02.11.24: Level 2; Ora Maritima [26](4): distinguishing tenses [2]

Advice from the Connecticut Department of Transportation:

One wrong move can lead to irreversible consequences.

Misreading a Latin verb won’t lead to irreversible consequences, but it can lead to dead ends, traffic jams, frustration and, if you are doing any examinations in the language, loss of marks. Therefore, take the advice from Connecticut and look for the “signs”

Image #1: looks like a tough hill to climb when you see the verb forms next to one another because they are all very similar. To start, don’t look at every verb form, but look at the summaries at the top of the table.

Each of the tenses is formed in a different way and there are tense markers to look out for:

[i] -ba- / -bā-: they mark the imperfect tense for almost every verb in Latin

[ii] -bō / -bi- / -bu-: they mark the future tense for the 1^st and 2^nd conjugation and so that takes you some way in recognising the future tense; the 3rd and 4th conjugations form the future differently and we will review those in a later post.

Now look at the perfect tense:

Three-in-one!

Whatever that stem is (it may not be a -v-), it will be the same for the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses, and so, what you’re looking for, is what is added to it:

[iii] perfect tense stem + a set of personal endings = perfect tense

[iv] perfect tense stem + an entire verb i.e. the imperfect of esse = pluperfect tense

[v] perfect tense stem + an entire verb i.e. the future tense of esse apart from the 3^rd person plural which is erint rather than erunt = future perfect tense; even erint isn’t difficult to spot since it has the same vowel as -eris, -erit etc.

labōrābam │ I was working; I used to work

labōrābō │ I shall work

labōrāvī │ I worked; I have worked

labōrāveram │ I had worked

labōrāverō │ I shall have worked

For the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect, even if the stem is irregular, it will be formed no differently from any other verb in those tenses e.g.

sum, esse, fuī

perfect tense stem: fu¦ī

> fuī: I was; I have been

> fu¦eram: I had been

> fu¦erō: I shall have been

[A] Here are some of the verbs from the previous post. Take your time, refer to the table, look at how the verbs have been put together and identify the tenses that are used for each one:

[1] (a) postulābāmus (b) postulābimus (c) postulāvimus

[3] (a) dederis (b) dederat (c) dederās

[4] (a) dēlectāverant (b) dēlectāvērunt (c) dēlectāverint

[5] (a) recreāvimus (b) recreāverāmus (c) recreāverimus

[6] (a) properābimus (b) properāvimus (c) properābāmus

[7] (a) adventāverimus (b) adventāvimus (c) adventāverāmus

[8] (a) exspectāvit (b) exspectāverit (c) exspectāverat

[12] (a) gustāverat (b) gustāveram (c) gustābam

[13] (a) recreāvī (b) recreāveram (c) recreāverō

[15] (a) dedī (b) dedistis (c) dedistī

[B] More verbs from the previous post; match the Latin verbs with their English translations:

[2] (a) erit (b) erat (c) erunt

he was / he will be / they will be

[10] (a) erit (b) eris (c) erat

he was / he will be / you (sg.) will be

[14] (a) erō (b) fuerō (c) eram

I was / I shall have been / I shall be

[9] (a) fuerant (b) fuerat (c) fuerit

he will have been / they had been / he had been

[11] (a) fuī (b) fuit (c) fuerit

he will have been / I have been / he has been