The tense of a verb is pretty simple - it just tells you when the verb happened. In English, we actually have quite a few different tenses, but most people only tend to remember the major three categories: past, present, and future. In Latin, verbs can take place in the past, present, or future as well, but there are several subcategories that you're going to need to know.
VERBS THAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST
In English, we have several different ways of saying something happened in the past. For example, look at this sentence:
Sally went to the store.
In that sentence, Sally went to the store in the past, right? It happened, and it's over, it's not happening anymore. Simple. But look at what happens when we change this just a bit.
Sally used to go to the store.
Think about the difference there. Sally's trip to the store still happened in the past, but what's changed here? Now we're saying that she "used to go" to the store, which implies that it happened many times over the course of a period of time, but it doesn't anymore. Both of these sentences happened in the past, but they carry pretty different implications and meanings, right? So just saying that "it happened in the past" doesn't quite tell us enough. Instead, we need to break that up into more specific tenses to communicate exactly what we mean. In Latin, there are three tenses that all happen in the past: the perfect, the imperfect, and the pluperfect. Each tense below is accompanied by a picture that I think helps represent what that tense means and feels like compared to the other tenses. To see how to use each tense in Latin, click its title.
Sally went to the store.
In that sentence, Sally went to the store in the past, right? It happened, and it's over, it's not happening anymore. Simple. But look at what happens when we change this just a bit.
Sally used to go to the store.
Think about the difference there. Sally's trip to the store still happened in the past, but what's changed here? Now we're saying that she "used to go" to the store, which implies that it happened many times over the course of a period of time, but it doesn't anymore. Both of these sentences happened in the past, but they carry pretty different implications and meanings, right? So just saying that "it happened in the past" doesn't quite tell us enough. Instead, we need to break that up into more specific tenses to communicate exactly what we mean. In Latin, there are three tenses that all happen in the past: the perfect, the imperfect, and the pluperfect. Each tense below is accompanied by a picture that I think helps represent what that tense means and feels like compared to the other tenses. To see how to use each tense in Latin, click its title.
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The Perfect Tense
Verbs in the perfect tense are the most simple version of the past: it happened once, and it's over. Bam. Donezo. No more continuing action, nothing special about it, it just happened. In terms of wumbo, we can translate these verbs in two ways: "wumboed" or "has wumboed." Here are some examples. I ran. I have run. You laughed. You have laughed. Timmy belched. Timmy has belched. We ate the cat. We have eaten the cat. Sally went to the store. Sally has gone to the store. |
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The reason it's called the "perfect" tense, by the way, is because of the Latin verb perficere, meaning "to finish or complete." The action in a perfect-tense verb is finished. Completed. Done. That's why we call it what we do.
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The Imperfect Tense
If the perfect tense is the solid, one-time, did-it-and-now-it's-over tense, then the imperfect tense is the imprecise, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey tense. It happened in the past, sure, and it's probably over with now, but it happened either repeatedly or over an extended period of time, and probably other stuff happened during that time as well. In terms of wumbo, we can translate these verbs as "was wumboing" or "used to wumbo." I was running. I used to run. You were laughing. You used to laugh. Timmy was belching. Timmy used to belch. We were eating the cat. We used to eat the cat. Sally was going to the store. Sally used to go the store. |
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We call this the "imperfect" tense because, unlike the perfect tense, it wasn't accomplished all at one point in time, but rather over the course of a longer period. It took some time, or happened repeatedly, and so it doesn't have the sense of finality and completion that the perfect tense does. It's imperfect in that sense.
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The Pluperfect Tense
Sometimes you run into a situation where there are two things that happened in the past, but one happened before the other. For example, look at the sentence, "After I had studied for the test, I decided to surf YouTube for funny videos." There are two actions happening here: studying for the test, and deciding to surf YouTube. Both happened in the past, but one happened before the other one - in this case, the studying happened first, then the decision to go to YouTube. You could kind of say that the first one is not just in the past, but in the super-past, even farther back in the past than the other thing. That's what the pluperfect tense is - the super-past, something happening farther back in the past than something else. In terms of wumbo, we can translate these verbs as "had wumboed." |
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I had run six miles before I realized I was in my underwear.
After you had laughed your butt off, your pants fit better.
Timmy had belched many times before, but he now sensed it wasn't appropriate in the presence of the Queen.
We were too full to eat the ferret because we had eaten the cat already.
Sally had gone to the store to buy cheese, but she came back with two carts of groceries and a bag from JC Penney.
We call this the "pluperfect" tense because it's a combination of two Latin words - plus and perficere. We already saw that perficere, in the perfect tense, meant that it was done, boom, completed in the past, so if you add the plus (which means "more"), it's even MORE done. Super-done. Because it's the super-past. And that's just super.
After you had laughed your butt off, your pants fit better.
Timmy had belched many times before, but he now sensed it wasn't appropriate in the presence of the Queen.
We were too full to eat the ferret because we had eaten the cat already.
Sally had gone to the store to buy cheese, but she came back with two carts of groceries and a bag from JC Penney.
We call this the "pluperfect" tense because it's a combination of two Latin words - plus and perficere. We already saw that perficere, in the perfect tense, meant that it was done, boom, completed in the past, so if you add the plus (which means "more"), it's even MORE done. Super-done. Because it's the super-past. And that's just super.
VERBS HAPPENING IN THE PRESENT
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The Present Tense
Verbs in the present tense are happening right now, in the present moment. This is live-action, folks. Currently in progress. There are several different variations of the present tense in English, but only one version of it in Latin. In terms of wumbo, these verbs can be translated as "wumbos," "is wumboing," or "does wumbo." One thing that's sometimes confusing for new Latin students is the English continuous present - that is, when you say "I am wumboing" or "you are wumboing" or "he is wumboing." It's confusing because in English, we put the verb "be" in there - that's the "am/are/is" part of those verbs. But in Latin, you don't need to put the verb "be" there. So if you are trying to say "I am running" in Latin, you don't need to go look up the word for "am." It's already contained in the verb, because English sucks and Latin is better. |
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I run. I am running. I do run.
You laugh. You are laughing. You do laugh.
Timmy belches. Timmy is belching. Timmy does belch.
We eat the cat. We are eating the cat. We do eat the cat.
Sally goes to the store. Sally is going to the store. Sally does go to the store.
We call this the "present" tense because of the Latin word praesens, which means "here, present, in this place in time and/or space." (Hey. That rhymed.) Anyway, the reasoning behind that should hopefully be obvious.
You laugh. You are laughing. You do laugh.
Timmy belches. Timmy is belching. Timmy does belch.
We eat the cat. We are eating the cat. We do eat the cat.
Sally goes to the store. Sally is going to the store. Sally does go to the store.
We call this the "present" tense because of the Latin word praesens, which means "here, present, in this place in time and/or space." (Hey. That rhymed.) Anyway, the reasoning behind that should hopefully be obvious.
VERBS HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE
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The Future Tense
The future tense in Latin, as in English, refers to things that will happen, but have not happened yet. Pretty simple, really. In terms of wumbo, these verbs can be translated as "will wumbo," "is about to wumbo," or "is going to wumbo." This does present another opportunity for confusion in English because of the way we use the phrases "about to" and "going to." If you say "I'm about to smack you upside the head," or "I'm going to rage-flip this table," the words "about to" and "going to" mean that it will happen in the future. So if you're saying those sentences in Latin, you don't need to look up the words for "about" or "going," and you don't need to put the verbs ("to smack" and "to rage-flip") in the infinitive. Those turns of phrase are contained within the future tense, so all you need is the future-tense verb there. |
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I will run. I am about to run. I am going to run.
You will laugh. You are about to laugh. You are going to laugh.
Timmy will belch. Timmy is about to belch. Timmy is going to belch.
We will eat the cat. We are about to eat the cat. We are going to eat the cat.
Sally will go to the store. Sally is about to go to the store. Sally is going to go to the store.
You will laugh. You are about to laugh. You are going to laugh.
Timmy will belch. Timmy is about to belch. Timmy is going to belch.
We will eat the cat. We are about to eat the cat. We are going to eat the cat.
Sally will go to the store. Sally is about to go to the store. Sally is going to go to the store.
We call this the "future" tense because of the Latin word "futurus," meaning "soon to be/about to exist." Which also makes a lot of sense, unlike most things involving time travel.
The Future Perfect Tense
Information coming soon.
The Future Perfect Tense
Information coming soon.
