Lectio quadragesima altera

Revision and Notes

1. If you have reached this point without dropping out of the pace of the course, you’re all set, because the hardest part is over. Although still far from having made them completely yours, you are now acquainted with the workings of the declensions. You have familiarized yourselves with the three voices (active, passive and deponent) of the conjugation and you know its most usual tenses: present, perfect and imperfect indicative. Finally, you have already encountered more than a thousand different words; we don’t ask that you retain all of them for that matter, above all those of the last three lessons, in which we doubled the daily dose of new words. (Be assured that we will return to the normal rhythm in the following lessons.) You should therefore be able from now on to construct short sentences by yourselves, without worrying too much about the few mistakes that you will inevitably make: this little exercise will help you to think more and more in Latin.

If, on the other hand, you have the impression of not keeping up, don’t despair nonetheless! You simply need to slow down your progression and revise more often. And if you truly feel entirely lost, you will easily find the way again by starting the course over right now from the first lesson, as, for that matter, we will be recommending before long to all our readers.

2. And now, let us tackle the only delicate point of Latin conjugation, the formation of the future indicative and the present subjunctive.

Before starting, it’s not a bad thing to know that the subjunctive is used much more in Latin than in modern English, whence it has as good as disappeared. To start with, in a main clause, it replaces the conditional (e.g.: possim si velim, I would be able if I wanted) and sometimes the imperative (e.g.: abeat!, let him leave!) In a subordinate clause, it is found after certain verbs expressing an order, a necessity or other nuances that you will learn from usage.

The word subjunctive comes from sub, under and jungere, jungo, -is, -ere, junxi, junctum, to join with a yoke. It should cause no surprise to find it in certain subordinate clauses.

For example, just as one says in some forms of English, “I demand that he leave” and not “I demand that he leaves”, one would say in Latin: impero ut abeat and not impero ut abit.

Finally the subjunctive is used in the indirect or reported speech.

Example:

Direct speech: Quid faciunt?, What are they doing?

Indirect speech: Nescio quid faciant, I don’t know what they are doing.

1st First-conjugation verbs that form the present in -o, -as, -at, etc., form the future in -abo and the present subjunctive in -em, -es, -et, etc. Example: amo, -as, -are, -avi, -atum (to love).

Present indicative: amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant (I love, etc.)

Future indicative: amabo, amabis, amabit, amabimus, amabitis, amabunt (I will love, etc.)

Present subjunctive: amem, ames, amet, amemus, ametis, ament (may I love, etc.)

2nd Second-conjugation verbs form the future in -ebo and the present subjunctive in -eam, -eas, etc. Example: moneo, -es, -ere, -ui, -itum (to warn).

Present indicative: moneo, mones, monet, monemus, monetis, monent (I warn, etc.)

Future indicative: monebo, monebis, monebit, monebimus, monebitis, monebunt (I will warn, etc.)

Present subjunctive: moneam, moneas, moneat, moneamus, moneatis, moneant (may I warn, etc.)

3nd Third- and fourth-conjugation verbs form the future in -am, -es, -et, etc. and the present subjunctive in -am, -as, -at, etc. (preceded by an -i- for verbs in -io). Example: lego, -is, -ere, legi, lectum (to read) (3rd conjugation).

Present indicative: lego, legis, legit, legimus, legitis, legunt (I read, etc.)

Future indicative: legam, leges, leget, legemus, legetis, legent (I will read, etc.)

Present subjunctive: legam, legas, legat, legamus, legatis, legant (may I read, etc.)

Similarly for capio, -is, -ere, cepi, captum (to seize), which belongs to the mixed 3rd conjugation:

Present ind., capio, capis, capit, capimus, capitis, capiunt; future ind., capiam, capies, etc.; present subj., capiam, capias, etc.

Also similarly for audio, -is, -ire, -ivi, -itum (to hear), which belongs to the 4th conjugation. We will have respectively:

Present ind., audio, audis, audit, etc., audiunt; future ind., audiam, -ies, -iet, etc.; present subj., audiam, -ias, -iat, etc.

3. You will notice that in the 3rd and 4th conjugations, the first person singular has the same form (in -am) in the future indicative and the present subjunctive.

In the other persons, a form in -as, -at, etc., may belong just as well to a present indicative of the 1st conjugation as to a present subjunctive of the 3rd or 4th. Likewise a form in -es, -et, etc., may just as well be a future of the 3rd or the 4th as a present subjunctive of the first, or even a present indicative of the 2nd. How can one tell which?

It is sufficient to know to which conjugation the verb in question belongs. If you haven’t already done so, it would be a good idea now to develop the habit of taking notice of the principal parts of the verbs you encounter, as we indicated to you in lesson 28.

Furthermore, with a little practice, you will come to “feel”, without too much risk of error, what the principal parts of a given verb may be, and consequently to figure out which conjugation it belongs to.

Thus verbs of recent formation (everything being relative!) belong in general to the first conjugation, and by the same token of a comforting regularity. For example: manducare, (L. 40, P. 2) belongs to the first conjugation, whereas mandere (which we mentioned in a note on the occasion), which is much older, belongs to the 3rd. Likewise, verbs even more recent like telephonare, dactylographare, etc., obviously belong to the 1st.

4. If now we want to form the future indicative and the present subjunctive of passive verbs or deponents, we need simply replace the active endings:

m (or o), s, t, mus, tis, nt

with the passive endings:

r (or or), ris, tur, mur, mini, ntur.

Example:

Future ind.: amabor, amaberis, amabitur, amabimur, amabimini, amabuntur, (I will be loved, you will be loved, etc.); monebor, moneberis, monebitur, monebimur, monebimini, monebuntur (I will be warned, etc.); legar, legeris, legetur, etc.; capiar, capieris, etc.; audiar, audieris, etc.

Present subj.: amer, ameris, etc.; monear, monearis, etc.; legar, legaris, etc.; audiar, audiaris, etc.

We should note just a small irregularity in the future of the first two conjugations, the -e- in the second-person singular (amaberis, moneberis), in place of the -i- of the active form.

Don’t try to remember these diffenent forms at all costs today; rather, devote two or three minutes to them each day for the next week.

It may also help you to write down what you want to remember in tabular form. If you don’t know how to arrange things, you may take inspiration from the tables in the grammatical appendix.