CHAPTER 10 "Fourth Conjugation and -io Verbs of the Third: Present and Future Indicative, Present Imperative and Active Infinitive" REVIEW OF VERBS Despite its epic-sized title, you'll find that there is really not so much to learn in this chapter after all. You already know the present and future tenses of the first three conjugations, and you know how to form their imperatives and infinitive. Let's have a look at what you know so far about these verbs. 1. The Present Tense To form the present tense of verbs of all conjugations, you simply take the stem of the verb (which includes its stem vowel) and add the personal endings. 2. The Future Tense To form the future tense of all conjugations, you take the stem of the verb, then you add on a tense sign for the future, and then you add the personal endings. For first and second conjugation verbs, the tense sign of the future is "-be-"; for the third conjugation, the tense sign is "-a-/-e-". 3. The Imperative Mood To form the imperative mood in the singular, you use just the stem (without any additional ending); for the plural you add the ending "-te" to the stem. (The exceptions to this rule are the third conjugation verbs "duc" and three others you haven't seen yet which lose their stem vowel short "-e" in the singular. Their plural imperatives, however, resurrect the stem vowel and are entirely regular: "ducite".) 4. The Infinitive The infinitive is just the stem plus the ending "-re" for all conjugations. I. First Conjugation: amo, -are PRESENT FUTURE IMPERATIVE INFINITIVE 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ _____________ 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ II. Second Conjugation: moneo, -ere PRESENT FUTURE IMPERATIVE INFINITIVE 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ _____________ 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ III. Third Conjugation: mitto, -ere PRESENT FUTURE IMPERATIVE INFINITIVE 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ _____________ 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ FOURTH CONJUGATION: PRESENT, FUTURE, IMPERATIVE, AND INFINITIVE This is going to be easy. Look at the entry for the Latin verb "to hear": "audio, -ire". Take a close look. What's the stem vowel, and what, therefore, is the stem of the verb? Remember, you discover the stem of a verb by dropping the "-re" infinitive ending. What's left is the stem (including the stem vowel). So the stem of the verb "to hear" is "audi-". And it's to this stem that you add the various tense signs, personal endings, and so on to conjugate the verb. Four conjugation verbs are verbs whose stem ends in a long "-i-". So how are you going to form the present tense of this verb? The formula of the present tense -- as you know already -- is: stem plus personal endings. (There is no intervening tense sign for the present tense). In other words, fourth conjugation verbs are verbs having an "-i-" for its stem vowel, and it follows precisely the same rules as the other conjugations for forming the present tense, with the one exception that in the third person plural, an extra "-u-" is inserted between the stem vowel "-i-" and the "-nt" personal ending. How about the future tense? The fourth conjugation uses the same tense sign as the third conjugation for the future tense, inserting the letters "-a/e-" between the stem and the personal endings. Because the "-i-" is long it "survives" the addition of endings. How about the present imperative? It's just like the other conjugations: the stem alone in the singular, and the stem plus "-te" for the plural. And finally the present infinitive? The stem plus "-re". So you can see that the principal difference between the fourth conjugation and the others you've seen so far is the quality of the stem vowel. Conjugate the fourth conjugation verb "to come". IV. Fourth Conjugation venio, -ire: PRESENT FUTURE IMPERATIVE INFINITIVE 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ ___________ 1 _____________ _____________ 2 _____________ _____________ _____________ 3 _____________ _____________ THIRD CONJUGATION i-STEM: PRESENT, FUTURE, IMPERATIVE AND INFINITIVE The third conjugation contains a subset of verbs, called "i-stems", that seem to imitate the fourth conjugation. The third conjugation, as you know, contains verbs whose stem vowel is short "-e-". The short "-e-" is almost entirely hidden in the conjugation of the verbs because it changes to a short "-i-" or short "-u-" before the personal endings in the present tense. Still it follows all the same rules as the other verbs when deriving its different forms. Both the i-stem and non i-stem third conjugation verbs have the stem vowel short "-e-" -- that's why they're both third conjugation verbs. But the "i-stem" third conjugation verbs insert an extra "-i-" in some places in their conjugation. These places are really quite easy to remember, if you know fourth conjugation verbs: a third conjugation "i-stem" verb inserts an extra "i" everywhere a fourth conjugation verb has an "-i-". In fact, you might want to think of a third conjugation "i-stem" verb as a failed fourth conjugation verb -- as a verb which "wants" to be fourth. Here's the dictionary entry form many 3rd conjugation i-stem verbs. Notice the extra "-i-" in the first entry, and the short "-e-" of the infinitive in the second: capio, -ere rapio, -ere cupio, -ere facio, -ere fugio, -ere Let's have a closer look at all this. Write out the present tense of the following verbs. Remember, a third i-stem verb has an extra "-i-" every where there's an "-i-" in the fourth conjugation. THIRD (non i-stem) FOURTH THIRD i-STEM mitto, -ere venio, -ire capio, -ere 1st _______________ _______________ _______________ 2nd _______________ _______________ _______________ 3rd _______________ _______________ _______________ 1st _______________ _______________ _______________ 2nd _______________ _______________ _______________ 3rd _______________ _______________ _______________ As you can see, the fourth and third i-stem verbs look identical. But there is a difference. Go back and put in the long marks over the stem vowel long "-i-" of "venio". The "-i-" is long in the second person singular and plural, and in the first person plural. Now compare the forms of "venio" with those of "capio" -- you can see the differences. The "-i-" of a fourth conjugation verb is long by nature and "wants" to stay long wherever it can. The stem vowel of a third conjugation verb is short "-e-" which turns into short "-i-" or "-u-". But it will never become long "-i-" regardless of what ending is added to it. Now, the difference between a short and long vowel may seem rather subtle to us, but look again. In Latin pronunciation, the accent of a word falls on to the second to the last syllable if the vowel in the syllable is long. If it is short, then the accent goes back to the third to the last syllable. So, what's the difference in the way these forms would have been pronounced? capmus is pronounced CAH peh muhs audimus is pronounced owh DEE muhs Similarly captis is pronounced CAH peh tis auditis is pronounced owh DEE tis So the difference for a Roman between these verbs in some the forms would have been quite striking. What about the future tense of the third conjugation i-stem verbs? They look just like the fourth conjugation verbs: stem(i) + "a/e" + personal endings. THIRD (non i-stem) FOURTH THIRD i-STEM mitto, -ere venio, -ire capio, -ere 1st _______________ _______________ _______________ 2nd _______________ _______________ _______________ 3rd _______________ _______________ _______________ 1st _______________ _______________ _______________ 2nd _______________ _______________ _______________ 3rd _______________ _______________ _______________ Now let's consider the imperative mood. In this case, there is no difference at all between the third i-stem verbs and the third non i-stems. And why should there be? They both have the same stem vowel: short "-e-". THIRD (non i-stem) FOURTH THIRD i-STEM mitto, -ere venio, -ire capio, -ere SINGULAR __________ __________ __________ PLURAL __________ __________ __________ VOCABULARY PUZZLES You must be more alert now when you're looking in the dictionary for a form. The third i-stem verbs and fourth conjugation verbs look the same in the first person singular. You mustn't decide -- even unconsciously -- which conjugation a verb is before you've checked with the second entry. The second entry, as you know, tells you the stem vowel -- and the stem vowel tells you the conjugation. Pay attention. -ficio, -cipio The short "-a-" of the verbs "facio" and "capio" change (or "grade") to short "-i-" in compound forms of the verb -- i.e., when a prefix is attached. It will save you a lot of time if you learn to recognize the root "facio" in the verbs "perficio", "conficio", "interficio", etc. instead of having to treat every derived form as an entirely new vocabulary item. 01/05/93