I'm trying to introduce a modicum of Latin in my blog entries. Today, I'll briefly discuss present indicative active verbs: second conjugation. My source is John F. Collins' work, A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin.
Collins teaches that the present indicative active Latin verb of the second conjugation is formed by removing the -re ending from the present infinitive, which is the second principal part of the verb. In other words, if we take the verb, moneo, the principal parts are moneo, monere, monui, monitus ("warn, advice"). Notice that the second principal part of moneo is monere, which is a present infinitive. So if we drop the -re ending on monere, we've now derived the present stem, which is mone (with a macron over the 'e').
From that present stem, we can now build present indicative active, second conjugation Latin verbs. Like Collins, I will list the paradigm for moneo:
Singular
1. moneo (I warn)
2. mones (you warn)
3. monet (he/she/it warns)
Plural
1. monemus (we warn)
2. monetis (you warn)
3. monent (they warn)
One thing we learn by analyzing Greek or Latin verbs is the regular patterns that occur in both languages: once you learn the patterns, other facets of the language begin to make sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment