Present Tense Plurals
Easy Latin: Part 10
Welcome to Easy Latin Part 10!
Today we’re going to look at some different person endings for verbs in the present tense.
Last time we looked at verbs needing to match their nominatives. So if you have a singular nominative, you need a singular verb. Like, puella in horto sedet, meaning the girl sits in the garden, versus having a plural nominative needing a plural verb, like puellae in horto sedent. So the verb has changed because I now, in the second sentence, have a plural noun, puellae.
Expanding Our Verb Vocabulary
So far, we have encountered several forms of the verb portare, “to carry”:
porto (I carry)
portas (you singular carry)
portat (he or she carries)
These are our singular verb endings: -o, -s, -t. Here are the plural verbs:
portamus (we carry)
portatis (you plural carry)
portant (they carry)
These endings are -mus, -tis, -nt.
The endings -mus and -tis are new. They the first-person plural (we) and second-person plural (you) respectively, and these patterns apply to all verbs in the present tense.
We and You
Consider this sentence:
puellas in foro videmus
“We see the girls in the forum”
Here, -mus at the end of the verb videmus shows that "we" are the subject, and therefore the ones doing the verb. puellas is the accusative form, meaning they are the object and not the subject, so the girls are not in charge of this sentence.
Here’s another examples:
puerum vocatis
“You (all) call the boy"
Here, the ending -tis signifies "you plural" are the subject of the sentence. Again, the object, puerum, being accusative, cannot be the subject.
Emphasizing Subjects with Pronouns
In Easy Latin Part 2 and Easy Latin Part 3, we looked at using the pronouns ego (I) and tu (you) for emphasis. Neither are necessary, because verb endings show who the subject is anyway.
Similarly, nos (we) and vos (you plural) can be used for emphasis. Seeing nos points toward a verb ending in -mus, while vos suggests a verb ending in -tis. Again, neither of these are necessary, but add stress to who is in charge of the verb.
Practise Makes Perfect
Let's have a look at some examples to practise verb endings. Like usual, under the sentences there is a green box with some helpful vocabulary.
servos in foro salutatis
in horto sedemus
puella dona in via portat
feminam video
nos argentarios vocamus
vos in villa habitatis
Read on for the answers!
1. servos in foro salutatis
servos is accusative plural, so it can't be in charge of the verb. So let's ignore servos for now. I'm going to look at my verb first. salutatis means “you plural greet”.
Then I've got servos, my accusative plural, “the slaves”. in foro “in the market” or “in the forum”.
“You greet the slaves in the forum”.
2. in horto sedemus.
sedemus - I'm going to look at the verb first because it tells me the most information. This is a “we” ending, and it means “we sit”.
“We sit in the garden”.
3. puella dona in via portat.
Look at the verb first: portat. It’s a singular third person verb, meaning “he/she carries”.
Now I'm going to see if I have a subject, a nominative, that is singular in this sentence that might match my verb.
puella is nominative singular and it means “the girl”. So the girl carries, dona “the gifts” in via.
“The girl carries the gifts in the street”.
4. feminam video.
feminam is singular and it's accusative, so cannot be in charge of my sentence.
video tells me that “I” am doing the verb. “I see”.
“I see the woman”.
5. nos argentarios vocamus.
vocamus means “we call”, and the sentence also includes nos, “we”, so it is emphatic.
argentarios is accusative plural, “the bankers”.
“We call the bankers”.
6. vos in villa habitatis.
habitatis tells me that it's a “you plural” verb. We also have vos, which we don't need, but it's emphatic.
“You (all) live in the house”.
All Present Tense Person Endings
Here is the complete present tense in Latin.
The endings you need to learn are here:
o
s
t
mus
tis
nt
These are the same for present tense verbs from any conjugation.
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vale!