The fourth conjugation is small but includes verbs you meet constantly - audire (to hear), venire (to come), dormire (to sleep), scire (to know).
Can recognize Fourth conjugation present in a short Latin prompt
Schau dir diese Beispiele an. Kannst du das grammatische Muster erkennen?
We hear voices in the street.
The boy comes to school.
Achte auf die hervorgehobenen Teile. Was haben sie gemeinsam?
The fourth conjugation is small but includes verbs you meet constantly - audire (to hear), venire (to come), dormire (to sleep), scire (to know). Its mark is the long i in the infinitive ending -ire, and that i stays loud and clear through the present tense.
Here is the present tense of audio (I hear):
| Person | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | audio | I hear |
| 2nd sg. | audis | you hear |
| 3rd sg. | audit | he/she/it hears |
| 1st pl. | audimus | we hear |
| 2nd pl. | auditis | you (all) hear |
| 3rd pl. | audiunt | they hear |
Examples: Vocem audio. - I hear a voice. Amici veniunt. - The friends are coming.
For English speakers: the trap is the "they" form. You might expect "audint", but the fourth conjugation slips in an extra u: the ending is -iunt, giving audiunt, veniunt. Remember too that the single Latin present covers three English shades - venit means "he comes", "he is coming", and "he does come" - so choose the English that fits the sentence; Latin does not spell out that difference.
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A1 an
ÜbungsaufgabenWe hear voices in the street.
Audimus - the long i holds through almost every form, which makes the fourth conjugation easier than the third. The exception is before -t and -nt: audit, audiunt.
The boy comes to school.
Venit here is present. The Roman word for a child's school is ludus - the same word as 'game'; schola in classical Latin is a lecture or philosophical school.
Im Kurs üben
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A1 an