Latin I Magister Henderson The Perfect Tense Latin I Magister Henderson

What is the Perfect Tense? The perfect tense is one of Latin’s three past tenses. It differs from the imperfect tense (which you have already seen) in that the perfect tense shows a completed past action, while the imperfect tense shows ongoing or incomplete past actions. The Latin word perfectus means “complete” it does not carry the meaning of “flawless” that it sometimes has is English.

The Perfect Tense Endings The perfect tense uses the following endings: Singular Plural First Person -ī -imus Second Person -istī -istis Third Person -it -ērunt These endings are unique to the perfect tense. No other tense uses perfect tense endings. All other tenses use some variation of the present tense endings instead.

About the Perfect Tense The perfect tense is formed from a different base than the present or imperfect tenses. Latin verbs have four principal parts, the third part is used to form the perfect tense. Up till now we’ve only seen the first two parts, but now that we’ve seen perfect tense verbs we will begin to see the other parts.

What are Principal Parts? The principal parts of a typical Latin verb look like this: 1st Principal Part 2nd Principal Part 3rd Principal Part 4th Principal Part videō vidēre vīdī visus = I see = to see = I saw = seen Present tense 1st person singular Infinitive Perfect tense 1st person singular Participle To compare, English verbs only have three principal parts: 1st Principal Part 2nd Principal Part 3rd Principal Part see saw seen Present tense Past Tense Participle

How to Form the Perfect Tense To form the perfect tense, first go to the verb’s third principal part: videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus  (this one) The third principal part is the first person singular form. To form the remaining forms, drop the –ī from the third principal part and add the endings –istī, -it, -imus, -istis, & -ērunt. This yields the following forms: Perfect Tense Singular Plural First Person vīdī vīdimus Second Person vīdistī vīdistis Third Person vīdit vīdērunt

Translating the Perfect Tense The perfect tense shows a completed past action. So usually the best way to translate it is with a simple past tense form (often ending isn –ed). The perfect tense may also sometimes be translated with the helping verb “have” or “has”, like the English present perfect tense. Furthermore, it can occasionally be translated as a past tense emphatic with the helping verb “did”. Latin Perfect Simple Past Present Perfect Emphatic Past vīdī = I saw = I have seen = I did see portāvimus = we carried = we have carried = we did carry fuērunt = they were = they have been = they did exist

The Perfect Tense in Real Latin Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī = “I came, I saw, I conquered” -Julius Caesar, 47 B.C. Sed ubi cum ceterō orbe Vespasiānus et Britanniam recūperāvit… = “But when, with the rest of the world, Vespasian recovered Britain as well…” -Tacitus, Dē Vītā Agicolae, 17