Latin for Beginners · Lesson XVIII · Part 4: Verbs: the active voice
18. Verbs: tense, mood, person; the verb sum
Goal: Your child knows the active personal endings and can say the present, imperfect and future of sum ("I am, I was, I shall be").
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- The special vocabulary page for this lesson (near the back of the book; the lesson tells you the page)
- A notebook for Latin, and a pencil
- Index cards for new words (optional)
What's in the book
The start of verbs. What tenses, moods and persons are, the full list of active personal endings, and the present, imperfect and future of sum. Then a dialogue between two boys, Sextus and Marcus, and nine English sentences. (The scan has a picture plate between the grammar page and the dialogue page.)
The lesson, step by step
Review
Decline is, ea, id in the singular.
The new idea: verbs change too
Read sections 119 to 122. English uses helper words (I, we, shall, was). Latin changes the ending instead. The tenses: present (now), past, future. The persons: first (I, we), second (you), third (he, she, it, they).
Personal endings
Section 122 gives the active endings. Singular: -m or -ō (I), -s (you), -t (he, she, it). Plural: -mus (we), -tis (you), -nt (they). You already know -t and -nt.
The verb sum
sum is irregular, as "to be" is in English. The book shows the forms split up, so you can see the endings:
su-m, I am; e-s, you are; es-t, he, she, or it is
su-mus, we are; es-tis, you are; su-nt, they are
The imperfect is eram (I was) and the future is erō (I shall be). Learn all three tenses from section 123.
Say them aloud
Chant the three tenses of sum until they come easily. The book warns to be careful about vowel length and accent in these forms: erāmus, erātis, but erimus, eritis.
Vocabulary
From the special vocabulary for Lesson XVIII:
lūdus, school
socius, companion, ally
laetus, happy, glad
hodiē, to-day
nunc, now
mox, presently, soon
The dialogue and exercise
Read "The Boys Sextus and Marcus" in two voices. It begins:
Ubi es, Mārce? Ubi est Quīntus? Ubi estis, amīcī?
Then do the English sentences in section 125.
Afterwards
Two days: grammar and sum on day one, vocabulary, dialogue and exercise on day two. Say the sum chant every day this week.
Tip
Every regular verb in the rest of the book uses the same personal endings. Time spent on them now pays off for months.