Latin/Verbs Present Tense Lesson 4

Salvēte omnēs!

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New grammar: fourth conjugation verbs edit

This week we’ll continue with our study of present tense verbs. Verbs of the 4th conjugation are marked by a 2nd principal part, the infinitive, which ends in –īre. Like the 3rd conjugation, they follow the “IOU rule” in forming the present tense. But all verbs in this conjugation retain the I-stem, which shows up in the present tense in the 1st person singular and 3rd person plural. This may make it difficult to distinguish 3rd conjugation I-stems from 4th conjugation verbs; the difference is in the infinitive. 4th conjugation verbs usually follow a regular pattern for their 4 principal parts: -iō, īre, īvī, itus. Where this is not the case, the principal parts will be written out. Here’s how you conjugate a 4th conjugation verb in the present tense:

Typical fourth conjugation verb audio
Latin English Audio (Classical)
audiō I hear
audīs you hear
audit he, she, it hears
audīmus we hear
audītis you all hear
audiunt they hear

We introduced 2 verbs of this type already, in the food lesson:

Latin English Audio (Classical)
ēsuriō, 4 to be hungry, to hunger
sitiō, 4 to be thirsty

New Vocabulary edit

Latin English Audio (Classical) Notes
Fourth conjugation verbs
muniō, 4 fortify, construct, strengthen
perveniō, pervenīre, pervēnī, perventus, 4 arrive, reach
sciō, 4 know
veniō, venīre, vēnī, ventum, 4 come

New Sentences edit

Latin English Notes
Nōn venīs. You do not come.
Nōn sciō. I do not know.
Discipulī in ludō cōnveniunt. The students assemble in the school.
Frātrem meum audiō. I hear my brother.
Puerī sitiunt. The boys are thirsty.
Scīmus, sed tū nōn scīs. We know, but you do not know.
Lūcia librum aperit. Lucia opens the book.
Audītisne canem? Do you hear a dog?
Nōs ēsurīmus, sed tū dormis. We are hungry, but you are sleeping.
Televisiōnem nōn vident, sed audiunt. They do not see the television, but they hear it.
Mīlitēs oppidum contrā barbarōs muniunt. The soldiers fortify the town against the barbarians.
Mīlitēs viās muniunt. The soldiers construct roads. The Roman soldiers were legendary for their discipline and endurance. When they weren’t actively engaged in offensive or defensive work, their commanders had them devote their muscle to expanding the network of roads that enabled quick travel throughout the Empire.
Ad urbem pervenīmus. We arrive at the city.
Mārcus in villā dormit. Marcus sleeps in the house.
Locum sciunt. They know the place.
Pater viam invenit. Dad finds the road.
Nautae arcam aperiunt et gemmās inveniunt. The sailors open the chest and find jewels.

Practice edit

Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson
Step one First learn the words using this lesson:
Step two Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this:
Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage.
If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function)

We hope you have enjoyed this set of lessons on verbs. In the next lessons, here are the concepts we’ll need to explore: personal pronouns, prepositions, colors (which are really just more adjectives), 4th declension nouns, 5th declension nouns, questions, clothing, numbers, time and dates. It’s quite a respectable beginning.

Valēte et habēte bonam fortūnam!