Latin conjugation


In linguistics and grammar, conjugation has two basic meanings. 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 1st singular -ō, 2nd singular -ās, and infinitive -āre are said to belong to the 1st conjugation, those with 1st singular -eō, 2nd singular -ēs and infinitive -ēre belong to the 2nd conjugation, and so on. The number of conjugations of regular verbs is usually said to be four.
The word "conjugation" comes from the Latin coniugātiō, a calque of the Greek συζυγία, literally "yoking together ".
For examples of verbs and verb groups for each inflectional class, see the Wiktionary appendix pages for first conjugation, second conjugation, third conjugation, and fourth conjugation.

Number of conjugations

The ancient Romans themselves, beginning with Varro, originally divided their verbs into three conjugations, according to whether the ending of the 2nd person singular had an a, an e or an i in it. However, others, such as Sacerdos, Dositheus and Priscian, recognised four different groups.
In modern times grammarians generally recognise four conjugations according to the ending of the active infinitive: namely -āre, -ēre, -ere, or -īre, for example: amō, amāre "to love", videō, vidēre "to see", regō, regere "to rule" and capiō, capere "to capture", audiō, audīre "to hear".
In addition to regular verbs, which belong to one or other of the four regular conjugations, there are also a few irregular verbs, which have a different pattern of endings. The most frequent of these is the verb sum, esse "to be" together with its prefixed derivatives.
There also exist deponent Latin verbs, which though active in meaning have endings identical to the passive endings of ordinary verbs. Examples in the different conjugations are: moror, morārī "to delay", polliceor, pollicērī "to promise", sequor, sequī "to follow" and regredior, regredī "to go back", mentior, mentīrī "to lie ". Some verbs are semi-deponent, using passive forms for the perfect tenses only.

Principal parts

A verb's full paradigm relies on multiple different stems. The present indicative active and the present infinitive are both based on the present stem.
It is not possible to infer the stems for other tenses from the present stem. This means that, although the infinitive active form normally shows the verb conjugation, knowledge of several different forms is necessary to be able to confidently produce the full range of forms for any particular verb.
In a dictionary, Latin verbs are listed with four "principal parts", which allow the student to deduce the other conjugated forms of the verbs. These are:
  1. the first person singular of the present indicative active
  2. the present infinitive active
  3. the first person singular of the perfect indicative active
  4. the supine or, in some grammars, the perfect passive participle, which uses the same stem. Some verbs lack this principal part altogether.

    Regular conjugations

First conjugation

The first conjugation is characterized by the vowel ā and can be recognized by the -āre ending of the present active infinitive form. The infectum tenses conjugate as follows :
* The 2nd person singular passive amāberis, amābāris, amēris, amārēris can be shortened to amābere, amābāre, amēre, amārēre. -re was the regular form in early Latin and in Cicero; -ris was preferred later.
In early Latin, the 3rd singular endings -at and -et were pronounced -āt and -ēt with a long vowel.
Other forms:
  • Infinitive: amāre "to love"
  • Passive infinitive: amārī "to be loved"
  • Imperative: amā! "love!"
  • Future imperative: amātō! "love! "
  • Indirect imperative: amātō! "let him love!"
  • Passive imperative: amāre! "be loved!"
  • Passive future imperative: amātor! "be loved! "
  • Passive indirect imperative: amātor! "let him be loved!"
  • Present participle: amāns "loving"
  • Future participle: amātūrus "going to love"
  • Gerundive: amandus "needing to be loved"
  • Gerund: amandī "of loving", amandō "by/for loving", ad amandum "in order to love"
The principal parts usually adhere to one of the following patterns:
  • The perfect has the suffix -āvī. The majority of first-conjugation verbs follow this pattern, which is considered to be "regular", for example:
  • * amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum, "to love";
  • * imperō, imperāre, imperāvī, imperātum, "to order";
  • * laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum, "to praise";
  • * negō, negāre, negāvī, negātum, "to deny";
  • * nūntiō, nūntiāre, nūntiāvī, nūntiātum, "to announce, report";
  • * ōrō, ōrāre, ōrāvī, ōrātum, "to beg, pray";
  • * parō, parāre, parāvī, parātum, "to prepare";
  • * portō, portāre, portāvī, portātum, "to carry";
  • * pugnō, pugnāre, pugnāvī, pugnātum, "to fight";
  • * putō, putāre, putāvī, putātum, "to think";
  • * rogō, rogāre, rogāvī, rogātum, "to ask";
  • * servō, servāre, servāvī, servātum, "to save";
  • * vocō, vocāre, vocāvī, vocātum, "to call";
  • The perfect has the suffix -uī, for example:
  • * fricō, fricāre, fricuī, frictum, "to rub";
  • * secō, secāre, secuī, sectum, "to cut, to divide";
  • * vetō, vetāre, vetuī, vetitum, "to forbid, to prohibit";
  • The perfect has the suffix -ī and vowel lengthening in the stem, for example:
  • * iuvō, iuvāre, iūvī, iūtum, "to help, to assist";
  • * lavō, lavāre, lāvī, lautum, "to wash, to bathe";
  • The perfect is reduplicated, for example:
  • * dō, dare, dedī, datum, "to give"
  • * stō, stāre, stetī, statum, "to stand";
The verb dō "I give" is irregular in that except in the 2nd singular dās and imperative dā, the a is short, e.g. dabō "I will give".
The a is also short in the supine statum and its derivatives, but the other parts of stō "I stand" are regular.
Deponent verbs in this conjugation all follow the pattern below, which is the passive of the first type above:

Perfect tenses

The three perfectum tenses of the 1st conjugation go as in the following table:
In poetry, the 3rd person plural of the perfect indicative is often amāvēre instead of amāvērunt. Occasionally the form amāverunt is also found.
In early Latin, the future perfect indicative had a short i in amāveris, amāverimus, amāveritis, but by the time of Cicero these forms were usually pronounced with a long i, in the same way as in the perfect subjunctive. Virgil has a short i for both tenses; Horace uses both forms for both tenses; Ovid uses both forms for the future perfect, but a long i in the perfect subjunctive.
The -v- of the perfect active tenses sometimes drops out, especially in the pluperfect subjunctive: amāssem for amāvissem. Forms such as amārat and amāstī are also found.
The passive tenses also have feminine and neuter forms, e.g. amāta est "she was loved", nūntiātum est "it was announced".
Forms made with fuī instead of sum and forem instead of essem are also found, for example amātus fuī, amātus fuerō, amātus forem and so on, but these are not common in classical Latin. See Latin tenses.
For other meanings of the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive, see Latin tenses#Jussive subjunctive.
Other forms:
  • Perfect infinitive active: amāvisse "to have loved"
  • Perfect infinitive passive: amātus esse "to have been loved"
  • Perfect participle passive: amātus, -a, -um "loved "

    Second conjugation

The second conjugation is characterized by the vowel ē, and can be recognized by the -eō ending of the first person present indicative and the -ēre ending of the present active infinitive form:
The passive videor also often means "I seem".
Other forms:
  • Infinitive: vidēre "to see"
  • Passive infinitive: vidērī "to be seen"
  • Imperative: vidē! "see!"
  • Future imperative: vidētō! "see! "
  • Passive imperative: vidēre! "be seen!"
  • Present participle: vidēns "seeing"
  • Future participle: vīsūrus "going to see"
  • Gerundive: videndus "needing to be seen"
  • Gerund: videndī "of seeing", videndō "by /for seeing", ad videndum "in order to see"
The principal parts usually adhere to one of the following patterns:
  • The perfect has the suffix -uī. Verbs which follow this pattern are considered to be "regular". Examples:
  • * dēbeō, dēbēre, dēbuī, dēbitum "to owe, be obliged"
  • * doceō, docēre, docuī, doctum "to teach, to instruct"
  • * iaceō, iacēre, iacuī, iacitum "to lie "
  • * mereō, merēre, meruī, meritum "to deserve"
  • * misceō, miscēre, miscuī, mixtum "to mix"
  • * moneō, monēre, monuī, monitum "to warn, advise"
  • * noceō, nocēre, nocuī, nocitum "to be harmful"
  • * praebeō, praebēre, praebuī, praebitum "to provide, show"
  • * teneō, tenēre, tenuī, tentum "to hold, to keep"
  • * terreō, terrēre, terruī, territum "to frighten, to deter"
  • * timeō, timēre, timuī, – "to fear"
  • * valeō, valēre, valuī, "to be strong"
  • The perfect has the suffix –ēvī. Example:
  • * dēleō, dēlēre, dēlēvī, dēlētum "to destroy"
  • * fleō, flēre, flēvī, flētum "to weep"
In verbs with perfect in -vī, syncopated forms are common, such as dēlēram, dēlēssem, dēlēstī for dēlēveram, dēlēvissem, dēlēvistī.
  • The perfect has the suffix –īvī. Example:
  • * cieō, ciēre, cīvī, citum "to arouse, to stir"
  • The perfect has the suffix -sī. Examples:
  • * ārdeō, ārdēre, ārsī, ārsum "to burn"
  • * augeō, augēre, auxī, auctum "to increase, to enlarge"
  • * haereō, haerēre, haesī, haesum "to stick, to adhere, to get stuck"
  • * iubeō, iubēre, iussī, iussum "to order"
  • * maneō, manēre, mānsī, mānsum "to remain"
  • * persuādeō, persuādēre, persuāsī, persuāsum "to persuade"
  • * rīdeō, rīdēre, rīsī, rīsum "to laugh"
  • The perfect is reduplicated with -ī. Examples:
  • * mordeō, mordēre, momordī, morsum "to bite"
  • * spondeō, spondēre, spopondī, spōnsum "to vow, to promise"
  • The perfect has suffix -ī and vowel lengthening in the stem. Examples:
  • * caveō, cavēre, cāvī, cautum "to be cautious"
  • * faveō, favēre, fāvī, fautum "to favour"
  • * foveō, fovēre, fōvī, fōtum "to caress, to cherish"
  • * sedeō, sedēre, sēdī, sessum "to sit"
  • * videō, vidēre, vīdī, vīsum "to see"
  • The perfect has suffix -ī. Examples:
  • * respondeō, respondēre, respondī, respōnsum "to reply"
  • * strīdeō, strīdēre, strīdī, – "to hiss, to creak"
Deponent verbs in this conjugation are few. They mostly go like the passive of terreō, but fateor and confiteor have a perfect participle with ss:
The following are semi-deponent, that is, they are deponent only in the three perfect tenses: