Lectio duodetricesima

Revision and Notes

1. In the course of the previous week, we saw the essentials of the first three declensions, which are by far the most important. Also, after this effort, we are going to pause a moment to conduct a brief reconnoissance and see in which way our knowledge can serve us.

The declensions are all the more important in Latin as this language consists of a large variety of declinable words.

What are the different sorts of declinable words? You will cite without diffulty the noun and the adjective, but one should forget neither the different sorts of pronouns and adjectival pronouns, nor the declinable forms of the verb. Very fortunately, although these last two types have some peculiarities, the declensions of these different words are alike enough that we should not have major difficulties to recognize them.

2. The prounous:

a) The personal pronouns.— You must already know the most commonly used cases thereof. Let us supplement this today with a table:

Singular Plural

nom. ego, me, I tu, you nos, us, we vos, you [pl.]

acc. me te nos vos

gen. mei tui nostri vestri

(or nostrum) (or vestrum)

dat. mihi tibi nobis vobis

abl. me te nobis vobis

N.B.— There is no personal pronoun of the 3rd person. It is replaced either with the anaphoric adjectival pronoun is, ea, id, or by the demonstrative adjectival pronoun ille, illa, illud, or even by the reflexive pronoun (acc. se, gen. sui, dat. sibi, abl. se).

b) Relative pronouns qui, quae, quod, and interrogatives quis?, quae?, quid?:

We saw them in L 18, N 2. If you fear you forgot them, refer either to this lesson or the grammatical appendix. There are other relative pronouns, but we will learn them through use.

c) Demonstrative and indefinite adjectival pronouns.— As those preceding, they have for the most part a gen. in ius (or jus). The other cases are borrowed from the first three declensions. Here is the declension of the anaphoric adjectival pronoun:

Singular Plural

nom. is ea id ei (ii) eae ea

this, that, the one

acc. eum eam id eos eas ea

gen ejus ejus ejus eorum earum eorum

dat. ei ei ei eis (iis) eis (iis) eis (iis)

abl. eo ea eo eis (iis) eis (iis) eis (iis)

We shall speak to you later about other adjectival pronouns, but you can from now on use those that you will meet in the course of the lessons.

3. Declinable forms of the verb.— The declension allows for a remarkable flexibility and precision in the use of the words. Thus one should not be surprised to see that it is very present in the most important of all words, the verb (1).

A. The action in a pure state.— To represent it, English knows only of the infinitive (to swim) and the gerund (swimming). Latin, on the contrary, is much richer. We will take as an example the verb piscari (to fish), (piscor, piscaris, etc., deponent vb., 1st conjugation), a verb which we will otherwise find in a forthcoming lesson.

1st If the action is the subject of the sentence (nominative), we use the infinitive as in English (although English can also use the gerund in this sense): Dulce est piscari: it is pleasant to fish (to fish is pleasant, fishing is pleasant).

2nd The same goes if it takes the place of a direct object (accusative): Piscari nolo: I do not want to fish.

N.B.– The present infinitive does not decline. For the moment, let us leave aside the future and past infinitives.

3rd If the action is the complement of a noun or of an adjective or it is an adverbial phrase, we use the gerund or the supine, which are declinable:

a) Gerund:

Acc.: piscandum; e.g.: Aptus ad piscandum, capable of fishing, suited to fishing. It is used after the preposition ad which always governs the accusative.

Gen.: piscandi; e.g.: cupiditas piscandi, the desire to fish (of fishing). Here the gerund is the possessive phrase, hence the genitive.

Dat.: piscando; e.g.: tempus idoneum piscando, a favorable moment for fishing. It is used with the adjectives or verbs governing the dative.

Abl.: piscando (same form as above); e.g.: operam perdit piscando, he passes his time (work) fishing. Adverbial phrase in the ablative.

b) Supine.— Used only in some particular cases:

Acc.: piscatum; e.g.: eo piscatum, I am going fishing. It is used after verbs of movement, hence the accusative.

Abl.: piscatu; e.g.: tructa difficilis est piscatu, sed suavis esu, the trout is difficult to fish for but pleasant to eat (esum, esu, supine of edere). It is used after certain adjectives which will be learned through use.

N.B.— The ablative of the supine is quite rarely used.

B. The person or thing taking part in the action:

1st Participle.—

a) Present participle: it declines as an adjective of the 2nd class (cf. L 27, notes); e.g.: piscans, gen. piscantis, that which is fishing (the same form in all three genders).

N.B.— The present participle is in ans, antis for the 1st conjugation; in ens, entis for the 2nd and 3rd conjugations; and in iens, ientis for the mixed 3rd and the 4th.

b) Perfect participle: it declines as an adjective of the 1st class; e.g.: piscatus, a, um, having fished.

c) Future participle: it declines as an adjective of the 1st class; e.g.: piscaturus, a, um, that which is to fish.

2nd Gerundive (decl. according to the 1st class); e.g.: piscandus, a, um, that which is to be fished.

Remark.— The present and future participles always have an active sense. Therefore the passive conjugation does not have them. The gerundive always has a passive sense. The perfect participle does not exist in the active conjugation; it has an active sense in the deponent conjugation (passive form, but active sense), and a passive sense in the passive conjugation, e.g.: sanatus, having been cured.

Only the deponent conjugation has all the declinable forms, and this is why we took a deponent verb for our example.

4. The principal parts.— Although we do not know the whole conjugation yet, we do know the significance of the principal parts, which are indicated in the dictionaries to make it possible to find the whole of the conjugation of each regular verb. From now on, when we give you information on a verb in a note, we will use the dictionary presentation (2). Here:

1st Active verbs:

1st conj.— E.g.: dono, as, are, avi, atum (cf. L 27, N 5) which breaks up into:

Present indicative, 1st pers. sing., dono; 2nd pers., donas;

Perfect indic., donavi;

Present infinitive, donare; supine, donatum.

2nd conj.— E.g.: faveo, es, ere, i, fautum, to favour. As before, by adding to the stem fav- the indications es, ere, etc. (faves, favere, perfect favi); the supine is given in full (fautum) because one can only consider it (wrongly) as irregular if it is forgotten that v = u consonant.

3rd conj.— E.g.: quaero, is, ere, sivi, situm, to seek (quaerere, quaesivi, supine quaesitum).

Mixed 3rd conj.— E.g.: facio, is, ere, feci, factum, to make.

4th conj.— E.g.: invenio, is, ire, veni, ventum, to find.

N.B.— We differentiate the 4th from the mixed 3rd thanks to the infinitive (ere/íre).

2nd Passive verbs.— Are obtained from the active verbs, and do not appear in the dictionaries. It is the supine of the active form which gives the perfect participle, therefore the perfect (which is composed from the latter). Example:

— the passive of quaero is quaeror, I am sought, quaereris, etc.; inf.: quaeri; perfect : quaesitus sum, I was sought. There is no supine.

3rd Deponent verbs.— The supine is not given as a principal part: it is obtained from the perfect . Examples:

1st conj.— Piscor, aris, ari, atus sum;

2nd conj.— Confiteor, eris, eri, fessus sum (confiteri, to admit; confessus sum, I admitted);

3rd conj.— Loquor, eris, i, locutus sum (loqui, to speak; locutus sum, I spoke);

Mixed 3rd conj.— Progredior, eris, i, gressus sum (progredi, to advance);

4th conj.— Metior, iris, iri, mensus sum (to measure).

N.B.— For the deponents we distinguish the mixed 3rd from the 4th, by means of the 2nd person singular of the present indicative (eris instead of iris). Moreover the infinitive is never in iri with the mixed 3rd.

This revision is rather long, but it helps you take a great step ahead. Do not forget to return to it if necessary!

NOTES

(1) Verbum, i, n, means at the same time word and verb.

(2) However we prefer to directly indicate the tonic accent to you, by means of the bold typeface (or in italics when the rest of the word is in bold), whereas, in the traditional dictionaries, this must be deduced from the quantity (cf. Introduction, p. XIV).