Latin Present System and Verb To Be

Here are some Latin grammar present verb system endings and the verb to be. At the end I included some notes on the parts of a Roman house from my high school Latin class notebook. Just trying to post every week, and I am little late in posting this week as I try to post Monday night currently. Hopefully, it intrigues people to look into this part of history a little. It is very interesting, and can be worthwhile to read.

 

Present System (I love, I am loving, I do love)                            Verb To Be                                            Amar (to love)

o (I)                                 mus (We)                                                              sum              sumus                             amo     (I love)                 amamus (We love)

s (You)                           tis (You plural)                                                  es                  estis                                 amas   (You love)           amatis (You pl love)

t (He, She, It)              nt (They)                                                               est                sunt                                 amat    (She loves)          amant (They love)

 

Imperfect (I was loving, I used to love)                                         Verb To Be

bam                     bamus                                                                              eram             eramus

bas                       batis                                                                                 eras                eratis

bat                       bant                                                                                  erat                erant

 

Future (I will love, I shall love)                                                        Verb To Be

bo                      bimus                                                                                ero                 erimus

bis                     bitus                                                                                  eris                 eritis

bit                     bunt                                                                                   erit                 erunt

 

Perfect (I loved, I have love, I did love)                                      Verb To Be

i                        imus                                                                                    fui                   fuimus

isti                   istis                                                                                     fuisti              fuistis

it                      erunt                                                                                  fuit                  fuerunt

 

Pluperfect (I had loved)                                                                     Verb To Be

eram              eramus                                                                              fueram           fueramus

eras                eratis                                                                                  fueras             fueratis

erat                erant                                                                                   fuerat             fuerant

 

Future Perfect (I will have loved)                                                Verb To Be

ero                 erimus                                                                               fuero              fuerimus

eris                eritis                                                                                   fueris             fueritis

erit                erint                                                                                    fuerit             fuerint

 

Present Passive (They are being)

r (I, first person singular)                                                 mur (We, first person plural)

ris (You, second person singular)                                 mini (You plural, second person plural)

tur (He, She, It, third person singular)                       ntur (They, third person plural)

 

Four conjugations, infinitives

First conjugation        – āre – amo, amare (to love)

Second                            – ēre – habeo, habēre (to have)

Third                               – ere – rego, regere (to rule) facio, facere (to make)

Fourth                            – īre – venio, venire (to come)

 

 Three Classes in Roman Society

Patricians – upper class- lawyers, senators, merchants, etc.

Equistrians – middle class

Plebians – lower class, commoners, slaves

 

Roman Saying – Panem et circensesroman coliseum

translates as bread and circuses and basically meant that if you feed people well and provide entertainment it generally keeps them happy and makes them friends, hence the gladiator games provided bread and entertainment for all of the people throughout various locations in the Roman empire

 

Parts of a Roman House

ianua – door

tabernae – store/shops

cubicula – bedroom

atrium – dome, entrance

impluvium – pool, located in atrium probably had not ceiling above it

compluvium – area around pool located in atrium

tablinum – office/study

paristylim – courtyard

culina – kitchen

triclinium – eating area with three couches where servants fed them

hortus – garden

probably had some benches and waiting areas also, there were also bedrooms for slaves

 

Ancient Roman society was made up of about 70% slaves, and the gladiator games did involve killing people. Nowadays, most people would probably not approve and or at least see that as normal.

Latin Declension Endings

This is from a Latin course I took in high school. It really is not something that you would probably expect on this site, but is interesting and relates very basic map of Italia clipartmarginally to the elementary education section that is here. Hopefully, it intrigues some to look into Latin as the history is interesting and can relate to modern times. Reading the stories of many of the Roman emperors would probably interest many and is worth the read.

Latin has five cases:

  1. Nominative – Subject
  2. Genitive – Possession (‘s or of)
  3. Dative – Indirect Object
  4. Accusative – Direct Object
  5. Ablative – Object of Preposition

Present System

(I love, I am loving, I do love)

-0                  -mus                       amo (I love)                                                 amamus (We love)

-s                   -tis                           amas (You love)                                         amatis (You plural love)

-t                  -nt                            amat (He, She, It loves)                           amant (They love)

You can see in English it is ‘I love,’ in Latin, you take amar and drop the -ar and add an ‘-o’. It gets kind of complicated with different tenses, but in your native language you probably change tenses without even realizing it and don’t see it as complicated. It takes a while to get used to, but is possible and can become easy. The declension endings correlate to words that end in -a, -ē, -e, and -ī. The macrons are important. When the verb ends in -āre, -ēre, -ere, and -īre they are infinitives and are translated as to plus a verb (e.g. iuvāre means to help). Forgive me if this wrong as this high school Latin course was many years ago. Greek AlphaThis is more a taste of Latin, which is similar to modern romance languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian and 60% of English words have roots/meanings from Latin. I am certain the present tense and five cases and declension endings here are correct. English uses the Roman or Latin alphabet. Latin lives on in history and similarities and ties to modern languages. It is barely spoken, probably only the Vatican in Rome is the only place where it is spoken and maybe some small groups of Latin scholars. However, it lives on through similar languages such as Italian and has a remarkable history and civilization that has lived on and influenced modern times. Just an interesting side note is that the Romans stole the alphabet from the Greeks. For some time most the empire spoke Greek, but the ruling class spoke Latin. If you look at the Greek alphabet the first letter, alpha, is like a triangle and is similar to the Roman ‘a’ which is also like a triangle. Hebrew, also from the Mediterranean region, has an aleph for the first letter of the alphabet is more like a triangle than the other letters. However, the vowels for Hebrew are different and the aleph does not sound exactly like an ‘a.’ Below are the five Latin declension endings.

Nouns

First Declension                                    Second Declension                                               Third Declension

a                      ae                                      us/er/um                       ī/a                                   -/-                        ēs/a                                                Nominative

ae                    ārum                                ī                                        orum                              is                          um                                                 Genitive

ae                    īs                                        ō                                       īs                                       ī                           ibus                                               Dative

am                  ās                                      um/um                           ō/a                                   em/-                    ēs/a                                              Accusative

ā                       īs                                      ō                                        īs                                       e                           ibus                                              Ablative

Fourth Declension                               Fifth Declension

us/u               ūs/ua                               ēs                                      ēs

ūs                    uum                                 ēī                                      ērum

uī                    ibus                                   ēī                                      ēbus

um/u             ūs/ua                               em                                    ēs

u                      ibus                                  ē                                        ēbusOld Roman Coliseum Clipart

This is coming back to me. When you read a Latin historical document the declension endings help clarify what case the noun is and there is something whether the word ends in -ar, -er, and -ir. First declension is only used with words that end in -ar. There are irregular verbs and probably nouns too. Later this week I plan to update and revise this and add some verb endings for the future, imperfect, and present. I had to find something to post as I am trying to write every week. This may not be the best, but is interesting and I have some plans and ideas for posts that are hopefully better or at least more relevant.