WHAT IS IT IN ENGLISH?
The present tense is the version of a verb that means it is happening right now - in the present. There are several different ways to communicate this idea in English. For example, look at these different versions of the verb "run":
I run. I am running. I do run. He runs. He does run. He is running. They are running.
All of these are different variations of the word, but they all mean that the person who is running is doing it right now, as opposed to in the past or the future. Notice that the different variations of the present tense in English sometimes use extra words or letters, like "do/does" or "am/is/are" or the "s" on the end of "runs," which aren't always there.
I run. I am running. I do run. He runs. He does run. He is running. They are running.
All of these are different variations of the word, but they all mean that the person who is running is doing it right now, as opposed to in the past or the future. Notice that the different variations of the present tense in English sometimes use extra words or letters, like "do/does" or "am/is/are" or the "s" on the end of "runs," which aren't always there.
HOW DOES IT WORK IN LATIN?
In Latin, it's much simpler and clearer. One verb - for example, curro - can mean "I run," "I am running," or "I do run," and to keep things nice and simple, curro is the only way to write those phrases.
One thing that you need to understand about Latin verbs is that the ending of the verb actually tells you who's doing the action. In English, we can take the word "run" and stick a different word in front of it and it changes who is running, like this: "I run, you run, he/she/it runs, we run, y'all run, they run." With the exception of the "he/she/it" version, the word "run" doesn't change when we do that. In Latin, the verb ending changes with the subject. Look at what happens when we translate these different forms of "run" into Latin:
I run you run he/she/it runs we run y'all run they run
curro curris currit currimus curritis currunt
You should notice two things about the Latin words here:
1. There's no separate word there for I, you, he/she/it, we, y'all, or they. Those words do exist in Latin, and you can use them, but you don't actually HAVE to, because the verb itself already tells you who's doing it.
2. The ending of the verb is the part that tells you who's doing it, so that's the part that changes.
This changing part in the verb is called the person of the verb, because it tells us what person is doing the action. So in order to learn how to make Latin verbs work, we need to learn two things. The first will be the endings that are used for the different persons; creatively enough, we call these the personal endings. The second thing we need to learn is how to connect the ending properly to the rest of the verb.
One thing that you need to understand about Latin verbs is that the ending of the verb actually tells you who's doing the action. In English, we can take the word "run" and stick a different word in front of it and it changes who is running, like this: "I run, you run, he/she/it runs, we run, y'all run, they run." With the exception of the "he/she/it" version, the word "run" doesn't change when we do that. In Latin, the verb ending changes with the subject. Look at what happens when we translate these different forms of "run" into Latin:
I run you run he/she/it runs we run y'all run they run
curro curris currit currimus curritis currunt
You should notice two things about the Latin words here:
1. There's no separate word there for I, you, he/she/it, we, y'all, or they. Those words do exist in Latin, and you can use them, but you don't actually HAVE to, because the verb itself already tells you who's doing it.
2. The ending of the verb is the part that tells you who's doing it, so that's the part that changes.
This changing part in the verb is called the person of the verb, because it tells us what person is doing the action. So in order to learn how to make Latin verbs work, we need to learn two things. The first will be the endings that are used for the different persons; creatively enough, we call these the personal endings. The second thing we need to learn is how to connect the ending properly to the rest of the verb.
HOW TO WRITE PRESENT-TENSE VERBS IN LATIN
Here is a chart of the present-tense endings, corresponding with which person they're talking about.
Now we just need to know how to connect those endings to the verb we want. In order to do that, you need to know the verb's infinitive form (the second principal part), and, using the infinitive, determine what conjugation it belongs to. If you don't know what any of that means, click here before moving on.
PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION RULES
The verbs in each conjugation have slightly different rules from the other conjugations as to how they connect to the ending to form the present tense, but it's all pretty straightforward and simple. Exceptions to the rule are extremely rare, so if you learn the rules now, you'll be good to go. Here are the rules for the different conjugations.
First Conjugation
1st Person Singular - drop the -are, add an -o
All other persons - drop the -re, add the right ending
Second Conjugation
All persons - drop the -re, add the right ending
Third Conjugation (regular)
1st Person Singular - drop the -ere, add an -o
3rd Person Plural - drop the -ere, add an -unt
All other persons - drop the -ere, add an i, then add the right ending
Third Conjugation (i-stem)
3rd Person Plural - drop the -ere, add an -iunt
All other persons - drop the -ere, add an i, then add the right ending
Fourth Conjugation
3rd Person Plural - drop the -re, add an -unt
All other persons - drop the -re, then add the right ending
If you'd like to see what that looks like visually, here's a slideshow of the different conjugations and example verbs in each one. Click the thumbnails on the left to view the different conjugations and their rules.
First Conjugation
1st Person Singular - drop the -are, add an -o
All other persons - drop the -re, add the right ending
Second Conjugation
All persons - drop the -re, add the right ending
Third Conjugation (regular)
1st Person Singular - drop the -ere, add an -o
3rd Person Plural - drop the -ere, add an -unt
All other persons - drop the -ere, add an i, then add the right ending
Third Conjugation (i-stem)
3rd Person Plural - drop the -ere, add an -iunt
All other persons - drop the -ere, add an i, then add the right ending
Fourth Conjugation
3rd Person Plural - drop the -re, add an -unt
All other persons - drop the -re, then add the right ending
If you'd like to see what that looks like visually, here's a slideshow of the different conjugations and example verbs in each one. Click the thumbnails on the left to view the different conjugations and their rules.
It looks complicated, but don't worry. If you take a step back and look at the rules as a whole, you'll see that it's very consistent - most things are handled exactly the same way, and there are only slight variations on certain things. The best way to approach it is to remember this general rule: the present tense subtracts the "-re" from the infinitive, then adds the appropriate personal ending. Once you get that general rule down, then the other little technicalities, like subtracting the "a" along with the "-re" in the first conjugation first person singular, become easier to remember.
