ex: puella scribit vs puellae scribunt). Pronouns replace nouns (example: he, she, it, I, you) Yes – if we don’t include pronouns, we don’t know who the subject is (example: ______ read). No – the endings tell us what the subject is without pronouns (example: scribit).

amo, amare – to love egonos tuvos puer puella pueri puellae amo amas amat amamus amatis amant

Steps for forming the present tense 1. Start with the infinitive amareparareindueredormire 2. Find the stem by taking off the –RE ending ama-para-indue-dorm- 3. Add the correct present tense ending -o-s-t-mus -ts-nt

paro, parare egonos tuvos puer puella pueri puellae paro paras parat paramus paratis parant

induo, induere egonos tuvos puer puella pueri puellae induo induis induit induimus induitis induunt Note: Sometimes the vowel before the –RE ending changes. This change WON’T happen if the vowel is an I or A. Don’t worry about this change right now – we’ll talk about it more in Chapter 10.

dormio, dormire egonos tuvos puer puella pueri puellae dormio dormis dormit dormimus dormitis dormiunt

Note: Translation Don’t forget that the present tense can be translated three ways into English! scribitcurrohabitatis he/she/it writes he/she/it is writing he/she/it does write I run I am running I do run y’all live y’all are living y’all do live

Irregular Verbs Latin has some irregular verbs that don’t quite follow this pattern. The most important one to know is the verb sum, esse = to be.

sum, esse = to be egonos tuvos puer puella pueri puellae sum es est sumus estis sunt