The future tense allows us to express an idea in a time period about to happen. It may occur tomorrow, next week, the next minute, the next year, but it has not yet happened. In English, we express the future time with the auxiliary or helping verb shall or will. In English, the average American used these two words indiscriminately. That means, the average American uses “shall” when they ought to be using “will”, and “will” when they really should be using “shall”. So the average American, when speaking English, is not to precise in their use of “shall” or “will”.
For the future tense, “shall” ought to be used when speaking in the first person. On the other hand, “will” ought to be used when speaking in the second or third persons.
1. I shall go we shall go
2. You will go you will go
3. He, she, it will go they will go
Grammatically, when you reverse these two indicators, “shall and will”, you leave the future tense indicative, and enter into a type of watered down command or imperative.
1. I will go we will go
2. You shall go you shall go
3. He, she, it shall go they shall go
Now this is a very picky point of grammar, and you will not he held accountable for it. However, I just wanted to make you aware of it.
Now back to the real work at hand. Now that we know how to translate a future into English, how do we form one in Latin.
Well, for the first and second conjugations there are a set of specific endings which will be added to the stem. Remember how to form the stem? Go to the second principle part of a verb, and drop the final “re”.
Eg. Amo Amare, Amavi, Amatus
So, go to the second principle part, “Amare” Drop the “re”,
that leaves us with “Ama, and then add the future endings for the first
and second conjugations.
These are the future endings for the first and second conjugations.
-Bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt
Singular plural
1. Amabo I shall love amabimus we shall love
2. Amabis you will love amabitis you will love
3. Amabit he, she, it will love amabunt. They will love
The same is true of the second conjugation
Moneo, monere, monui, monitus
Go to the second principle part, “monere”, remove the final “re”, which leaves you with “mone” then add your endings.
Singular plural
1. monebo I shall warn monebimus we shall warn
2. monebis you will warn monebitis you will warn
3. monebit he, she, it will warn monebunt they will warn
Understand? Now let’s try a few on our own.
Try the following verbs.
Laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus
Appropinquo, appropinquare, appropinqavi, appropinquatus
Terrero, terrere,terrui, territus
Habeo, habere, habui, habitus
The second tense, we want to view today, is called the “imperfect” in Latin. In English, this would be equivalent to a past progressive. Past tense indicates an action which has already occurred. To translate an imperfect from Latin to English, we can use one of the following indicators: was or were; used to; kept on. So an translated imperfect would sound something like: I was going or I used to go or I kept on going. It’s your choice as to which one to use. Generally, most people use was or were. This is probably because it’s the easiest to write.
We use the same process to form the “imperfect tense” as we did the future. We go to the second principle part of the verb, remove the final “re” and were left with the stem. To this we add the following imperfect endings: bam, bas, bat, bamus, batis, bant.
Amo, amare, amavi, amatus to love
Singular plural
1. Amabam I was loving amabamus we were loving
2. Amabas you were loving amabatis you were loving
3. Amabat he, she, it was loving amabant. They were loving
The same for a seond conjugation.
Singular plural
1. monebam I was warning monebamus we were warning
2. monebas you were warning monebatis you were warning
3. monebat he, she, it was warning monebant they were warning
Notice the indicators. Basically “bi” for the future, except
for the first person singular and the third person plural. Probably, the first
person singular was “bio” but over time became “bo”
to simplify its ease in pronunciation. And possibly the third plural was “biunt”
and it over time became “bunt” for the same reason. Notice that
the “ba” is the indicator for the imperfect tense. Finally notice
that the ending to indicate the person still follow the original rule.
Remember: o or m, s, t, mus, tis, nt. For the first person singular, you don’t
choose which one you would care to use, but you must memorize when the “m”
is to be used, and when the “o” is to be used. As of now, we only
use the “m” when we want to express the first person imperfect active
indicative.
So now let’s practice some verbs
Laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus
Appropinquo, appropinquare, appropinqavi, appropinquatus
Terrero, terrere,terrui, territus
Habeo, habere, habui, habitus
We have one more piece of grammar to learn. Up to know we learned that there
were three parts to learn for an adjective. And that’s correct. And that
adjectives ended in -us, -a, -um. That too is correct. They normally do. However,
there are a few first and second declension adjectives which end in “-er”.
Examples of such an adjective is the Latin word for “free” .
Liber, libera, liberum free
Another such word is “pretty”
Pulcher, Pulchra, pulchrum pretty.
Notice that sometimes the word retains the “e” and sometimes it drops the “e”. How can you tell when to keep it or when to drop it? Look at the principle parts which must be given to you. If the “e” is retained or kept in the feminine and neuter form, than it is retained throughout the word. If the “e” is dropped in the feminine and neuter form, then it is dropped throughout the remaining cases.
Look carefully at the two examples.
Liber, libera, liberum free
Singular
Masculine feminine neuter
Nom liber libera liberum
Gen liberi liberae liberi
Dat libero liberae libero
Acc liberum liberam liberum
Abl libero libera libero
Plural
Nom liberi liberae libera
Gen liberorum liberarum liberorum
Dat liberis liberis liberis
Acc liberos liberas libera
Abl liberis liberis liberis
Pulcher, pulchra, pluchrum pretty or beautiful or handsome
Singular
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nom pulcher pulchra pulchrum
Gen pulchri pulchrae pulchri
Dat pulchro pulchrae pulchro
Acc pulchrum pulchram pulchrum
Abl pulchro pulchra pulchro
Plural
Nom pulchri pulchrae pulchra
Gen pulchrorum pulchrarum pulchrorum
Dat pulchris pulchris pulchris
Acc pulchros pulchras pulchris
Abl pulchris pulchris pulchris
Notice the endings are still the same. It’s merely whether or not the adjective retains the “e” in the word itself or whether it drops the “e”.
Now let’s go back to our workbook.