Verb Conjugation: Indicative Present

People say Classical Latin is quite a challenging language. I do admit that it's quite challenging at first glance. But if we take a closer look, we'll start to see some clues of syntactic formulation. This also happened when I look at the verbs.

Long story short, each verb in Latin changes its form according to the subject, tense (time), mood (how the action is regarded, e.g. command or wish), aspect (finished or ongoing), and voice (doing or being done). Therefore, we'll end up with combinatorially many verb forms to remember!

The rest of this post is organized as follows. First I'll introduce you the conjugation tables for the indicative present verbs. Then, I'll explain how we can form inflection patterns from them and how we put the stress mark on the right place. Finally, I'll describe tips and tricks for learning these tables without a hassle.

Verb Conjugation Tables

Within the first three weeks, my classmates and I were thrown at with all verb conjugation tables. Here are the declension schemes for the indicative present. (Don't panic just yet. I'll give you a trick to remember all these later.)

Type 1: amáre (love)
ámo	I love		amámus	We love
ámas	You love		amátis	You all love
ámat	He/she/it loves		amánt	They love

Type 2: tacére (be quiet)
tacéo	I am quiet		tacémus	We are quiet
táces	You are quiet		tacétis	You all are quiet
tácet	He/she/it is quiet		tácent	They are quiet

Type 3.1: dícere (say)
díco	I say		dícimus	We say
dícis	You say		dícitis	You all say
dícit	He/she/it says		dícunt	They say

Type 3.2: cápere (capture, pick)
cápio	I pick		cápimus	We pick
cápis	You pick		cápitis	You all pick
cápit	He/she/it picks		cápiunt	They pick

Type 4: audíre (hear, listen)
audío	I hear		audímus	We hear
aúdis	You hear		audítis	You all hear
aúdit	He/she/it hears		aúdiunt	They hear

At this point, you may find them daunting as you get confused by the rather irregular inflection patterns and stress marks. Let's forget about the stress marks at this point as we'll come back to it in a moment.

Inflection Patterns

Now let's focus on the inflection patterns. Each verb is categorized by its ending:

• Type 1: stressed a
• Type 2: stressed e
• Type 3: unstressed e
• Type 4: stressed i

Once categorized, the verb inflection pattern becomes apparent. Let X denote the ending vowel for each verb type (stressed a, stressed e, unstressed e, and stressed i, respectively). We obtain the following scheme for the indicative present.

+Xo	I _____		+Xmus	We _____
+Xs	You _____		+Xtis	You all _____
+Xt	He/she/it _____		+Xunt	They _____

The above scheme is quite easy to work with. Let's start out from the verbs of Type 1 (stressed a).

Type 1: amáre (love)
am+ao > amo	I love		am+amus > amamus	We love
am+as > amas	You love		am+atis > amatis	You all love
am+at > amat	He/she/it loves		am+aunt > amant	They love

Note that the combination a+o simply becomes o. This is because both of them are open vowels but produced in different places of the mouth. Vowel a is produced in the front, while vowel o is produced far back in the rear. Gliding from the front to the rear of the mouth would be cumbersome when speaking fast. They are therefore combined into a single o sound.

Also note that the combination a+u becomes a. This is because a is an open vowel (i.e. you have to open your mouth wide), while u is a close vowel (you have to close your mouth). A combination of them results in a single a sound.

If you have learned Sanskrit or Pali before, this vowel combination is called sandhi.

Easy peacy, right? Now with the verbs of Type 2 (stressed e) and type 4 (stressed i) you get:

Type 2: tacére (be quiet)
tac+eo > taceo	I am quiet		tac+emus > tacemus	We are quiet
tac+es > taces	You are quiet		tac+etis > tacetis	You all are quiet
tac+et > tacet	He/she/it is quiet		tac+eunt > tacent	They are quiet

Type 4: audíre (hear, listen)
aud+io > audio	I hear		aud+imus > audimus	We hear
aud+is > audis	You hear		aud+itis > auditis	You all hear
aud+it > audit	He/she/it hears		aud+iunt > audiunt	They hear

Note that while the combination e (open vowel) and u (close vowel) still reduces to a single e, the combination of i and u is retained in Type 4. This is because both i and u are close vowels and they don't have to combine.

As our scheme works fine in Types 2 and 4, the unstressed e in Type 3 makes it a little more complicated.

Type 3.1: dícere (say)
dic+(e)o > dico	I say		dic+(e)mus > dicimus	We say
dic+(e)s > dicis	You say		dic+(e)tis > dicitis	You all say
dic+(e)t > dicit	He/she/it says		dic+(e)unt > dicunt	They say

Note that in most cases, the unstressed e reduces to become i. However, when combined with rear vowels o and u, the unstressed e totally disappears. The last pattern of Type 3.2 is a bit weird. 

Type 3.2: cápere (capture, pick)
cap+(e)o > capio	I pick		cap+(e)mus > capimus	We pick
cap+(e)s > capis	You pick		cap+(e)tis > capitis	You all pick
cap+(e)t > capit	He/she/it picks		cap+(e)unt > capiunt	They pick

Why do we need that i? Historically speaking, the verbs of this category used to have an inherent [y] sound before -ere. For example, cápere had been written as cápⁱere and pronounced /'ca-pye-re/. Therefore, the above pattern becomes:

Type 3.2: cápiere (capture, pick)
capi+(e)o > capio	I pick		capi+(e)mus > capimus	We pick
capi+(e)s > capis	You pick		capi+(e)tis > capitis	You all pick
capi+(e)t > capit	He/she/it picks		capi+(e)unt > capiunt	They pick

Now you've seen that there's an underlying system of verb inflection. We'll combine that with the stress marks to make a complete inflection pattern for the indicative present verbs.

Stress Pattern

Believe it or not, the stress pattern for verbs is quite easy. The rule of thumb of the stress pattern is the stress is put on the penultimate syllable (i.e. second last) if it is heavy. Otherwise, the stress will be put on the antepenultimate one (i.e. third last).

That explains how we classified verbs into four categories. We look for the stressed syllable in a verb and work on the inflection scheme.

• Type 1: amáre has the stress on the penultima -ma-.
• Type 2: tacére also has the stress on the penultima -ce-.
• Type 4: audíre also has the stress on the penultima -di-.
• Type 3.1: dícere has the stress on the antepenultima -di-.
• Type 3.2: cápere also has the stress on the antepenultima -ca-.

However, after declining the verb, the stress is not always put on the original position as in the infinitive form. Rather, we have to put the stress back on the final inflected form based on the aforementioned rule of thumb.

Type 1: amáre (love)
am+áo > ámo	I love		am+ámus > amámus	We love
am+ás > ámas	You love		am+átis > amátis	You all love
am+át > ámat	He/she/it loves		am+áunt > ámant	They love

Type 2: tacére (be quiet)
tac+éo > tacéo	I am quiet		tac+émus > tacémus	We are quiet
tac+és > táces	You are quiet		tac+étis > tacétis	You all are quiet
tac+ét > tácet	He/she/it is quiet		tac+éunt > tácent	They are quiet

Type 3.1: dícere (say)
dic+(e)o > díco	I say		dic+(e)mus > dícimus	We say
dic+(e)s > dícis	You say		dic+(e)tis > dícitis	You all say
dic+(e)t > dícit	He/she/it says		dic+(e)unt > dícunt	They say

Type 3.2: cápiere (capture, pick)
capi+(e)o > cápio	I pick		capi+(e)mus > cápimus	We pick
capi+(e)s > cápis	You pick		capi+(e)tis > cápitis	You all pick
capi+(e)t > cápit	He/she/it picks		capi+(e)unt > cápiunt	They pick

Type 4: audíre (hear, listen)
aud+ío > audío	I hear		aud+ímus > audímus	We hear
aud+ís > aúdis	You hear		aud+ítis > audítis	You all hear
aud+ít > aúdit	He/she/it hears		aud+íunt > aúdiunt	They hear

Note that the stressed/unstressed vowel of each verb type is now incorporated in the inflection scheme. The stressed vowels a, e, and i alter the stress position in the first and second plural person forms, while the unstressed e doesn't.

Tips and Tricks for Memorization

Although I have presented the workable underlying system of verb inflection, it's quite far from practical applications. In other words, how can we learn all of these in the first place? This is my recommended tips and tricks.

1. Learn the first singular person form of a verb before applying sandhi; therefore, am^ao, taceo, audio, dic^eo, and capⁱo.
2. Change the final -o with respect to the person. [+o, +s, +t | +mus, +tis, +unt]
3. Apply the sandhi after you obtain the final inflected form. [a+o = o, a+u = a, e+u = e]
4. Get rid of the unstressed e and emphasize the inherent i.
5. Put the stress mark as per the rule of thumb for the stress pattern.