Latin/Verbs Present 2 Lesson 1
Salvēte omnēs! Welcome back to Latin for Wikiversity. Here you can peruse a new lesson in Latin, in a simple format. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.
It has been some time since the first series of Present Tense Verbs lessons. They introduce common verbs in their classified categories, known as conjugations. Here are links to those basic lessons:
We strongly recommend reviewing these verbs we have already introduced, because it will make it easier to recognize the common patterns you will see in other verbs.
In this second series of lessons on present tense verbs, we will introduce high-frequency Latin verbs; some of them fit into one of the four conjugations but may have special rules for use, but many are irregular verbs with unique conjugations. You are already quite familiar with the most common irregular verb: the being verb, sum.
We’ve learned sciō = know; but when you talk about knowing people, a different verb is used, and the endings will look different because it’s in perfect tense, which uses the 3rd principal part, but still equivalent to the English present tense. Some of the irregular verbs this lesson are frequently used with infinitives, which we won’t study until later, so those sentences will be very short and basic -- but we did throw in a few sentences with infinitives if you want to see what they would be like.
New Vocabulary
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Audio (Classical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| sīgnifer, signiferī | standard-bearer | ||
| sīgnum, ī | sign, standard | ||
| nōscō, nōscere, nōvī, nōtus (3) | become acquainted with, know, learn, recognize, know | used in perfect tense | |
| cognōscō, cognōscere, cognōvī, cognitus (3) | used in perfect tense | ||
| nesciō, nescīre, nescīvī, nescītus (4) | do not know, am ignorant | negative form of sciō | |
| ferō, ferre, tulī, lātus | bear, bring, carry | irregular verb | |
| also adferō / afferō, adferre, attulī, allātus | bring to, deliver, carry | irregular verb | |
| possum, posse, potuī (irreg.) | am able, can | normally used with infinitive |
New Sentences
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lūcia et Gāius diem dicunt. | Lucia and Gaius set a date. (literally, say a day.) | |
| Diem et hōram dicō. | I name/set up a day and an hour. | |
| Nōmen tuum nesciō. | I don’t know your name. | |
| Mārcus nescit. | Marcus does not know. | |
| Scīsne? | Do you know? | |
| Cūr nescīs? | Why don’t you know? | |
| Viam nescīmus. | We don’t know the road/way. | |
| Respōnsum nesciunt. | They do not know the answer. | |
| Lūcia puerum nōvit. | Lucia knows the boy. | |
| Is eam nōvit. | He knows her. | |
| Lūciam nōvī. | I know Lucia. | |
| Mārcum nōn (cog)nōvī. | I do not know Marcus. | |
| Nōvistīne Gāium? | Do you know Gaius? | |
| Eōs (cog)nōvimus. | We know them. | |
| Omnēs fīlium meum nōvērunt. | Everyone knows my son. | |
| Lūcia et Paula magistram cognōvērunt. | Lucia and Paula know the teacher. | |
| “Potesne?” “Ita, possum.” | “Can you?” “Yes, I can.” | |
| Gāius nōn potest. | Gaius is not able. | |
| Possumus, sed vōs nōn potestis. | We can, but you can’t. | |
| Līberī nōn possunt. | The children are not able. | |
| We realize these may not be very satisfying sentences. As an example of how infinitive is used in Latin, below are a few more complete ones, but we’ll study infinitives later on more fully | ||
| Līberī lūdere possunt. | The children can play. | |
| Pater coquere potest. | Dad can cook. | |
| Cēnam coquere possum. | I can cook dinner. | |
| Clāvās invenīre nōn possumus. | We can’t find the keys. | |
| Potesne/ potestisne venīre? | Can you come? | |
| Puellae ambulāre et currere possunt. | The girls can walk and run. | |
| Cibum ad mēnsam ferō. | I bring the food to the table. | |
| Librum mihi fers. | You bring me a book. | |
| Paula cibum fert; Mārcus vīnum fert. | Paula brings the food; Marcus brings the wine. | |
| Mīles signum (aquilam) fert. | The soldier carries the standard. | Sometimes called the eagle, this was the battle emblem of a legion. It was considered a great honor and responsibility to carry it. |
| Sīgnifer est. | He is the standard-bearer. | Many related words in Latin-derived English: Lucifer, crucifer, Christopher, aquifer, vociferous, fertile, as well as the verbs offer, confer, defer, proffer, infer, prefer, refer. And that’s just ones that use the first principal part! |
| Dōna adferimus. | We are bearing/bringing gifts. | |
| Quid adfertis? | What are you bringing? | |
| Nōn multam pecūniam secum ferunt. | They are not carrying a lot of money with them. | |
Practice
[edit | edit source]| Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson | |
|---|---|
| Step one | First learn the words using this lesson: |
| Step two | Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: |
| Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function) | |
More verbs next time; thank you (vōbīs grātiās agō) for following Latin on Wikiversity. Bonam fortūnam!