Ludi Novi Romani/MMDCCLXVII/Certamen Latinum Augusteum

Rules of the Certamen Latinum Augusteum

1. Questions are posted daily, one question per one day. There will be 7 questions in total.

2. Answers are to be sent to <cnaeus_cornelius@yahoo.com>. If you send in your answer before the posting of the next question (questions will be posted every second day), you will earn 5 extra points as "speed points".

3. Answers may be sent in until the last day of the games: you can answer all questions (#1-7) even on the last day, but in this case, you'll get no speed points.

Question 1 (March 1st)

I. INTRODUCTION 1 - Verbs in the Present

Verbs are words which express what happens in a sentence: action or state of being, like "to go", "to walk", "to see", "to be".

Latin indicates grammatical information by "inflection": by changing the ending of the words. When English says "I have", "we have", Latin says "habeo" and "habemus". English puts "I" and "we" before the verb, Latin adds different endings, "-o" and "-mus", to the end of the verb.

THE CONJUGATIONS

Latin verbs are grouped into 4 conjugations (verb inflection groups). To determine which conjugation group a verb belongs to, you have to look at the dictionary form of the verb. In the case of the verb “have”, you will find:

"habeo, habére, habui, habitum" (I have, to have, I had, the had one)

When we want to conjugate a verb in the PRESENT tense, we must look at the 2nd dictionary form, the infinitive:

"habére" (to have)

The infinitive, “hab-ére” (to have) shows that this verb belongs to the 2nd conjugation, because all verbs that have the infinitive ending “-ére” belong to the 2nd conjugation.

WHICH VERB WHICH CONJUGATION?

The second dictionary element, the infinitive, determines which conjugation the verb belongs to. The 4 variants of infinitive endings and the 4 conjugations determined by the different infinitive endings are:

-are = 1st conjugation (e.g. amo, amare, amavi, amatum) -ére = 2nd conjugation (e.g. habeo, habére, habui, habitum) -ere = 3rd conjugation (e.g. dico, dicere, dixi, dictum) -ire = 4th conjugation (e.g. audio, audire, audivi, auditum)

Note that “–ere”, which is short vowel, is different from “–ére”, which is long vowel.

HOW TO CONJUGATE A VERB IN INDICATIVE MOOD?

For Present and Imperfect tenses, you shall use the so called "imperfect stem", obtained by cutting of the infinitive endings of the second dictionary form. Cut off the infinitive endings -are, -ére, -ere and -ire, and replace them with the personal endings shown in these tables (follow the links):

PRESENT TENSE (e.g. "I go")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Present_Tense

IMPERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I was going")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Imperfect_Tense

For Perfect and Pluperfect tenses, you shall use the so called "perfect stem", obtained by cutting of the Perfect ending of the third dictionary form. Cut off the ending -i for all classes of verbs, and replace them with the personal endings shown in these tables (follow the links):

PERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I have gone" or "I went")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Perfect_Tense

PLUPERFECT TENSE (e.g. "I had gone")

http://novaroma.org/nr/Conjugation#Pluperfect_Tense

II. QUESTION 1

- An important verb in Augustus' life was the verb restituo, restituere, restitui, restitutum ("to restore"). He called his political system, the Principate, a mixed form of government with republican and monarchical elements, as "Restored Republic". He was proud to report in his Res Gestae that he restored 82 temples in Rome and most of the monuments of the City. His life was dedicated to the restoration of older Roman traditions, religiousness and customs. The verb restituo is really a verb of Augustus. Our first exercise will be with this verb.

Take this verb restituo, restituere, restitui, restitutum ("to restore"), and conjugate it in the Present Tense, and in the 3 Latin past tenses, in the Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect tenses. Look at the example with cupio, cupere cupivi cupitum how to do it.

- Send your solution to <cnaeus_cornelius@yahoo.com>

III. AN EXAMPLE HOW TO DO IT:

- There are 4 types, which are differentiated by the infinitive ending: -are, -ére, -ere, -ire. I have to conjugate one from each type. In this example, I choose an "-ere" (shor "e") type:

cupio, -ere, -ivi, -itum (wish);

- The 2nd dictionary form (infinitive) is abbreviated as "-ere", which means that its full infinitive form written out is: "cupere".
- The infinitive ending "-ere" marks the 3rd Conjugation.
- In the conjugation table of our website (following the link given above) you will find two columns for the 3rd Conjugation: I-Stem and Consonant Stem. The ending of the 1st dictionary form (cupio "I wish") determines if a 3rd Conjugation verb is of I-Stem or Consonant Stem. It's I-Stem, if the 1st dictionary form ending is "-io". It's Consonant Stem, if the 1st dictionary form ending is "-o", without a preceding "i". For "cupio", it's I-Stem as the ending "-io" shows.
- You look at the conjugation table, Present Tense personal endings in 3rd Conjugation I-Stem, and add the personal endings to "cup-". You will write the following forms:

cupio - I wish

cupis - you wish

cupit - he wishes

cupimus - we wish

cupitis - you (plural) wish

cupiunt - they wish

- Next, you look at the conjugation table, Imperfect Tense personal endings in 3rd Conjugation I-Stem, and add the personal endings to "cup-". You will write the following forms:

cupiebam - I was wishing

cupiebas - you were wishing

cupiebat - he was wishing

cupiebamus - we were wishing

cupiebatis - you (plural) were wishing

cupiebant - they were wishing

- Perfect and Pluperfect is formed from the "perfect stem" (the third dictionary form of the verb, by cutting off the ending "-i"), you look at the conjugation table, Perfect Tense personal endings which are the same in all conjugations, and add the personal endings to the perfect stem, "cupiv-". You will write the following forms:

cupivi - I have wished - I wished

cupivisti - you have wished - you wished

cupivit - he has wished - he wished

cupivimus - we have wished - we wished

cupivistis - you (plural) have wished - you (plural) wished

cupiverunt - they have wished - they wished

- Perfect and Pluperfect is formed from the "perfect stem" (the third dictionary form of the verb, by cutting off the ending "-i"), you look at the conjugation table, Pluperfect Tense personal endings which are the same in all conjugations, and add the personal endings to the perfect stem, "cupiv-". You will write the following forms:

cupiveram - I had wished

cupiveras - you had wished

cupiverat - he had wished

cupiveramus - we had wished

cupiveratis - you (plural) had wished

cupiverant - they had wished