MM: Lesson - Latin I Review - Verbs

Latin I Review - Verbs

It is vital that the grammar from Latin I be used as a foundation for new learning in Latin II. Please carefully review each of the Parts of Speech. Verbs, nouns and adjectives are considered Major Parts of Speech, while adverbs, pronouns and prepositions are Minor Parts of Speech.

Before we jump into the review, what do you remember? Complete this brief self-assessment to see how much you remember about Latin verbs from Latin I!

Verbs

Please download the Latin I Verb Review Links to an external site. handout. This document contains notes about principal parts, verb stems, formation and translation rules. It also contains information about the characteristics of verbs, including a discussion on tense.

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is traditionally defined as a word that conveys an action or state of being. In Latin, a verb is a word that uses endings which indicate the five characteristics of person, number, tense, voice and mood. It additionally has non-finite uses (infinitive, participle, gerund).

When looking up a verb in a Latin dictionary or vocabulary handout, the verb will be listed by its Principal Parts (PPs) followed by the English meaning(s). Most verbs have four principal parts in Latin. Each of the principal parts serves a role in forming the many different Latin verb inflections by helping determine the Verbs Stems (stems are the base on to which endings will be added).

• 1st Principal Part = present, 1st person, singular, active, indicative
• 2nd Principal Part = present active infinitive. This form is used to determine the conjugation (verb group) a verb belongs to.
• 3rd Principal Part = perfect, 1st person, singular, active, indicative
• 4th Principal Part = perfect passive participle

Example verb dictionary entry:

• cado, cadere, cecidi, casus - to fall
  • cado = 1st PP
  • cadere = 2nd PP. This verb is 3rd conjugation (ere in 2nd PP + just an -o in 1st PP)
  • cecidi = 3rd PP
  • casus = 4th PP