Three Past Tenses
Latin verbs made simple
Latin has several past tenses which can make things a bit confusing. Here’s how to form, recognise, and translate the past tenses of Latin verbs with ease!
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Latin Past Tenses
There are three different past tenses in Latin.
imperfect
perfect
pluperfect
And they all do different things, so it’s really important that you know how to translate them all and how to spot them. Today I’m just going to be focusing on active verbs in the past tenses, which should be a little bit more straightforward. If you want the Passive endings, you can learn them from my free Verbs Reference Guide.
Let’s start with the Imperfect tense
Now, if you’ve read my blog before, you may well know this is my favourite tense, and I call it “the sheep tense” for reasons that are explained in my full post about the Imperfect tense.
Forming and Translating the Imperfect
You translate it using the English words “was” or “were”. It is formed using the present stem, the imperfect signifier -ba-, and then the normal person endings that you would expect. Take the verb porto portare: I carry, to carry
If I want to put it in the third person singular, imperfect tense. I take the present stem, add ba, then the 3rd singular person ending, and I get portabat. This translates as “he was carrying”.
This is what’s called a continuous action in the past, which means that the action is ongoing at the time of the story. So “he was carrying the cup when he fell over”. portabat shows that it is an ongoing action at the same time as the fall.
Secret Extra Translation:
You can also translate the imperfect tense using the phrase “used to”. “He used to carry the cup to his friend every day” for example. It can be useful to have this in mind in case it makes more sense in your translation, but it’s more common to use “was” or “were”, that’s why we call it the continuous action in the past.
Imperfect Endings
Here are the endings for the imperfect tense:
-bam
-bas
-bat
-bamus
-batis
-bant
The eagle eye will have noticed that the first three make up the name of my website, and that is because it is my favourite tense in Latin!
All of those have the -ba- imperfect signifier. Let’s look at some verbs that are using this ending:
portabam - I was carrying
sedebas - you were sitting
audiebat - he/she was listening
trahebamus - we were dragging
ferebatis - you plural were bringing
mittebant - they were sending
All of these contain the -ba- syllable. That’s a really obvious signifier for the imperfect tense. If you try and keep in mind the phrase the imperfect sheep was saying “ba”, that can help you to remember that it is imperfect. You use -ba- and you translate it using “was” or “were”.
The Perfect Tense
The perfect tense is a bit different. It’s no longer a continuous action in the past, it is instead a completed action.
Forming and Translating the Perfect
You translate it in English using “-ed”. Walked or laughed or killed. Unfortunately, English doesn’t follow its own rules and not all past tense verbs use -ed at the end, like how ran is the past tense of run. It’s not “runned” - and saw is the past tense of see, rather than “seed”. But have in mind “-ed”, and that can help you to get the right past meaning of the verb.
You form it using the perfect stem and the perfect ending. These are different endings from the normal person endings you are expecting. The perfect stem is the third principle part in your dictionary. You’re always given the present: porto, “I carry”, the infinitive, portare “to carry”, and then the perfect portavi “I carried”. So the perfect stem is portav-
portavit means “he carried”. This is a completed action in the past, that’s different from the imperfect, which was a continuous action. This one is done. It’s over. “I tripped yesterday”. “I walked to the shop”, “I saw my friend”. It’s done. It’s not still ongoing.
Perfect Endings
Here are the endings of the perfect tense:
-i
-isti
-it
-imus
-istis
-erunt
These are different from the normal person endings that you expect, but they do follow similar patterns. For example, the 3rd singular (he/she/it) ending still ends with -t, like in the present tense. The 1st plural (we) ending still ends with -mus, and the 3rd plural (they) ending -erunt ends with an nt.
Here are the same verbs as I had before in the imperfect switched now to the perfect. You might see that there is a difference in some of them in the stem. That’s because before the imperfect uses the normal present stem, but these are perfect, so I have to use the perfect stem, which can look very different from the present.
portavi - I carried
portav- is the perfect stem, then the endings from above are added to that.
sedisti - you sat
sedere goes to sedi in the perfect.
audivit - he/she heard
traximus - we dragged
tulistis - you (plr) brought
This one is very different. It’s a great example of why you must know your perfect stems. It is from fero - “bring, carry, bear”. It goes fero, ferre, tuli in the dictionary.
miserunt - they sent
It’s from mitto, mittere, misi
This is still using those perfect endings, and the perfect stem. Some of these word are really different than they were in the imperfect, so it is really important that you learn those principle parts.
Want more detail? Here’s one of my posts about the Perfect Tense from the bambasbat archive.
The Pluperfect Tense
The last one we’re going to look at today is the pluperfect tense. The idea of this tense is that its “more than past”. That’s what pluperfect literally means, “plus perfect” - it’s even further back in time than an action in the perfect tense.
Forming and Translating the Pluperfect
You translate this in English using the word “had”. So “had walked”, “had seen”. It’s really important to remember the “had” in your translation, because these actions have already happened before something else.
“I had shut the door when I realised I didn’t have my keys”.
“He was being careful today, because he had fallen over each morning that week”.
The pluperfect tense is formed using the perfect stem again, but this time it’s with the pluperfect endings, which are different again from the perfect and imperfect we have looked at.
Let’s take porto, portare, portavi again. We need the perfect stem, which as we saw before is the 3rd principle part: portav. Then if I add the 3rd person singular ending, I get portaverat, “he had carried”.
Pluperfect Endings
Here are the endings of the pluperfect:
-eram
-eras
-erat
-eramus
-eratis
-erant
Note: If you have ever looked at the verb esse “to be” in Latin, you might recognise this pattern. This is the same as the imperfect tense of esse. If you see eram on its own in a sentence, it means “I was” something. “I was happy”, “I was a teacher”, “I was late”.
But when it’s an ending added to a perfect stem it forms the pluperfect tense, and you have to translate it as “had”.
Here are those same verbs from above again, this time in the pluperfect tense:
portaveram - I had carried
I’ve got the same perfect stem portav, and then -eram is added to it
sederas - you had sat
audiverat - he/she had heard
traxeramus - we had dragged
tuleratis - you (plr) had brought
Remember this one has a very weird perfect stem - tuli from fero
miserant - they had sent
If you want more practise and detail, you can read this post about the Pluperfect Tense.
All Three Past Tenses
Here are all the verbs that we’ve just looked at today in all three of the tenses. Spot the patterns across the person endings and the tenses:
portabam, portavi, portaveram
sedebas, sedisti, sederas
audiebat, audivit, audiverat
trahebamus, traximus, traxeramus
ferebatis, tulistis, tuleratis
mittebant, miserunt, miserant
See that some of them are very similar, especially the 3rd plural of the perfect and pluperfect! Make sure to really learn those endings carefully.
Tenses Test
Now let’s test what you’ve learned. Which tenses are these verbs? And can you translate them? If you want to have a go at translating these on your own, only read on when you are ready as the answers will be below!
speravit
putebam
ceperamus
incendebant
vulneravi
Have a go, and then read on when you are ready to check your answers!
Answers below! Warning!
Ok here we go:
speravit has the -it ending, so it is perfect. “He hoped”.
putebam has the -ba- imperfect signifier, so means “I was thinking”.
ceperamus has the -eram -eras -erat endings, showing it is pluperfect. “We had seized”
incendebant has the -ba- imperfect signifier. “They were burning”.
vulneravi has the -i -isti -it perfect endings. “I wounded”.
How did you do? Let me know in the comments whether you managed to figure out which tense all of these were!
If you want to go into any of these tenses in a bit more depth, you can find posts about each of these tenses in the bambasbat archive. Don’t forget to download my free reference guide to Latin verbs. It will really help you out for all of these verb endings.
In this post I’ve been focused on active verbs, but if you want to have a look at the passive, they’re in that guide as well. So do download it. It will help you as you carry on your Latin journey.
I hope this has been useful to you. Let me know what you think! Are there any areas of Latin you’re struggling with and would love me to do a post or video about? Email me or leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks so much for joining me, and I’ll see you next time on bambasbat!