March 10, 2025

Latin Grammar Mini-Series | Lesson Two - Understanding the First Conjugation & Why we have Conjugations in Latin

25 minutes

There are five essential grammatical terms that are used in reference to verbs. They are

Mood

tense

Voice

Person

Number.

You should become familiar with these terms as soon as you can.

The mood of the verb indicates how the speaker feels about the action. Does the speaker feel that what’s being said is a fact, a command, or is there something uncertain about it in the speaker’s mind? Mood can also show that the verb is inside complicated grammar.

Tense is the grammatical term used to indicate when the action of the verb is happening.

Voice is the term used to indicate whether the subject of the verb is acting or being acted upon.

Person is the grammatical term which indicates the nature of the subject. Is it I, you, he/she/it, we, you plural, or where I grew up, y’all, or they?

And finally, number says whether the subject is singular or plural, that is, one person or many.

Another important grammatical term concerning Latin verbs is conjugation. Conjugation has two meanings in Latin.

It’s the process of joining a personal ending onto the base of a verb to form a full Latin verb form,

And it’s the term used to refer to one of the five categories of Latin verbs which are distinguished from each other by the vowels found at the end of their base (/a/, /ē/, /ě/, /ī/, /ĭ/).

Now let’s look at how to form a Latin verb. Latin verbs in the present tense consist of three elements:

the verb base

the thematic vowel

and a personal ending.

The verb base conveys the verb’s meaning. For instance, am- conveys the sense of “love”; laud-, “praise”; duc-, “lead.”

The thematic vowel signals which conjugation or category the verb belongs to. -a- is the thematic vowel for first conjugation; -ē- is the thematic vowel for second conjugation. Later we’ll learn that -ě- signals third conjugation and -i- signals fourth and third-io. A verb belongs to one conjugation and that’s all. Which conjugation has to be memorized with each verb.

Finally, the personal ending indicates the person and number of the verb, that is, who’s doing the action of the verb. Person signals whether it is first, second or third person, and number signals whether it is singular or plural. The person and number of the subject and verb must agree, in other words, must be the same. Personal endings are attached only to finite verbs.

These are verbs with personal endings, as opposed to “infinitives,” which are verbs that have no endings. Finally, finite verbs serve as the main verbs of sentences and clauses.

Latin verb endings carry important grammatical information.

First, they show person: first, second or third.

First person signifies “me” or “my group.” In English first person is represented by the pronouns “I” or “we.”

Second person represents the person to whom the speaker is talking. “You” is used in standard English to indicate both the singular and plural, but where I come from there’s a very useful second-person plural form of “you,” “y’all.” So, we’re gonna use “y’all” in this class when we mean second person plural, ‘cause that’s a good thing to know. Like how many of you all there are out there? And if y’all don’t like it, y’all can just learn to live with it.

And finally, third person, the person or persons over there, represented in English by “he,” “she,” or “it,” and in the plural, “they.”

Latin verb endings also show number, that is singular or plural. The singular pronouns are “I,” “you,” “he,” “she” and “it,” and the plural pronouns are “we,” “y’all,” and “they.” The Latin personal endings which are used at the end of Latin verbs to indicate person and number are as follows: -o (sometimes -m) meaning “I,” -s meaning “you,” -t meaning “he, she, it,” -mus meaning “we,” -tis meaning “you” or “y’all,” and -nt meaning “they.”

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By Liam Connerly

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