26.10.25: Level 1; Carolus et Maria [12][iii] principal parts

If you are a non-native speaker of English, or, for example, French or German you will be aware of this even if you don’t know the specific term principal parts.

I play –  he plays – I played – I have played; in English, this is most commonly known as a regular verb i.e. it has a set of endings that are consistently added to thousands of verbs.

But: I sing – he sings – I sang – I have sung; these are generally classified as irregular verbs i.e. their forms cannot be anticipated, but need to be recognised and memorised. English grammar books usually provide a list of these e.g  fall – fell – fallen; break – broke – broken. Once those parts are learned then all other tenses of the verb can be formed, for example:

fall: he falls, he is / was falling, he will fall, he would fall

fell: he fell on the stairs

fallen: he has fallen on the stairs; I would have fallen if I had done that

Latin does the same; most verbs have four principal parts but, for now, just become aware of three of them:

portō, portāre, portāvī [1]: carry

[1] portō: 1^st person singular present tense

[2] portāre: infinitive

[1] and [2] were discussed in the previous section (Carolus et Maria [11][i])

[3] portāvī: 1^st person singular perfect tense

Knowing these becomes increasingly important as you move on and are introduced to other tenses. In the previous section (Carolus et Maria [12][ii]), it was shown that the perfect tense is formed from the 3^rd principal part for example: portō, portāre, portāvī

[i] portāv¦ī

[ii] remove the ending > portāv-; you now have the stem for the perfect tense. Once you have that, it never changes and that applies to all verbs in Latin

[iii] add the perfect tense endings to the stem

portāvī │ I (have) carried

portāvistī │ you (sg.) (have) carried

portāvit │(s)he / it (has) carried

portāvimus │ we(have) carried

portāvistis │ you (pl.) (have) carried

portāvērunt │ they (have) carried

It is the third principal part that needs attention because, as with the English irregular verbs, it very often cannot be anticipated. The image shows some examples of three of the four principal parts of verbs. It isn’t necessary to learn all of these at this stage, but just be aware of what these three parts are and take note of the frequent irregularity of the third part.

From now on, all the verbs in the Carolus et Maria texts will be listed with their principal parts. You are not going to need them all (not yet:

lacrimō, lacrimāre, lacrimāvī [1]: cry

More information is available at the following links:

13.03.24: principal parts of verbs

https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/04/130324-principal-parts-of-verbs.html

13.03.24: Daily routine [1]; the principal parts of verbs

https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/04/130324-daily-routine-1-principal-parts.html

13.03.24: daily routine [2]

https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/04/130324-daily-routine-2.html

21.05.24: Level 2: perfect tense [1] stem, endings; first conjugation (1)

https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/05/200524-level-2-perfect-tense-1-stem.html