Verb tenses

Verb tenses

Present Tense Verbs

• Latin verbs in the present tense express ongoing, incomplete action.
• Latin present tense verbs are similar to English present simple and present continuous.
• The endings for present tense are -o, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt.

Imperfect Tense Verbs

• The imperfect tense in Latin expresses a continuous action in the past.
• This is somewhat equivalent to English past continuous.
• The endings for the imperfect tense are -bam, -bas, -bat, -bamus, -batis, -bant.

Future Tense Verbs

• The future tense is used to express an action that will happen.
• Latin differentiates future tense for 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs (-bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt) and 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs (-am, -es, -et, -emus, -etis, -ent).

Perfect Tense Verbs

• Latin perfect tense expresses actions that have been completed, equivalent to English simple past.
• Perfect tense verbs use different stem, noted by the third principal part of the verb, and endings are -i, -isti, -it, -imus, -istis, -erunt.

Pluperfect Tense Verbs

• The pluperfect tense describes an action that had been completed before another past action.
• It’s equivalent to “had done” in English.
• The endings for pluperfect tense are -eram, -eras, -erat, -eramus, -eratis, -erant.

Future Perfect Tense Verbs

• The future perfect tense describes an action that will be completed before another future action.
• This is equivalent to English “will have done”.
• The endings for the future perfect tense are -ero, -eris, -erit, -erimus, -eritis, -erint.