Latin Study Guide Stage 6

Stage 6 Vocabulary: Grammar: Right now, we have gone over the present tense in Latin. However, what about when we describe the past. How do we describe an event that has already occurred with Latin? We use the imperfect tense and the perfect tense to describe events that have happened in the past. The imperfect tense is translated “The noun was verbing” an example would be “The slave was working” The perfect tense is translated “The noun verbed” and an example using the same one from the imperfect tense would be “The slave worked” To form the imperfect tense, we first have to learn about what a verb stem is. A verb stem can be found by taking any form of the present verb except the first person singular and removing the designated verb endings (-o,-s,-t,-mus,-tis,-nt/-unt). After we have the verb stem, we add the special endings for the imperfect tense which are 1st Singular: -bam 2nd Singular: -bas 3rd Singular: -bat 1st Plural: -bamus 2nd Plural: -batis 3rd Plural: -bant There are no changes for various cases. Forming the perfect tense is a little more difficult. Each verb has 4 principal parts. The first principal part is the 1st person singular of the present tense. The second principal part is the infinitive (to verb). The 3rd principal part is the 1st person singular of the perfect tense and the fourth principal part is used in a variety of areas that you will find out later in your Latin journey. The perfect tense is formed by taking the 3rd principal part, removing the initial ending to form the stem, and then adding the special verb endings. The special verb endings are 1st Singular: -i 2nd Singular: -isti 3rd Singular: -it 1st Plural: -imus 2nd Plural: -istis 3rd Plural: -erunt So while these new endings have to be memorized, they are pretty similar to the original endings. Now, let us take a look at how the to be verb is in these new tenses. The verb sum, esse, fui, fuerunt is an irregular verb and as a result has some different endings. For the present tense, here’s how it goes 1st Singular: sum 2nd Singular: es 3rd Singular: est 1st Plural: summus 2nd Plural: estis 3rd Plural: sunt Notice how the endings are -m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, and -nt. This may seem like it doesn’t have any logic right now, but why don’t we take a look at the imperfect forms of this verb. 1st Singular: eram 2nd Singular: eras 3rd Singular: erat 1st Plural: eramus 2nd Plural: eratis 3rd Plural: erant Notice how the endings are -m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt. This pattern makes it a lot easier to memorize these forms. The perfect tense is a lot easier. We just take the third principal part and apply the endings so we get 1st Singular: fui 2nd Singular: fuisti 3rd Singular: fuit 1st Plural: fuimus 2nd Plural: fuistis 3rd Plural: fuerunt Now, we know how the declensions work in Latin. However, we’ve seen different categories of verbs with slightly varied endings. What do we call these? We call these conjugations. The verbs where the third person present endings end in -at are the first conjugation. An example of this is amo, amare, amavi, amatus. The second conjugation are the ones that end in -et in the third person in the present tense. An example of this is teneo, tenere, tenui, tentum. Third declension verbs are slightly harder to detect. To detect a third declension verb, we have to pay attention to the second principal part and the present verb. The infinitive has to end in -ere and the third person present verb has to end in -it. An example of this is peto, petere, petivi, petitus. The next conjugation is called the 3rd io. These are similar to the third conjugation but have one key difference. The key difference is that it has an -io in the first principal part. Other than that, it has all of the same properties as the third conjugation. An example of this verb would be facio, facere, feci, factus. The final conjugation that we are going to go over is the fourth conjugation. The fourth conjugation is detected by -ire in the second principal part. An example of a fourth declension verb is audio, audire, audivi, auditum. Culture – Slaves and Freedman We’ve been introduced to slaves a little bit but now let’s learn a little more about how slavery worked in the Roman Empire. People became slaves by being taken in as a prisoner of war or being captured by pirates. In the country, slaves worked on farms and in large estates through scorching weather at times. In the towns and cities, slaves had a variety of different jobs to help accommodate their master’s needs. Sometimes, slaves would be freed through a process called manumission which means “sending out through the hand”. When slaves became free, they were called freedmen, libertus for a man and liberta for a woman. While freedmen had many more opportunities than slaves, they did not get all the rights as a Roman Citizen.