Conjugation

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Latin is an inflected language, and as such its verbs must be conjugated in order to express person, number, time, tense, mood or voice. A set of conjugated forms of the same verb pattern is called a conjugation (verb inflection group). There are four conjugations, which are numbered and grouped by ending.

This is a summary of the conjugation of Latin verbs.

Which conjugation a verb belongs to

Latin is a heavily inflected language, which means that Latin indicates grammatical information by changing the ending of the words. Verbs are grouped into four conjugations (verb inflection groups). If we change a verb’s ending to express the person or the time (tense), we say we “conjugate” it. To determine which conjugation group a verb belongs to, you have to look into a Latin dictionary.

In the case of the verb “have”, you will find:

habeo –ére, -bui, -bitum

This is 4 pieces of information:

(1) habeo; it is the first person singular of the verb “have”. It means “I have”.

(2) –ére; it’s an abbreviation of “habere”, the infinite of the verb. It means “to have”.

(3) –bui; it’s an abbreviation of “habui”, the perfect tense of the verb. It means “I have had” or “I had”.

(4) –bitum; abbreviation of “habitum”, it’s the supine (or the past participle).

This verb’s infinitive, “habére” (to have), indicated in the dictionary form as “–ére” shows that this verb belongs to the 2nd conjugation, as all verbs that have the infinitive ending “-ére” belong to the 2nd conjugation. The second dictionary element, the infinitive, determines which conjugation the verb belongs to. The four types of infinitive endings and the four conjugations determined by the different genitive endings are:

-are = 1st conjugation; e.g.: am|o, -are, -avi, -atum (I love)

-ére = 2nd conjugation; e.g.: hab|eo, -ere, -bui, -bitum (I have)

-ere = 3rd conjugation; e.g.: dic|o, -ere, dixi, dictum (I say)

-ire = 4th conjugation; e.g.: aud|io, -ire, -ivi, -itum (I hear)

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

How to conjugate a verb

You simply cut off the infinitive endings -are, -ére, -ere and -ire, and replace them with the personal endings shown below in the tables, respectively to the conjugation group to which the verb belongs to.

Present tense

The Present Tense is equivalent of the English Present Progressive (I am reading) and Present Simple (I read).

Unlike English, Latin uses verb endings to express the person and number of the verb, and its tense or mood. These endings are in general the same for all conjugation groups, but there is some variation respectively to the stem vowel, which means that while, e.g. the singular third person ending is "-t" in all conjugations, in the 1st conjugation it's realized as "-at", because it's the A-Stem conjugation, in the 2nd conjugation it's "-et", (as they are the E-Stem) etc.

	First conjugation			Second conjugation			Third conjugation						Fourth conjugation
	A-Stem			E-Stem			Consonant Stem			Short I-Stem			Long í-Stem
	amó, -áre, -áví, -átum love			habeó, -ére, -buí, -bitum have			dícó, -ere, díxí, dictum say			capió, -ere, cépí, captum catch			audió, -íre, -íví, -ítum hear
S/1	amó	-ó	I love	habeó	-eó	I have	dícó	-ó	I say	capió	-ió	I catch	audió	-ió	I hear
S/2	amás	-ás	you love	habés	-és	you have	dícis	-is	you say	capis	-is	you catch	audís	-ís	you hear
S/3	amat	-at	he loves	habet	-et	he has	dícit	-it	he says	capit	-it	he catches	audit	-it	he hears
P/1	amámus	-ámus	we love	habémus	-émus	we have	dícimus	-imus	we say	capimus	-imus	we catch	audímus	-ímus	we hear
P/2	amátis	-átis	you love	habétis	-étis	you have	dícitis	-itis	you say	capitis	-itis	you catch	audítis	-ítis	you hear
P/3	amant	-ant	they love	habent	-ent	they have	dícunt	-unt	they say	capiunt	-iunt	they catch	audiunt	-iunt	they hear

Perfect tense

	First conjugation			Second conjugation			Third conjugation						Fourth conjugation
	A-Stem			E-Stem			Consonant Stem			Short I-Stem			Long í-Stem
	amó, -áre, -áví, -átum love			habeó, -ére, -buí, -bitum have			dícó, -ere, díxí, dictum say			capió, -ere, cépí, captum catch			audió, -íre, -íví, -ítum hear
S/1	amáví	-í	I have loved	habuí	-í	I have had	díxí	-í	I have said	cépí	-í	I have caught	audíví	-í	I have heard
S/2	amávistí	-istí	you have loved	habuistí	-istí	you have had	díxistí	-istí	you have said	cépistí	-istí	you have caught	audívistí	-istí	you have heard
S/3	amávit	-it	he has loved	habuit	-it	he has had	díxit	-it	he has said	cépit	-it	he has caught	audívit	-it	he has heard
P/1	amávimus	-imus	we have loved	habuimus	-imus	we have had	díximus	-imus	we have said	cépimus	-imus	we have caught	audívimus	-imus	we have heard
P/2	amávistis	-istis	you have loved	habuistis	-istis	you have had	díxistis	-istis	you have said	cépistis	-istis	you have caught	audívistis	-istis	you have heard
P/3	amávérunt	-érunt	they have loved	habuérunt	-érunt	they have had	díxérunt	-érunt	they have said	cépérunt	-érunt	they have caught	audívérunt	-érunt	they have heard