Lesson 31 · Review
Ten words for a sailing tale: a boat and the wind that drives it — sometimes treacherous — the gold that paid for it, and a warning to be careful.
Like cum, the preposition sine governs the ablative case — sine morā, without delay; sine aurō, without gold.
Every Latin verb hangs its entire conjugation on a handful of principal parts and the three stems drawn from them.
| Pres. Indic. | Pres. Infin. | Perf. Indic. | Perfect stem |
|---|---|---|---|
| sum | esse | fuī | fu- |
Just as English builds its verbs from three parts (go, went, gone), Latin builds from four: the first person singular of the present indicative, the present infinitive, the first person singular of the perfect indicative, and the perfect passive participle.
sum · esse · fuī
From the principal parts come three stems, and from these stems the entire conjugation is formed: the present stem (found from the present infinitive), the perfect stem, and the participial stem.
The perfect stem may always be found by dropping -ī from the first person singular of the perfect — the third principal part. On it are built three tenses: the perfect, the pluperfect, and the future perfect, all expressing completed action in present, past, and future time respectively.
fuī → fu-
Add the perfect's own endings to fu- for the perfect; add eram for the pluperfect and erō for the future perfect.
| Perfect | Pluperfect | Future Perfect | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 sg. | fuī | fueram | fuerō |
| 2 sg. | fuistī | fuerās | fueris |
| 3 sg. | fuit | fuerat | fuerit |
| 1 pl. | fuimus | fuerāmus | fuerimus |
| 2 pl. | fuistis | fuerātis | fueritis |
| 3 pl. | fuērunt or fuēre | fuerant | fuerint |
The perfect is inflected with endings found in no other tense: -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt (or -ēre). The perfect answers to two English forms: fuī is "I have been" or simply "I was."
fuistī — you have been, you were · fuēre = fuērunt
The pluperfect — English "had been" — may be formed by adding eram, the imperfect of sum, to the perfect stem. Its tense sign is -erā-.
fuerāmus — we had been
The future perfect — English "shall have been" — may be formed by adding erō, the future of sum, to the perfect stem. Its tense sign is -eri-, and the third person plural ends in -erint, not -erunt.
fuerint — they will have been
All active perfects, pluperfects, and future perfects in Latin are formed on the perfect stem and inflected exactly like these forms of sum. Learn fuī well and you have learned them all.
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
What is the perfect stem of sum, and how is it found?
Right. The perfect stem is always found by dropping -ī from the first person singular of the perfect, the third principal part: fuī → fu-. The -er- in fueram and fuerō belongs to the tense sign, not to the stem.
Not quite — the present infinitive gives the present stem. The perfect stem comes from the third principal part; what is left when its -ī is dropped?
Question 2
Translate: fuimus.
Right. fu- + the perfect ending -imus is the perfect: "we have been" or simply "we were." "We had been" is fuerāmus; "we shall have been" is fuerimus.
Not quite — there is no tense sign between the stem and the ending here: -imus is the plain perfect ending. Which tenses carry -erā- and -eri-?
Question 3
Parse fuerātis: which tense and person is it?
Right. The long -erā- is the pluperfect's tense sign — fu-erā-tis, "you had been." The future perfect would show -eri- (fueritis), and the plain perfect would be fuistis.
Not quite — look at the vowel after the stem: -erā- with a long ā is one tense sign, -eri- is the other. Which one is this?
Question 4
Which form means "they will have been"?
Right. The future perfect third plural ends in -erint, not -erunt — the one place the future perfect breaks from erō. fuērunt is the perfect ("they have been") and fuerant the pluperfect ("they had been").
Not quite — this is the trap the lesson warns about: the perfect's -ērunt and the future perfect's -erint look alike. Which vowel marks the future perfect?
Question 5
What are the four principal parts of a Latin verb?
Right. The four principal parts are the first person singular of the present indicative, the present infinitive, the first person singular of the perfect indicative, and the perfect passive participle — like English go, went, gone with one part more. The three stems are derived from the principal parts, not identical with them.
Not quite — the principal parts are not a list of tenses, and the stems are what we get from the principal parts. Think of the English pattern go, went, gone.
Question 6
In the conversation, Titus says Bonī puerī fuimus. Marcus later reports Iam anteā ibi fuērunt. What is fuēre, the form the lesson gives beside fuērunt?
Right. The perfect's third person plural has two endings, -ērunt and -ēre: fuērunt and fuēre both mean "they have been, they were." The present infinitive of sum is esse, and "they will have been" is fuerint.
Not quite — the infinitive of sum is esse, and the future perfect shows -eri-. The perfect endings table lists two options for one person.
Answered correctly: 0 / 6