13.03.24: principal parts of verbs

What’s the past tense of “swim”?

“I SWAM,” the boy shouted triumphantly.

“Wait a minute, why isn’t it swimmed?”

A pause for thought …

“Well, it just isn’t.”

How do we know? We may know because, simply, as children, we were exposed to the language on a daily basis. Nobody ever told us why it was ‘swam’ – we just, sort of, found out, or our mothers or primary teachers corrected us. Non-native speakers may also, by living and working in the country, “pick up” verb forms naturally.

However, those who learned English as a foreign language at school – and I as a non-native learner of German – most likely approached this in a more formal way, namely by learning the principal parts of a verb:

Engl: swim – swam – swum

Gmn: schwimmen – schwamm – geschwommen

These principal parts are the ‘foundations’, the basic bricks you need on which to build all other forms of the verb.

Latin, too, has principal parts, and they are immensely helpful, crucial, as was mentioned in the previous post.

Why are they crucial?

Take a look at these two verbs:

surgō (I get up); intrō (I go in)

One belongs to the 3rd conjugation, and one to the 1st. How can you know? The answer is that you can’t, any more than the past tense of swim would enter your head unless you actually knew it.

Similarly, here are two infinitives (with the macron deliberately omitted since it wasn’t used in Classical Latin, nor is it generally used in printed works of literature):

habere (to have); coquere (to cook)

One belongs to the 2nd conjugation, and one to the 3rd. How can you know? The answer, once again, is that you can’t.

And so, in the same way that English lists swim - swam - swum and German lists schwimmen - schwamm - geschwommen, so too does Latin list its verbs as principal parts. This will become increasingly important when other verb tenses are introduced. Therefore, you need to become accustomed to noting verbs in this way.

Most Latin verbs have four principal parts although there are some which have three.

Step-by-step: for the moment, note the first two only:

[i] the first person singular present tense and [ii] the infinitive:

First conjugation

[i] labōrō, [ii] labōrāre [1]: work

Second conjugation

habeō, habēre [2]: have

Third conjugation

coquō, coquere [3]: cook

You cannot tell whether labōrō and coquō are 1st or 3rd conjugation verbs when they stand alone. However, when they are listed along with their infinitives, you can:

labōrō, labōrāre (1st conjugation)

coquō, coquere (3rd conjugation)

If the macron was omitted from habere you wouldn't know whether it was 2nd or 3rd conjugation, but with the first person singular included you can:

habe¦ō (all the second conjugation verbs have /e/ as the stem)

We know that coquere is 3rd conjugation because the stem doesn't end in /e/:

coqu¦ō

When I was learning these verbs, I always added [1], [2], [3] after them to reinforce in my mind the conjugation to which each of them belonged, and dictionaries and grammar books usually do the same.

From now on, verbs will be listed with these two principal parts until we reach the stage where the other principal parts will become necessary.

Detective work

Below is a list of verbs that you have never seen. To which conjugation do each of them belong?

Look carefully:

[i] If the infinitive is -āre, it’s 1st conjugation.

ambulō, ambulāre: 1st conjugation

[2] If the infinitive is -ēre (long /ē/), it’s 2nd conjugation; the first person singular also emphasises that it’s 2nd conjugation since the stem of all 2nd conjugation verbs is /e/:

habe¦ō, habēre: 2nd conjugation

[3] If the infinitive is -ere (short /e/), it’s 3rd conjugation; the first person singular also emphasises that it’s 3rd conjugation since the stem doesn’t end in /e/:

bib¦ō, bibere: 3rd conjugation

What are the conjugations of these verbs?

1. ārdeō, ārdēre: burn
2. cubō, cubāre: lie down
3. dīcō, dīcere: say
4. doleō, dolēre: grieve
5. mittō, mittere: send
6. faveō, favēre: favour
7. pingō, pingere: paint
8. secō, secāre: cut
9. vetō, vetāre: forbid

Note: if you’re using wiktionary or any other online dictionary, you will see these verbs listed with their other principal parts. Of course, there is no harm in noting all the principal parts, but just remember that the other principal parts will lead you into more involved areas of the language with which, if you’re a beginner, you will not be familiar.

Listen to the Romans (who learned it from the Greeks): festīnā lentē – hasten slowly i.e. if you try to rush you will make mistakes.