Verb Persons

By changing the ending on the verb, we can have different persons perform the actions. So far, we have seen –t and –nt, which represent he/she/it ______s and they ______, but there are four other endings for us to learn.

Person Ending Translation Example First Pers. Sing. -o I ______Rogo: I ask Second Pers. Sing. -s You______Rogas: You ask Third Person Sing. -t He/She/It______Rogat: He/She/It asks

First Pers. Plural -mus We______Rogamus: We ask Second Pers. Plural -tis Y’all ______Rogatis: Y’all ask Third Person Plural -nt They______Rogant: They ask

Forming verbs: To make a verb any person you want is pretty simple, all you need is one thing: the infinitive. We’ll get into infinitives more in-depth next chapter, but for now, just know that they are the verbs that end in –re (they are translated as to______). When you look up a verb in the back of your book or in a dictionary, the infinitive is the second form you see. The first part you’ll see is the first person singular form. Here are some examples:

Rogo, rogare: to ask Moneo, monere: to warn Rego, regere: to rule Audio, audire: to hear

Infinitives can tell you what conjugation a verb is by looking at the vowel that comes before the –re. The first conjugation is a, the second conjugation is a long e (an e with a line over it), third conjugation is a short e (no line over it), and fourth conjugation is i.

Once you have the infinitve, you can make any verb person above by following this rule:

For 1st, 2nd, and 4th conjugations, you drop the –re, and add your ending. NOTE: In the first conjugation first person singular, a and o cannot go together, so you just use o. For fourth conjugation 3rd person plural, you add –unt to the i.

For the 3rd conjugation, you first drop the –ere. For first person singular, you just add –o. For second singular through second plural, you add i and then your ending. For third person plural, you add –unt after dropping the –ere. The ablative case

So far, we’ve met the nominative (subject) and accusative (direct object) cases. Now it’s time to meet the ablative. Right now, we’ll mainly see the ablative case when dealing with certain prepositions. But first, let’s add the new endings to our chart:

1st Declension 2nd Declension Case Nom. Sing -a -us/r Acc. Sing -am -um Abl. Sing -a (with long mark) -o

Nom Plural -ae -i Acc. Plural -as -os Abl. Plural -is -is

Prepositions

Here are some prepositions we have met so far: in, ad, e/ex, and a/ab.

When you use these prepositions with a noun, that noun takes a certain case.

For ad and in (meaning into), you use the accusative case. Remember Accusative = Motion Towards! For in just meaning in (like in the house), you use the ablative case. For e/ex and a/ab, the prepositions dealing with moving away, you also use the ablative case.

The chart on page 116 of your text provides a great way of showing this!