Four families, one set of endings, and sum

The four conjugations

Latin verbs come in four families, and what differs is the vowel before the ending, not the ending itself:

Look down the columns: -t and -mus sit in every row. Beginners hear "four conjugations" as four times the work; it is one set of endings and four vowels. (In the first conjugation the -a- merges into the -o: amo, not amao.)

The third and fourth conjugations put a -u- before -nt:

• Dicunt. - They say.
• Audiunt. - They hear.

One catch, because this course prints no macrons. Habere and dicere look alike, though the e of habere is long and the e of dicere short. Tell them apart by the headword: the second conjugation keeps its -e- before the -o and the third does not.

• Habet. - He has. (habeo, second: the e stays)
• Dicit. - He says. (dico, third: the vowel is i)

sum: irregular stem, nearly regular endings

The verb to be is irregular in Latin, as in almost every language. So is possum, I can, which is pot- welded onto sum:

Look at the plural: -mus, -tis, -nt, the regular endings, all present. What is irregular is the stem flickering between su- and es-, not the endings. Very little in Latin escapes them.

• Deus est. - God exists.
• Domi sumus. - We are at home.
• Non possum. - I cannot.

Reading practice

Cover the English. Every I, we, you and they in the English comes from a verb ending, not a pronoun.

• Dicimus. - We say.
• Videtis et non creditis. - You see and you do not believe.
• Respondeo, sed non audiunt. - I answer, but they do not listen.
• Filius domini sum. - I am the master's son.

Mistakes English speakers make