The first conjugation is the largest and most regular family of Latin verbs, so learning it hands you a key that unlocks hundreds of words.
Can recognize First conjugation present in a short Latin prompt
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The girl loves roses and sings.
The girls walk in the garden.
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The first conjugation is the largest and most regular family of Latin verbs, so learning it hands you a key that unlocks hundreds of words. You spot these verbs by the -are ending of the infinitive (the dictionary form): amare (to love), laborare (to work), ambulare (to walk). The tell-tale vowel is a, which runs through almost every present-tense form.
Here is the present tense of amo (I love). Notice that the ending alone tells you who is acting:
| Person | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | amo | I love |
| 2nd sg. | amas | you love |
| 3rd sg. | amat | he/she/it loves |
| 1st pl. | amamus | we love |
| 2nd pl. | amatis | you (all) love |
| 3rd pl. | amant | they love |
Examples: Puella cantat. - The girl sings. In hortō laboramus. - We work in the garden.
For English speakers: the habit to unlearn is reaching for a subject pronoun. English needs "I" or "we", but Latin does not: the ending -o already means "I" and -mus already means "we". So amo is a whole sentence, "I love". Read the ending first, and add "I", "you", or "they" only in your English, never in the Latin.
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1
Procvičovací cvičeníThe girl loves roses and sings.
Amat and cantat are first conjugation: the -a- holds through every form except amo. Catullus builds his best-known line on the same verb, Odi et amo (Catullus 85).
The girls walk in the garden.
Ambulant is third person plural. No pronoun is needed, because -ant already says who.
Procvičit v kurzu
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1