Review the present tense.

1. Chapter 5 Grammar
Part One:
Present Tense Verbs

2. What makes up a verb?
– Tense: the tense of the verb tells us when
something happens
– Person: the person of the verb tells us who is
doing the action
– Number: the number of the verb tells us how
many are doing the action
There are three things that make up a verb:

3. What is the Present Tense?
• The Present Tense happens now.
Horatia in casam festinat.
Horatia is hurrying into the house.
• It is at this moment in time that Horatia is hurrying. It has not already happened, nor is it about to happen . . . that is the present tense.

4. Person and Number
• There are six persons for each Latin verb
(three singular and three plural)
Singular Plural
I We
You You All
He, She They

5. Endings of the Present Tense
• In order to tell which person is the subject
of your verb, Latin will change the ending
of the verb
• There are six personal endings that
correspond with the six possible subjects:
Singular Plural
I - o We - mus
You - s You All - tis
He, She - t They - nt

6. First Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in ‘–a’
and follow this example:
Singular Plural
par – o para - mus
para - s para - tis
para - t para - nt

7. Second Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in ‘-e’
and follows this example:
Singular Plural
mone - o mone - mus
mone - s mone - tis
mone - t mone - nt

8. Third Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in a
consonant and follow this example:
Singular Plural
reg - o reg - imus
reg - is reg - it
reg - it reg - unt

9. Fourth Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems that end in ‘-i’
and follow this example:
Singular Plural
audi - o audi - mus
audi - s audi - tis
audi - t audi - unt

10. Irregular Verb ‘sum’
• There are eight irregular verbs in Latin -
they must be memorized!
Singular Plural
sum su - mus
e - s es - tis
es - t su - nt

11. Summary
• Learn the six personal endings - you will
continue to see them throughout your Latin
career
• Remember how to translate a present tense
verb
• Learn your example verbs!
• Learn the irregular verb sum!