The present tense indicates that the action of a verb is happening at the same time as the speaker’s utterance. For example, in the sentence “I write about the present tense”, the verb “write” indicates that the process of writing is currently happening. The present tense can also show an action in progress through the use of a form of the verb “to be” and the addition of -ing to the verb; for example, “we are learning about Latin.” The verb “are learning” indicates that learning is in the process of happening!
Here are some more English examples of the present tense, with the Latin equivalent of the verb in parentheses:
So, the present can be translated in various ways: in the third person singular active voice, as a simple present like “he gives”, a present progressive like “he is giving”, or an emphatic present like “he does give”; in the third person singular passive voice, “he is (being) given.”
This is a broad overview of the formation of the present tense across all conjugations. If you prefer a more structured and compartmentalized approach to the differences between the conjugations, see the sections below on the 1st and 2nd conjugations and 3rd, 4th, and 3rd -iō conjugations.
This chart overviews the present tense in the active and passive voice across all conjugations. Note the patterns, both within individual conjugations and across conjugations: for example, what vowels precede the personal endings of -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt or -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur in a given conjugation? Focus for now, though, on the bolded 3rd person forms.
Active
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd -iō | 4th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | amō | moneō | regō | cupiō | audiō |
| 2nd sg. | amās | monēs | regis | cupis | audīs |
| 3rd sg. | amat | monet | regit | cupit | audit |
| 1st pl. | amāmus | monēmus | regimus | cupimus | audīmus |
| 2nd pl. | amātis | monētis | regitis | cupitis | audītis |
| 3rd pl. | amant | monent | regunt | cupiunt | audiunt |
Passive
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd -iō | 4th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | amor | moneor | regor | cupior | audior |
| 2nd sg. | amāris | monēris | regiris | cuperis | audīris |
| 3rd sg. | amātur | monētur | regitur | cupitur | audītur |
| 1st pl. | amāmur | monēmur | regimur | cupimur | audīmur |
| 2nd pl. | amāminī | monēminī | regiminī | cupiminī | audīminī |
| 3rd pl. | amantur | monentur | reguntur | cupiuntur | audiuntur |
This is a specific overview of the formation of the present tense in the 1st and 2nd conjugations. For a broader overview of the present tense across all conjugations, see the section above on the present tense across all conjugations.
If you need the first person singular present active indicative form of the verb, you automatically have it from the first principal part of the dictionary entry. For example, with the verb amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus, “to love”, the first principal part, amō, is your first person present active indicative form, which means “I love.”
To form the present indicative in the other persons and numbers in the 1st and 2nd conjugation, we begin by finding the verb’s present stem. To find it, you go to the second principal part of the verb’s dictionary entry and then chop off the final -re. For example, with the same example verb, we would go to the second principal part, amāre, and chop off the final -re, which leaves us with the present stem: amā-. The second conjugation works the same way: for example, with the verb moneō, monēre, monuī, monitus, “to warn, advise”, the present stem would be monē-.
From there, you add your personal endings, which are shown below (focus on the bolded third person forms for the first part of this semester):
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | (-ō) | -mus |
| 2nd | -s | -tis |
| 3rd | -t | -nt |
So, for example, the 3rd person plural present active indicative form of amō is amant, “they love.” The 2nd person singular present active indicative form of moneō is monēs, “you warn.”
For the passive forms, you would tack on the passive personal endings onto your present stem (for the 1st person singular, you would tack the ending directly onto the active form):
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -r | -mur |
| 2nd | -ris | -minī |
| 3rd | -tur | -ntur |
So, for example, the 1st person singular present passive indicative of amō is amor, “I am (being) loved.” The third person singular present passive indicative of moneō is monētur, “he/she/it is (being) warned.”
This is a specific overview of the formation of the present tense in the 3rd, 4th, and 3rd -iō conjugations. For a broader overview of the present tense across all conjugations, see the section above on the present tense across all conjugations.
In the 3rd, 4th, and 3rd -iō conjugations in the present indicative, there are a number of vowel changes at the end of the present stem from person to person and number to number before we apply the active and passive endings listed in the charts above. You must be aware of these vowel shifts to conjugate a verb correctly.
Let’s conjugate the third conjugation verb regō, regere, rēxī, rectus, “to rule”, in the present active indicative as an example. As above, we can get the 1st person singular form from the first principal part of the verb: regō, “I rule.” For the remaining forms, if we follow the procedure from above, we go to regere and chop off the -re, and then we have the present stem rege-. The -e at the end of the present stem becomes an -i in all forms except the 3rd pl, in which it becomes a -u. Then we add our personal endings (-s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt).
So, the present active indicative of regō looks like this (focus on the bolded 3rd person forms):
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | regō | regimus |
| 2nd | regis | regitis |
| 3rd | regit | regunt |
The present passive indicative of the third conjugation swaps out the active personal endings for passive ones (-r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur). The vowel shifts are identical to those in the active with one exception: the 2nd sg. retains the -e, rather than changing to an -i. Take a look at this chart (and again, focus on the bolded forms):
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | regor | regimur |
| 2nd | regeris | regiminī |
| 3rd | regitur | reguntur |
The fourth conjugation follows the pattern of 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs (go to the infinitive, chop off the -re, add your endings) with one crucial exception: the 3rd pl. form shifts the vowel at the end of the stem from -i to -iu. So, let’s take the sample verb audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus, “to hear.” The present stem is audī-.
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | audiō | audīmus |
| 2nd | audīs | audītis |
| 3rd | audit | audiunt |
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | audior | audīmur |
| 2nd | audīris | audīminī |
| 3rd | audītur | audiuntur |
The third -iō conjugation is a mixture of 3rd and 4th conjugation forms; such verbs as capiō, capere, cēpī, captus, “to seize, capture”, follow 3rd conjugation patterns in most forms but 4th conjugation patterns in the 3rd pl.
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | capiō | capimus |
| 2nd | capis | capitis |
| 3rd | capit | capiunt |
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | capior | capimur |
| 2nd | caperis | capiminī |
| 3rd | capitur | capiuntur |
Note that often, one letter can make the difference, so it is imperative that you recognize what conjugation a verb belongs to in order to conjugate it correctly!
From the dictionary entry, conjugate the verb in the 3rd person plural present indicative active and passive, and then translate the new form.
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus - to send
videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus - to see; (passive) to seem
dō, dare, dedī, datus - to give
capiō, capere, cēpī, captus - to take, seize
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus - to hear
The imperfect tense is one of three different past tenses (along with the perfect and pluperfect) used in Latin. In its usage in the indicative mood, the imperfect is different from the other two tenses because it connotes an ongoing, continuous, habitual, or attempted action in the past (it never refers to a completed action).
For instance, for the active form of the English verb “to make”, we can translate the Latin imperfect as “was/were making” (the most common translation of the imperfect), “used to make”, “kept on making”, or “began to make.” Similarly, for the passive form of the English verb “to make” (i.e. “to be made”), we can translate the Latin imperfect as “was/were being made”, “used to be made”, “kept being made”, or “began to be made.”
Below are some English examples where we would use the Latin imperfect (note the -ba infix in all the Latin form - this is the telltale sign that a verb is in the imperfect):
To form the imperfect indicative (NB: this is the same for both active and passive), we start by finding the verb’s present stem. To determine the present stem, we take the second principal part (the present active infinitive) and chop off the final -re.
For instance, in the case of the verb, videō, its second principal part is vidēre and taking off the -re gives us a present stem of vidē-.
For verbs that belong to the first and second conjugation, we do not need to modify the present stem and can simply add -ba to the stem to make the imperfect stem. In the case of videō:
vidēre -> vidē- (present stem) -> vidē-ba- (imperfect stem)
For verbs that belong to the third and fourth we have to make some changes to the present stem before adding -ba:
Thus, audīre** -> *audī- (present stem) -> audiē- -> audiē-ba- (imperfect stem)
To this stem, we add the endings for the relevant person and number, and voice, as shown below:
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -m | -mus |
| 2nd | -s | -tis |
| 3rd | -t | -nt |
Passive (NB: To move from active to passive in the imperfect, all we have to do is change personal endings.)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -r | -mur |
| 2nd | -ris | -mini |
| 3rd | -tur | -ntur |
So if we wanted to form the 3rd person plural imperfect passive indicative of videō:
vidēre -> vidē- (present stem) -> vidē-ba- (imperfect stem) -> vidē-ba-ntur
Find the present stem and form the 3rd person singular imperfect active and passive for the following verbs.
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus - to send
videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus - to see; (passive) to seem
dō, dare, dedī, datus - to give
capiō, capere, cēpī, captus - to take, seize
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus - to hear
The future tense indicates that the action of a verb has yet to take place, but it’s certain that it will happen. In English, the future tense shows up with the auxiliary verbs “will” or “shall”. Take a look at some examples in English, with the Latin equivalent of the verb in parentheses:
So, the future tense can be translated with the auxiliary verbs “will” or “shall”: for example, “he will write” or “it will be written.”
Like the present tense, the future tense has different rules for formation depending on the conjugation of the verb in question. The 1st and 2nd conjugation operate on the same rules: you get the present stem (by going to the 2nd principal part and chopping off the -re), and then you add the same set of endings:
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -bō | -bimus |
| 2nd | -bis | -bitis |
| 3rd | -bit | -bunt |
Passive (note the vowel shift in the 2nd singular)
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -bor | -bimur |
| 2nd | -beris | -biminī |
| 3rd | -bitur | -buntur |
Note that these endings are composed of the letter -b, a vowel (ō, i, or u), and the personal endings that are familiar from the present tense (-ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt for active; -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur for passive).
So, for example, the 1st person singular future active indicative of amō, *amāre, amāvī, amātus is amābō, “I will love.” The third person singular future passive indicative of moneō, monēre, monuī, monitus is monēbitur, “he/she/it will be warned.”
The formation of the future tense in the 3rd, 4th, and 3rd -iō conjugations follow different rules. As in the present tense, these conjugations use vowel shifts to indicate the future tense.
A quick mnemonic that can help you remember the differences in 1st/2nd conjugations and 3rd/4th/3rd iō conjugations in the future tense is:
-bō, -bi, bu in 1 and 2; a and e in 4 and 3
The -bō, -bi, -bu part summarizes the future endings in the 1st and 2nd conjugation. Let’s see what the “a and e in 4 and 3” part means.
To form the future tense of third conjugation verbs, you first find the present stem (which, again, means that you go to the 2nd principal part and chop off the -re). For example, the present stem of regō, regere, rēxī, rectus, “to rule”, is rege-.
In the future tense, that final -e either remains an -e or lengthens to a long -ē in all persons and numbers except 1st sg., in which it shifts to an -a. Then, you tack on the personal ending that you need (using an -m rather than -ō for the 1st sg. active).
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | regam | regēmus |
| 2nd | regēs | regētis |
| 3rd | reget | regent |
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | regar | regēmur |
| 2nd | regēris | regēminī |
| 3rd | regētur | regentur |
Note how similar these forms look to their present tense equivalents; often, one letter makes all the difference. For example:
Make sure to be careful about how the form is spelled!
In the 4th conjugation, the future tense retains the -i in the stem before adding the appropriate -a or -e and the personal endings. Let’s take audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus, “to hear”, as an example:
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | audiam | audiēmus |
| 2nd | audiēs | audiētis |
| 3rd | audiet | audient |
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | audiar | audiēmur |
| 2nd | audiēris | audiēminī |
| 3rd | audiētur | audientur |
The third -iō conjugation follows the same vowel patterns as the fourth conjugation. So, with capiō, capere, cēpī, captus, “to take, seize”:
Active
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | capiam | capiēmus |
| 2nd | capiēs | capiētis |
| 3rd | capiet | capient |
Passive
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | capiar | capiēmur |
| 2nd | capiēris | capiēminī |
| 3rd | capiētur | capientur |
Again, one letter makes the difference between present and future. For example:
Analyze the word carefully in terms of spelling to determine what tense it is!
Form the 3rd person singular future active and passive for the following verbs, and then translate each form.
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus - to send
videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus - to see; (passive) to seem
dō, dare, dedī, datus - to give
capiō, capere, cēpī, captus - to take, seize
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus - to hear
The perfect tense is one of three different past tenses (along with the imperfect and pluperfect) used in Latin. In its usage in the indicative mood, the perfect refers to a singular action that has been completed in the past.
For instance, for the active form of the English verb “to make”, we can translate the Latin perfect as “has/have made”, “did make”, or simply “made.” Similarly, for the passive form of the English verb “to make” (i.e. “to be made”), we can translate the Latin perfect as “has/have been made” or simply “was/were made.”
Below are some English examples where we would use the Latin perfect:
Unlike the imperfect, the perfect active and perfect passive are formed differently. However, in the indicative mood, both are relatively easy to create and recognize.
To form the perfect active indicative, we need to find the perfect active stem. To do this, we simply take the 3rd principal part and take away the final -ī.
For instance in the verb videō, the third principal part is vīdī and, thus, our perfect active stem is vīd-.
Once we have the perfect active stem, forming the perfect active indicative is simple, we just add the personal endings for the perfect to the stem:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ī | -īmus |
| 2nd | -istī | -istis |
| 3rd | -it | -ērunt/-ēre |
NB: There are two endings that can be used for the 3rd personal plural of the perfect active indicative.
So if we wanted to form the 3rd person singular perfect active indicative of videō:
vīdī -> vīd- (perfect active stem) -> (add personal ending) vīdit
Form the 3rd person singular perfect active for the following verbs and translate the new form.
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus - to send
videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus - to see; (passive) to seem
dō, dare, dedī, datus - to give
capiō, capere, cēpī, captus - to take, seize
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus - to hear
To form the perfect passive indicative, we need to find the perfect passive stem. To do this, we simply take the adjectival form of 4th principal part (the reason we need the adjectival form is because the verb must agree with its subject in number and gender).
For instance in the verb videō, the fourth principal part is vīsus and thus our perfect passive stem is vīsus, vīsa, vīsum.
To make the perfect passive indicative, we take the perfect passive stem and add the present indicative form of “to be” (sum, esse, fui, futūrus) that matches the person and number of the verb. In the case of videō, it looks like this:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum* sum | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa sumus |
| 2nd | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum es | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa estis |
| 3rd | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum est | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa sunt |
NB: Look at how the adjectival form changes as we go from singular to plural. Why does it happen?
Form the 3rd person plural perfect passive for the following verbs and translate the new form.
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus - to send
videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus - to see; (passive) to seem
dō, dare, dedī, datus - to give
capiō, capere, cēpī, captus - to take, seize
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus - to hear
The pluperfect tense indicates an action that occurred prior to an action in the past. So, we usually translate the pluperfect with the auxiliary verb “had”.
Note the difference between the translation of the perfect and the translation of the pluperfect. The perfect tense uses “has” or “have”; the pluperfect tense uses “had”. This difference in translation indicates two different time periods, so it’s important to be accurate!
To form the pluperfect active indicative, we begin by taking the perfect stem (the third principal part minus the final -ī) and add the pluperfect active endings. They look exactly like the imperfect forms of sum, esse:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -eram | -erāmus |
| 2nd | -erās | -erātis |
| 3rd | -erat | -erant |
So, if we wanted to form the 3rd person singular pluperfect active indicative of videō:
vīdī -> vīd- (perfect active stem) -> (add personal ending) vīderat
We form the pluperfect passive indicative in a manner very similar to that of the perfect passive indicative. We use the 4th principal part as a 2-1-2 adjective that matches the subject in gender, case, and number, and then we conjugate a form of sum, esse in the appropriate person and number; in this case, with the pluperfect passive, we will use the imperfect forms of sum.
For instance, for the verb videō:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum eram | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa erāmus |
| 2nd | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum erās | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa erātis |
| 3rd | vīsus/vīsa/vīsum erat | vīsī/vīsae/vīsa erant |
The future perfect tense indicates an action that occurs in the future but before an action further in the future. Take a look at this example in English:
So, we usually translate the pluperfect with the auxiliary verbs “will have”. The “will” part conveys the future part of the tense; the “have” part conveys the perfect part of the tense.
To form the future perfect active indicative, we begin by taking the perfect stem (the third principal part minus the final -ī) and add the future perfect active endings. They look almost exactly like the future forms of sum, esse EXCEPT for the 3rd plural:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -erō | -erimus |
| 2nd | -eris | -eritis |
| 3rd | -erit | -erint |
So, if we wanted to form the 3rd person plural future perfect active indicative of regō:
rexī -> rex- (perfect active stem) -> (add personal ending) rexerint
We form the future perfect passive indicative in a manner very similar to that of the perfect passive indicative. We use the 4th principal part as a 2-1-2 adjective that matches the subject in gender, case, and number, and then we conjugate a form of sum, esse in the appropriate person and number; in this case, with the future perfect passive, we will use the future forms of sum. (Note that we use the normal 3rd pl. form, erunt, rather than the -i- present in the future perfect active ending.)
For instance, for the verb moneō:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | monitus/monita/monitum erō | monitī/monitae/monita erimus |
| 2nd | monitus/monita/monitum eris | monitī/monitae/monita eritis |
| 3rd | monitus/monita/monitum erit | monitī/monitae/monita erunt |
