Things to look out for:
4th conjugation verbs with the -v- stem e.g. audivi
often lose that /v/; when I’m writing in Latin, I tend to keep it in because
it’s a strong marker of the perfect tense, but both occur:
audīvī │ audiī
audīvistī │audiistī
audīvit │ audiit
audīvimus │audiimus
audīvistis │audiistis
audīvērunt │audiērunt
If your aim is to be able to read Classical Latin, the
quotations that are used contain verbs that are very common and
it’s best to pick up their past tense forms as you go along.
cēlō, cēlāre, cēlāvī [1]: hide
1. At, bona līberta, haec scīvistī et
mē cēlāvistī? (Plautus) │ But, my worthy freed-woman, you knew of
this, and concealed it from me.
dīcō, dīcere, dīxī [3]: say
2. sed nunc omnia, quae audiit saepe
quae dīxit, aspernātur (Pliny) │ but now he rejects everything that
he heard and often said
3. rīdiculum: postquam ante ōstium mē audīvit stāre
approperat (Terence) │ What nonsense! As soon as she has heard that
I'm standing before the door, she makes all haste.
serviō, servīre, servīvī [4]: to be a slave (to somebody;
the verb is followed by a dative case)
4. Servīs serviimus (Historia
Augusta)│ We have been slaves to slaves.
5. Diū quī domī ōtiōsī dormiērunt (Plautus)
│those who have slept a long time at home when not at work
6. Multa enim falsa dē mē audiērunt (Cicero)
│ For they have heard many false statements concerning me
7. Illī eum tumulum … magnīs operibus mūnīvērunt (Caes)
│ they fortifiedthe hillock with a great number of works
8. From Livy:
sum, esse, fuī: be; fuī: I was
pāreō, pārēre, pāruī [2]: obey (what or whom you obey is in
the dative case)
lēgō, legere, lēgī [3]: read
Aemiliō dictātōre, tot cēnsōrēs fuērunt,
nōbilissimī fortissimīque virī, nēmō eōrum duodecim tabulās lēgit?
nēmō id iūs esse, quod postrēmō populus iussisset, sciit? immō vērō
omnēs scīvērunt et ideō Aemiliae potius legī pāruērunt
quam illī antīquae.
Since Mamercus Aemilius was Dictator, and there have
been all those censors since, men of the highest rank and strength of
character, not one of them read the Twelve Tables, not one of
them knew that the last order of the people is the law for the
time being? Of course they all knew it, and
for that reason they preferred to obey [= they instead obeyed] the Aemilian Law
rather than that older one
9. An extract from Poenulus (the Little
Carthaginian) by Plautus
videō, vidēre, vīdī [2]: see
accipiō, accipere, accēpī [3-iō]: receive
sciō, scīre, scīvī [4]: know
AGORASTOCELĒS: Vīdistis, lēnō cum aurum accēpit?
│ Did you see it, when the Procurer received the
money?
ADVOCĀTĪ: Vīdimus. │ We saw it.
Agor: Eum vōs meum esse servum scītis? │ You
know that he is my slave?
Adv: Scīvimus. │ We knew it.
Agor: Rem adversus populī saepe legēs? │ That it is a thing
against the reiterated laws of the people?
Adv: Scīvimus. │ We knew it.
