Latin Verbs Unveiled: The First Person Perspective
Easy Latin: Part 2
salve! Hello!
Today we're going to look at how to change our verbs to make sentences more interesting. If you missed Easy Latin: Part 1, you can find it here.
Starting Simple
Last time we explored some basic nouns and verbs. The nouns we looked at were nauta: “sailor”, rex: “king”, and miles: “soldier”. We paired these with verbs such as laborat: “works”, numerat: “counts”, and ambulat: “walks” to form sentences like:
nauta laborat - “the sailor works”
rex laborat - “the king works”
miles laborat - “the soldier works”
This time, we're going to take a closer look at constructing more varied sentences by changing our verbs.
Changing the Subject
ego in foro laboro. “I work in the forum”
We had laborat before, which meant “he works”. Notice how laboro has changed. This is a crucial part of Latin: the endings of words are super important! In fact, the endings are so important that the following two sentences mean exactly the same thing:
ego in foro laboro
in foro laboro
ego means “I”, but it is not necessary in the sentence. The person doing the verb is shown by the verb’s ending.
Here’s another sentence: in foro numero. “I count in the forum”.
Last time, we had numerat, meaning “he counts”. Again, notice how the ending has changed to make numero.
How would you say “I walk in the forum” in Latin? in foro ambulo.
First Person Vs Third Person
In Easy Latin: Part 1, we saw verbs like laborat (he works), numerat (he counts) and ambulat (he walks), which all end with the letter -t. This indicates that these verbs are in the third person (he/she/it).
In contrast, today's focus is on the first person verbs:
laboro - I work
numero - I count
ambulo - I walk
Notice how the endings shift from "-t" to "-o" when the subject changes from third person (he/she/it) to first person (I). This shift is a key aspect of Latin verbs.
New Vocabulary
Let’s look at a new verb: salutat. Can you guess this verb’s meaning in English?
Hint: We get the word “salute” from it.
It means “he greets” or “she greets”.
To say “I greet” in Latin, we must take the -at ending off, to leave us with salut- and add an -o instead. So from salutat, we now have saluto, “I greet”.
Next time:
In the next installation of Easy Latin, we’ll have a look at second person verbs!
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vale!