Present-tense verbs

Present-tense verbs

A Latin verb can contain its subject: amō “I love,” amās “you love,” amat “he or she loves.” The recurring endings -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt let readers recognize who acts before mastering every conjugation.

A personal ending can replace a subject pronoun

The present active endings are -ō or -m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, and -nt. They mark first, second, and third person in singular and plural: I, you, he/she/it, we, you all, they. Because amāmus already means ‘we love,’ Latin normally needs nōs only when ‘we’ is emphasized or contrasted. Translate the information in the ending even when no separate subject appears.

A verb also belongs to a conjugation, a pattern identified from its principal parts. amō, amāre is first conjugation, visible in the long ā of forms such as amāmus. moneō, monēre belongs to the second. The personal endings are broadly reusable, while stems and connecting vowels vary. Separate the question ‘who acts?’ from the question ‘to which conjugation does this verb belong?’

Build and read a small paradigm

Take the stem amā-. amā + s gives amās, ‘you love’; amā + t gives amat, ‘he or she loves’; amā + mus gives amāmus, ‘we love’; amā + nt gives amant, ‘they love.’ The first-person amō has contracted historically and should be learned as the form, not manufactured as *amāō.

In servum amātis, the ending -tis supplies a plural ‘you,’ and servum supplies a singular direct object: ‘You all love the servant.’ In puellae puerum amant, -nt signals a plural subject, puellae fits that subject, and puerum is the object: ‘The girls love the boy.’ Confirm each relationship instead of guessing a pronoun from context.

Person lives in the verb

The present active endings -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt regularly signal I, you singular, he/she/it, we, you plural, and they. In amāmus, the ending -mus supplies ‘we.’ Learn to divide a form into stem and ending rather than memorizing it as an unrelated word.