Latin Conjugation

Latin Conjugation

Latin verbs have four main patterns of conjugation. As in a number of other languages, most Latin verbs have an active voice and a passive voice. There also exist deponent and semi-deponent Latin verbs (verbs with a passive form but active meaning), as well as defective verbs (verbs with a perfect form but present meaning). Sometimes the verbs of the third conjugation with a present stem on -ǐ are regarded as a separate pattern of conjugation, and are called the fifth conjugation.

Conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from basic forms or principal parts. It may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood, voice or other language-specific factors. When, for example, we use a verb to function as the action done by a subject, many languages require conjugating the verb to reflect that meaning.

In a dictionary, Latin verbs are always listed with four "principal parts" (or fewer for deponent and defective verbs) which allow the reader to deduce the other conjugated forms of the verbs. These are:

1. the first person singular of the present indicative active
2. the present infinitive active
3. the first person singular of the perfect indicative active
4. the supine or, in some texts, the perfect passive participle, which is nearly always identical. Texts that commonly list the perfect passive participle use the future active participle for intransitive verbs. Some verbs lack this principal part altogether.

For simple verb paradigms, see the appendix pages for first conjugation, second conjugation, third conjugation, and fourth conjugation.