laudo laudare stem: lauda- 1st conjugation
moneo monere stem: mone- 2nd conjugation
Now look at the dictionary entry for the verb "to lead" in Latin:
"duco, ducere". Simply by looking at the first entry, you might
think that this verb is going to be a first conjugation verb --
it looks like "laudo". But the next entry looks something like a
second. Find the stem: it's duce-. You have to look closely,
but the "-e-" of the stem is short. This is the characteristic
vowel of the third conjugation: short "-e-".
Even if you're not watching the long marks, you can still tell a second conjugation verb in the dictionary from a third. The first entry for a second conjugation verb will always end in "-eo", and then the second entry will end "-ere". The first dictionary entry of a third conjugation ends simply with "-o" and then the second entry is "-ere". So if the first entry of a verb looks like a first conjugation verb in the first person singular and if the infinitive looks like a second conjugation verb, then you have a third conjugation verb. Identify the conjugations of the following verbs:
ENTRY CONJUGATION ENTRY CONJUGATION doceo, docere __________ audeo, audere __________ amo, amare __________ tolero, tolerare __________ duco, ducere __________ valeo, valere __________ scribo, scribere __________ ago, agere __________We'll use "duco" as our example (paradigm) of third conjugation verbs. Now let's see about conjugating a third conjugation verb in the present tense. You remember the formula for all verbs in Latin in the present tense: it's just the stem plus the personal endings "-o", "-s", "-t", etc. Fill out the following table, except for the conjugated form.
PRESENT TENSE OF "duco, ducere"
STEM + PERSONAL ENDINGS = CONJUGATED FORM
1st _________ __________ ____________________
2nd _________ __________ ____________________
3rd _________ __________ ____________________
1st _________ __________ ____________________
2nd _________ __________ ____________________
3rd _________ __________ ____________________
What we need to know is what happens to the stem vowel when you
start attaching the personal endings. In the first and second
declensions this presented no problem, because the stem vowels
are long and strongly pronounced. But short vowels always cause
difficulties in languages and are subject to changes. You
already have experience with what happens to the short "-e-"
before personal endings. Do you remember how you form the future
tense of first and second conjugation verbs? You insert the
tense sign "-b-" in between the stem and the personal endings.
And then the short "-e-" changes:
laudabo - laudabo ("-e-" disappears)
laudabs - laudabis
laudabt - laudabit
laudabmus - laudabimus
laudabtis - laudabitis
laudabnt - laudabunt
This is what happens to short "-e-" before the personal endings.
In third conjugation verb, then, what is going to happen to the
short "-e-" of its stem? Right. It's going to undergo precisely
the same changes. Now go back to the table and fill out the
conjugated forms of "duco". (Check the answers in Wheelock, p.
35.)
STEM + TENSE SIGN + PERS. END. = CONJUGATED FORMS
1st duc __________ __________ _______________
2nd _____ __________ __________ _______________
3rd _____ __________ __________ _______________
1st _____ __________ __________ _______________
2nd _____ __________ __________ _______________
3rd _____ __________ __________ _______________
moneo mitto
PRESENT FUTURE
1st __________ __________
2nd __________ __________
3rd __________ __________
1st __________ __________
2nd __________ __________
3rd __________ __________
As you can see, except for the first person singular, the endings
of both these verbs look the same: the personal endings in both
these verbs are preceded by an "-e-". The present tense of a
second conjugation verb almost always looks like the future tense
of a third conjugation verb, and this could cause you some
problems when you're reading and translating. But not if you
keep your wits about you.
Suppose that you see a form like this in a text you're reading: "legent". What do you do with it? First you recognize the "-nt" as an ending that's attached to verbs, so the word you're looking at is a verb. You want to look this verb up in the dictionary, so you must simplify it to its basic form, which is the first person singular. You remember that a verb is conjugated by adding personal ending, so to reduce this form, you drop of the "-nt". This leaves you with "lege-".
Now the next thing you have to consider is the "-e-": is it the stem vowel of a second conjugation verb, or is it the lengthened "-e-" of a third conjugation verb as the tense sign for the future? That is, is this a present tense form of a second conjugation verb (stem + personal endings), or is it a future of a third (stem + lengthened "-e-" + personal endings). What do you do next to find out? You've gone as far as you can with you preliminary analysis of the form. Now you have to proceed provisionally.
Suppose that the verb is a second conjugation, what will the dictionary entry look like? The first entry is the first person singular, the second is the infinitive, so, if this is a second conjugation verb, the entry will be "legeo, legere". Right? Because all second conjugation verbs end in "-eo" in the first person singular. So you've reduced the conjugated form "legent" to a form you can look up.
The next step is to look it up -- but look for exactly what you've supposed the form to be. Look for both "legeo", and "legere". Look it up. You didn't find it, did you? But if your analysis was correct, "legeo" must be there. But it's not. What does that tell you? It tells you that "legent" is not a form of a second conjugation verb. (If it were, you would have found "legeo" in the dictionary, but you didn't.) Go back to the other possibility: "legent" could be the future of a third conjugation verb, where the "-e-" is the sign of the future. So if this is correct, what will the dictionary entry be? It'll be "lego, legere". Check it out. This time you found what you were looking for: "lego" means "to read". So how do you translate "legent?"
leg- -e- -nt
read will they
Or "they will read".
The moral of this is that your lives used to be fairly
simple. An "-e-" before the personal endings always used to
indicate a present tense of a second conjugation verb. Now it
could mean a future of a third conjugation verb as well. You
have to proceed cautiously now, and make sure you have thoroughly
mastered your grammar before you start reading. You'll also have
to use the dictionary more deliberately and intelligently than
you had to before. And that means thinking your forms through
before you turn to the dictionary.
Singular: stem + 0
Plural: stem + te
And so you came up with forms like this: "lauda", "laudate",
"mone", "monete", etc. Third conjugation verbs follow the same
formulae, but don't forget that pesky short "-e-" stem vowel. If
there is something added to it, it changes to an "-i-" (or "-u-"
before the ending "-nt"); if there is nothing added to it, it
stays short "-e-". So how are you going to form the imperative
of the verb "mitto?" Think.
Singular mitte + 0 = __________
Plural mitte + te = __________
This is how all third conjugation verbs will form their
imperatives -- except for four very common verbs. The verbs
"duco", and three other verbs you'll get later, form their
singular imperatives by dropping the stem vowel altogether: "duc"
not "duce". But the plural imperatives are quite regular:
"ducite".
scribo, -ere One way to memorize the conjugation of verbs
is to learn them with the proper
accentuation. A second conjugation verb is
accented on the stem vowel in the infinitive,
so say "MOH neh o, moh HEH reh" for the
second conjugation verb "moneo, monere". The
stress accent on a third conjugation falls on
the syllable before the stem vowel. So say,
"SREE boh, SCREE beh reh" for the third
conjugation verb "scribo, scribere".
Similarly "DOO keh re" for "ducere", "MIT teh
re" for "mittere" and so on.
copia, -ae (f) Another one of those words which have a
different meaning in the plural. In the
singular "copia" means "abundance"; in the
plural -- copiae, -arum (f) -- it means
"supplies, troops, forces".
ad + acc Means "to" and "toward", always with a sense
of "movement to. Students often "ad + acc".
with the dative case of indirect object,
which we often translate into English with
the preposition "to". Contrast these two
examples: "I am giving you a dollar ("you"
would be dative case) and "I am running to
you" ("you" would be in the accusative case
governed by "ad").
ex, e + abl. Students sometimes get hung up on when to use
"ex" or "e". Use "ex" before any word you
like, but use "e" only before words which
start with a consonant. If you wish, use
"ex" only. That way, you'll always be right.
ago, agere An idiom with this verb which Wheelock is
going use a lot is "ago vitam", which means
"to live" (to lead a life). Another is "ago
gratias" + dative, which means "to thank".
The person being thanked is in the dative
case: "Populus hominibus gratias agent".
duco, ducere Means "to lead", but can also mean "to
think". This extension is logical: we want
our leaders to be thinkers too, don't we?
12/31/92