Monday, April 8, 2024

01.03.24: 2nd conjugation verbs; present tense

The formation of the present tense of 2nd conjugation verbs involves only a minor change compared to 1st conjugation verbs.

The infinitives of first conjugation verbs end in -āre e.g. habitāre (to live), labōrāre (to work) etc. The stem vowel, when -re is removed ends in -ā / a to which the personal endings -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt are then added.

The infinitive of 2nd conjugation verbs, an example of which is vidēre (to see) ends in -ēre. The same rules apply for the adding of personal endings: remove the -re and add the personal endings to the stem vowel /e/; this time, unlike the first conjugation where first person singular also loses the stem vowel, the second conjugation adds the personal endings to the stem vowel in all forms of the verb:

[1] infinitive: vidēre

[2] remove -re: vidē- which gives you the stem

[3] add the personal endings to the stem; apart from the third person singular, which has a short /e/ stem vowel, all other forms of the verb have a long /ē/ in the stem

[4] the accent mark [ʹ] is only there to indicate where the syllable is stressed; it will not be used again

vídeō: I see

vídēs: you (sg.) see

vídet: he / she / it sees

vidḗmus: we see

vidḗtis: you (pl.) see

vídent: they see

The image posted gives some examples of second conjugation verbs.






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