The Present Tense Verb System I Proper format

The Present Tense Verb System

I. Proper format of verbs o Verbs are properly “named” with their four principle parts: amo , amare, amavi, amatus -to like, to love Note: This is how you will see verbs in the dictionary.

o This year we only really need the first two principle parts: amo , amare 1 st person sing. , present tense infinitive Note: This is how you will see verbs in the vocabulary lists from now on.

II. The parts of a verb amare base ama re stem ending characteristic vowel

III. Four kinds of verbs Kind example o 1 st Conjugation paro, parare o 2 nd Conjugation habeo, habēre o 3 rd Conjugation mitto, mittere n 3 rd –io o 4 th Conjugation vowel a ē e iacio, iacere audio, audire i

IV. The Verb Party o We now need to learn how to conjugate each kind of verb o We start with the infinitive, as we usually do with verbs

1 st Conjugation - parare par a re par par par a a a o s t mus tis nt The endings column is just filled with the personal endings. The base does not change. Now you need to know what the characteristic vowel does for each conjugation. Watch (and memorize) where the “a” appears. base personal ending

2 nd Conjugation - habēre hab ē re hab hab hab e e e o s t mus tis nt The “strong e” of the 2 nd conjugation shows itself throughout the whole conjugation.

3 rd Conjugation - mittere mitt e re mitt mitt i i u o s t mus tis nt The “weak e” of the 3 rd conjugation never shows itself. Be sure to recite this strange pattern until you have it memorized well.

4 th Conjugation - audire aud i re aud aud aud i o i s i t i mus i tis iu nt The 4 th conjugation has the “i” all the way down, but adds a “u” at the end.

The 3 rd -io o The 3 rd –io is kind of a combination of 3 rd and 4 th conjugation o From the infinitive, you know for sure that it is a 3 rd conjugation verb o Yet the 1 st principle part ends in an “-io” instead of just an “-o” iacio, iacere the “-io” shows that it’s not a normal third “weak e” is always 3 rd conj. continued…

3 rd -io Conjugation - iacere iac e re iac i o iac i s iac i t iac i mus iac i tis iac iu nt Although it is a 3 rd conj. verb, in the present tense it is conjugated exactly like a 4 th

What are the four characteristic vowels? (Say them before they appear. ) 1 st Conj. a 2 nd Conj. ē 3 rd Conj. e 4 th Conj. i

Practice reciting the endings of all four conjugations 1 st Conj. 2 nd Conj. 3 rd Conj. 4 th Conj. -o -as -at -amus -atis -ant -eo -es -et -emus -etis -ent -o -is -it -imus -itis -unt -io -is -it -imus -itis -iunt