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Latin grammar. In linguistics and grammar, conjugation has two basic meanings. [1] One meaning is the creation of derived forms of a verb from basic forms, or principal parts. The second meaning of the word conjugation is a group of verbs which all have the same pattern of inflections. Thus all those Latin verbs which in the present tense have ...
Most Latin verbs are regular and follow one of the five patterns below. [45] These are referred to as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th conjugation, according to whether the infinitive ends in -āre, -ēre, -ere or -īre. [46] (Verbs like capiō are regarded as variations of the 3rd conjugation, with some forms like those of the 4th conjugation.)
The six main indicative tenses in classical Latin are the following, using the verb dūcō as an example: [ 7 ] (a) Infectum tenses. Present:dūcō 'I lead, I am leading'. Future:dūcam 'I will lead, I will be leading'. Imperfect:dūcēbam 'I was leading, I used to lead'. (b) Perfectum tenses.
In Latin, most verbs have four principal parts.For example, the verb for "to carry" is given as portō – portāre – portāvī – portātum, where portō is the first-person singular present active indicative ("I carry"), portāre is the present active infinitive ("to carry"), portāvī is the first-person singular perfect active indicative ("I carried"), and portātum is the neuter supine.
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); [5] and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both hostium castra and castra hostium; the latter is more common). [6]
Grammatical tense relating to an action antecedent to a subsequent action or event in the past. The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, characterizes certain verb forms and grammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "we had arrived " before ...
For example, Latin is said to have four conjugations of verbs. This means that any regular Latin verb can be conjugated in any person, number, tense, mood, and voice by knowing which of the four conjugation groups it belongs to, and its principal parts. A verb that does not follow all of the standard conjugation patterns of the language is said ...
Sigmatic aorist mode for volition. In old Latin, a form of the subjunctive with -s-, known as the sigmatic aorist subjunctive, is preserved (faxim, servāssim etc.). One use of this is for wishes for the future: [17] dī tē servāssint semper! (Plautus) [51] ' may the gods preserve you always!'. deī faxint ut liceat!