Schaum's Outline of Latin Grammar - Alan Fishbone [15]
INDICATIVE
The indicative is the mood of facts. It is used for the direct assertion of facts or for questions about them:
He eats.
Does he eat?
SUBJUNCTIVE
The subjunctive is used for uncertainties, possibilities, conditions, indirect questions, and so on, both independently and in a broad range of subordinate clauses.
Its translation often involves modal auxiliaries such as may, might, should, and would;
If I were a rich man, I would buy a red car.
I was afraid he might do that.
In Latin the verbs italicized above would take the subjunctive.
IMPERATIVE
The imperative mood expresses commands:
Eat!
Let them eat cake!
Tense
The tense of a verb expresses the time and aspect of the action that it represents.
Time refers to whether the action takes place in the past, present, or future.
Aspect refers to whether the action is represented as completed or not completed.
For example:
``He has eaten'' expresses a completed action. We know from this verb's tense that the eating is ®nished.
``He is eating'' expresses an action that is not completed.
CHAPTER 4 The Verb
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Latin has six tenses of the indicative mood, corresponding to these three times and two aspects:
Uncompleted aspect:
(Present)
Present
I eat, I am eating
(Past)
Imperfect
I was eating, I used to eat
(Future)
Future
I will eat, I will be eating
Completed aspect:
(Present)
Perfect
I have eaten, I ate
(Past)
Pluperfect
I had eaten
(Future)
Future perfect
I will have eaten
Note: The perfect tense is capable of expressing an action in present or past time, corresponding to the English uses Ì ate'' and Ì have eaten.' In both cases, however, the action is expressed as completed.
There are four tenses of the subjunctive:
Uncompleted
Completed
Present
Perfect
Imperfect
Pluperfect
There are two tenses of the imperative:
Present
Future
Conjugations
Just as nouns belong to different declensions, verbs belong to different conjugations.
The process of conjugating a verb consists of adding in¯ectional endings to stems in different combinations to show person, number, voice, tense, and mood.
Verbs are learned according to their principal parts. These are the forms that provide the necessary stems for conjugation in all the tenses, moods, and voices. For example:
amoÅ, amaÅre, amaÅvõÅ, amaÅtus
love
teneoÅ, teneÅre, tenuõÅ, tentus
have
dõÅcoÅ, dõÅcere, dõÅxõÅ, dictus
say, tell
capioÅ, capere, ceÅpõÅ, captus
take, capture
audioÅ, audõÅre, audõÅvõÅ, audõÅtus
hear
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CHAPTER 4 The Verb
The ®rst principal part is the ®rst-person-singular present indicative active of its verb:
amoÅ
I love
teneoÅ
I have
The second principal part is the present in®nitive active: amaÅre
to love
teneÅre
to have
The ending for the in®nitive is -re. It is the vowel found before this ending that de®nes to which conjugation a verb belongs. There are four: First-conjugation verbs have
-aÅ- in the second principal part: amaÅre
Second-conjugation verbs have -eÅ- in the second principal part: teneÅre Third-conjugation verbs have -e- in the second principal part: dõÅcere, capere Fourth-conjugation verbs have -õÅ- in the second principal part: audõÅre The third principal part is the ®rst-person-singular perfect indicative active of its verb:
amaÅvõÅ
I loved, I have loved
ceÅpõÅ
I captured, I have captured
The fourth principal part is the perfect passive participle of its verb:1
amaÅtus
(having been) loved
tentus
(having been) held
The Latin verbal system divides conjugations into two systems. The present system comprises
Present, future, and imperfect indicative
Present and imperfect subjunctive
Present and future imperatives
The perfect system comprises
Perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect indicative
Perfect and pluperfect subjunctive
Present System
All tenses of the present system are formed using the present stem. The present stem is obtained by removing the in®nitive ending -re from