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Latin from scratch course › #5: Perfect tense › #5.13: Perfect indicative

Latin from scratch #5.13: The active indicative perfect past tense

In the thirteenth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the perfect past indicative in the active voice (from now on, just perfect). This is the other one of the two main past tenses, along with the imperfect.

Contents

  • Morphology of the Latin perfect indicative
    • Perfect endings
  • Perfect of the verb sum
  • Translation of the perfect tense into English

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 09m 39s ⌛):

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Morphology of the Latin perfect indicative

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This tense is quite simple, as all the verbs are conjugated in the very same way regardless of their conjugation. It is made of just these two components:

  1. perfect stem
  2. special endings

Of course, the first thing we need to know is learn these special endings.

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Perfect endings

The perfect tense has its own special endings which are only used in the active indicative:

‑i
‑isti
‑it
‑ĭmus
‑istis
‑ērunt / ‑ēre

So this would be the result:

1st conjugation2nd conjugation3rd conjugationmixed conjugation4th conjugation
amavi
amavisti
amavit
amavimus
amavistis
amaverunt
monui
monuisti
monuit
monuimus
monuistis
monuerunt
duxi
duxisti
duxit
duximus
duxistis
duxerunt
cepi
cepisti
cepit
cepimus
cepistis
ceperunt
audivi
audivisti
audivit
audivimus
audivistis
audiverunt

Most of the times we will encounter the ending ‑erunt, but poets and some authors such as Sallust can use the form ‑ere. In most verbs it cannot be mistaken for the present infinitive, since it has the present stem: monere / monuere; ducere / duxere. (However, in 2nd and 3rd conjugation verbs whose present and perfect stem are the same, the result is also the same: bibere can be both present infinitive and 3rd person plural perfect).

Perfect of the verb sum

Its perfect stem is fu‑, which will be used in all the other tenses with perfect stem.

fui
fuisti
fuit
fuimus
fuistis
fuerunt

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Translation of the perfect tense into English

In Latin there is no distinction between I saw and I have seen, so a verb such as vidi can be translated as any of them, depending on the context.

We also need to take into account that the distribution of past tenses differs in Latin and in English. In English, I saw can be translated as vidi (perfect) or videbam (imperfect), while vidi can be translated as I saw or I have seen.

Only the context and what feels right will determine how to translate! So let’s go and put all of this into practice.

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Next: The active indicative perfect past tense →

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.

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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

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