• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Learn Latin from scratch online

Learn Latin from Scratch

Learn Latin from Scratch following the traditional grammar-translation method: all the grammar and exercises you need, step by step!

  • 🏛️ Learn Latin online
  • 🎭 About
  • 🔐 Log in
  • ✨ Get the course ✨
Latin from scratch course › #21: Irregular verbs › #21.40: Compounds of SUM

Latin from scratch #21.40: Compounds of the verb SUM

In the fortieth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the most frequent compounds of the verb sum, which are formed by the addition of a preverb to add shades or change the meaning of sum.

Contents

  • Most frequent compounds of sum
  • Irregularities
    • prosum
    • possum

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 07m 53s ⌛):

BUY THE COURSE for full access, including:

📺 videos with analysis-translation 🔍 support 👨‍🏫 no ads anywhere 🛑

Most frequent compounds of sum

Each verb can potentially have as many compounds as there are preverbs, and this is the case with sum, but we are going to study (and learn by heart) the most important compounds of sum only.

Do you love classics? Are you interested in Latin? Would you like to receive cool emails about that stuff? I’m quite sure you would: join the newsletter! 📧

They are the following:

  • absum “be away (from)”, “be far (from)”
  • adsum “be present”, “attend”
  • possum “can” (+ infinitive)
  • praesum “preside over”, “lead”, “be in charge” (+ dative)
  • prosum “be useful”, “favor”, “help”
  • supersum “survive”, “remain” (as in ‘has not disappeared, died, etc.’)

All of these verbs are intransitive (except for possum, which has a nominal → direct object infinitive).

Irregularities

Most of these verbs are conjugated exactly the same as sum (with the preverb), but two of them, prosum and possum, have special irregularities.

Theory without practice is absolutely useless. With a one-time payment you'll have the full course forever, with all the theory explained in video and dozens of hours of practice analyzed and explained step by step by me on the screen. Join the Latin from scratch course! ⚡

prosum

The irregularity in the verb prosum lies in the preverb, which can appear as pro‑ and prod‑ in the following distribution:

  • pro‑ when followed by a consonant (e.g. prosum)
  • prod‑ when followed by a vowel (e.g. proderam)

possum

Although there are similarities in the distribution of the irregularities, there is more to it:

  • pos‑ when followed by a consonant (e.g. possum)
  • pot‑ when followed by a vowel (e.g. poteram)

Do you love classics? Are you interested in Latin? Would you like to receive cool emails about that stuff? I’m quite sure you would: join the newsletter! 📧

Apart from the variation in the preverb, there are some more irregularities:

  • the present infinitive undergoes a simplification (*potesse > posse), which also affects the imperfect subjunctive: *potessem > possem; *potesses > posses…
  • the perfect stem loses the f, which makes it potu‑, not *posfu‑ (e.g. *posfueram > *posueram > potueram)

After the compounds of the verb sum and their irregularities, let’s study, in the next class, the most frequent irregular verbs.

Join the Latin from scratch course!

Join the Latin from scratch course!

Theory without practice is absolutely useless!

With a one-time payment you'll have the full course forever, with all the theory explained in video (no dirty YouTube ads) and, most importantly, dozens of hours of practice analyzed and explained step by step by me on the screen. Join now!

Next: Compounds of the verb SUM →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

New here? Start right now!

👉 And don’t forget to subscribe to the free newsletter!

Reader Interactions

Questions about this content?

🔏

Only premium students can ask questions.

Buy the course for full access or log in (if you've already bought).

Primary Sidebar

Paco Álvarez

Salve! This is Paco, your Latin teacher!

Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

Start at the beginning

Did you miss the absolute basics of Latin grammar? Start from scratch, at the very beginning of the Latin course.

Legal note | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions | Cookies

Latin from Scratch is a project by Paco Álvarez. Follow me on YouTube 📺. Definitely subscribe to my newsletter 📧.