Latin for Beginners · Lesson XXXII · Part 6: The perfect tenses
32. The perfect active of all four conjugations
Goal: Your child conjugates the perfect active of amō, moneō, regō, capiō and audiō, and knows when Latin uses the perfect or the imperfect.
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 two meanings of the perfect ("I have finished", "I finished"), how a story uses the perfect and the imperfect, the perfect of the four model verbs, and principal parts of fourteen verbs. Then more of the Perseus story.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Chant the perfect of sum: fuī, fuistī, fuit...
What the perfect means
The perfect can mean "I have finished my work" or simply "I finished my work". The book explains that a Latin story uses the perfect for each step forward and the imperfect for the background. Try the book's little English story about a trip to Boston: which verbs would be perfect, which imperfect?
The forms
Add the perfect endings to the perfect stem. The model verbs give amāvī, monuī, rēxī, cēpī, audīvī. In full:
amāvī, amāvistī, amāvit, amāvimus, amāvistis, amāvērunt
Most first-conjugation verbs make their perfect in -āvī.
Principal parts
Section 192 gives the first three parts of fourteen verbs to learn. Some of them:
dō, dare, dedī, give
videō, vidēre, vīdī, see
veniō, venīre, vēnī, come
Say each list aloud several times; these perfects must be memorized.
The story
Learn the special vocabulary (animus, mind, heart; porta, gate; plēnus, full; diū, for a long time). Then read section 193: Andromeda is chained to the rock and Perseus arrives. Point out each perfect.
Wrap up
Your child conjugates the perfect of moneō and audiō.
Afterwards
Two days: forms on day one; principal parts and the story on day two.