Chapter10
Today we’ve reached the have way mark of this course. And I must say, that I am very happy with your progress. I know the course is very intense and requires so much time in order to be successful. As I said I am indeed impressed.
Today we are going to cover the fourth and the so called “io’s” of the third conjugations. I decided to examine or look at the fourth conjugation first because if we understand the fourth conjugation and how it is formed, then the “io” of the third is much easier to understand.
As a refresher, I’ll remind you that we can discern the conjugation of a verb by going to its second principle part.of the verb. If the verb ended in an “are” we were in the first conjugation. If the verb ended in a long “ere” then we were in the second conjugation. If the verb ended in a short “ere” then we were in the third conjugation regular.
We’ll now notice that the infinitive or the second principle part of the verb ends in an “ire”. This tells us that we are in the fourth conjugation. There is sort of a pattern for the principles parts of a fourth conjugation. The patter is as follows. Io, ire, ivi, itus. Knowing the patterns helps make the learning of the principle parts just a little bit easier.
The formation of the present tense is much like the formation of the present tense in the first and second conjugations.
Copy the first form then go to the infinitive. Remove the final “re” and then add your present indicative endings; “s, t, mus, tis, nt. Let’s try.
Venio venimus
Venis venitis
Venit venint.
I wish that was all correct, but it isn’t. There’s a small wrinkle or variation to the third person plural. Instead of just adding “nt”, we add “unt” for pronunciation purposes. Apparently the Romans thought veniunt sounded better than venint. So let’s try again.
Venio I come venimus we come
Venis you come venitis you come
Venit he comes veniunt. They come
That’s it. We’ve just formed the present tense of the fourth conjugation
To form the simple future tense in the fourth conjugation, we’ll see that the pattern again is similar to the first and second conjugations. The only difference is that we add the future endings for the third and fourth conjugations and not the first or second conjugations. So, we don’t use: bo, bis, bit, bimus, bitis, bunt. What we do use is: am, es, et, emus, etis, ent. So let’s try
Future for the fourth conjugation
Veniam I shall come veniemus we shall come
Venies you will come venietis you will come
Veniet he will come venient they will come
And there you have it. Understand?
After we form the imperfect of this verb, you will get an opportunity to practice it on your own.
Again the imperfect of the fourth is similar to the imperfect of the first and second conjugations. The only difference is that instead of adding: bam, bas, bat, bamus, batis, bant; we will be adding: ebam, ebas, ebat, ebamus, ebatis,ebant. Again this is done for pronunciation purposes. The Romans believed the adding an “e” in the fourth conjugation allowed the word to flow smoother. So let’s try one.
Veniebam I was coming veniebamus we were coming
Veniebas you were coming veniebatis you were coming
Veniebat he was coming veniebant they were coming.
Now before we go on I want you to try these verbs.
Audio audire to hear
Eo ire to go
Do not be intimidated by the shortness of the verb to go. Just follow the pattern.
Now let’s look at the third conjugations “io” verbs. To start,
why do they call it an “io” in the third. Well the answer is easy.
It’s because the first form of the verb ends in “io” and the
infinitive ends in a short “ere”, which makes it a third…hence
the name “io” in the third. Now the unusual aspect of this verb
is that it doesn’t know whether it wants to be in the third or in the
fourth conjugation. If you read all the material which is written to explain
this verb, you’ll only get confused. The “io” in the third
is a third conjugation verb which really wants to be a fourth conjugation verb.
I know the infinitive ends in a short “ere”. Well the trick is to
mentally change the sort “ere” to an “ire” and then
do what you would for a fourth conjugation verb. Problem solved. So let’s
try one.
Cupio cupere to want.
So we mentally change the infinitive to an “ire” and pretend
it’s in the fourth.
So we have instead: cupio cupire to want
Present tense
Cupio I want cupimus
Cupis you want cupitis
Cupit he wants cupiunt
Imperfect
Cupiebam I was wanting cupiebamus we were wanting
Cupiebas you were wanting cupiebatis you were wanting
Cupiebat he was wanting cupiebant they were wanting
Future
Cupiam I shall want cupiemus we shall want
Cupies you will want cupietis you will want
Cupiet he will want cupient they will want
Simple enough. Just pretend it’s a fourth conjugation verb, and there’s
no problem in forming it. Just really remember, it is in the third and there
will be no problem
For the singular imperative you simply remove the “re” from the
verb and you have the singular
Cupe veni
For the plurals, treat them as a fourth. So think of the third “io” having an “I” instead of an “e” then add “te”
Cupite and venite
That’s all there is to it. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.