LATIN TENSES



LATIN TENSES

|TENSE |FORMATION |USE |TRANSLATION EQUIVALENTS |

| |Present stem + signature vowel (ā, ē, i/u,or ī/iu) + | |Present Simple (I call) |

|PRESENT |endings: -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt |Things happening at the present moment or generally true or |Present Continuous (I am calling) |

| | |starting in the past but continuing up to the present |Present Emphatic (I do call) |

| |(i) Long vowels shortened before –t and –nt |Vivid narration of completed past events (`Historic Present’) |Present Perfect Continuous (I have been calling) |

| |(ii) -ā and –i dropped and ē and ī shortened before –ō | |Simple Past (I called) |

| | |Actions/states: |Past continuous (I was calling) |

|IMPERFECT |Present stem + signature vowel (ā, ē, iē) + |in progress or starting at a point in the past |Simple Past (I called) |

| |endings: |happening repeatedly in the past |`used to’ (I used to call) |

| |-bam, -bās, -bat, -bāmus, -bātis, -bant |continuing over a long period in the past |`began to’ (I began to call) |

| | |- continuing up to a reference point in the past |`kept on’ (I kept on calling) |

| | | |Past Perfect continuous (I had been calling) |

| |1st and 2nd. conjugations: present stem + signature vowel | | |

|FUTURE |(ā or ē) + endings: -bō, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt|Things happening in future time (Latin always uses the future |Future (I shall/will call) |

| |3rd and 4th conjugations: present stem plus endings: -am, |tense for future events/actions, unlike English which uses the |Present Simple (If I call..) |

| |-ēs, -et, -ēmus, -ētis, -ent |present after `if’, `when’ etc.) | |

| |Perfect stem + endings: -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, |Completed events in the past, whether seen as points in a | |

|PERFECT |-ērunt |finished story or as specially connected to the present (This |Simple Past (I called) |

| | |is the standard tense for historical narrative but replaceable |Present perfect (I have called) |

| |1st conjugation normally has perfect stem in -āv |by the `Historic Present’) | |

| |Perfect stem + endings: -eram, -erās, -erat, -erāmus, | | |

|PLUPERFECT |-erātis, -erant (i.e. the Imperfect of esse) |Things which happened earlier than some reference point in the |Past Perfect (I had called) |

| | |past | |

| |Perfect stem + endings: –erō, -eris, -erit, -erimus, |Things completed by some point in the future (Latin always uses| |

|FUTURE PERFECT |-eritis, -erint (i.e. the Future of esse but with `-erint’|Future Perfect in this situation, while English uses Present |Future Perfect (I will have called) |

| |instead of `erunt’) |Perfect after `if’, `when’ etc. |Present Perfect (If I have called...) |

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