Latin/Lesson 5-Perfect Indicative

Latin Perfect Active Tense
The perfect tense is used for action that has already been completed. English has two corresponding constructions: present perfect and simple past. The present perfect uses the present of "to have" plus the past participle. ("I have sailed to Athens twice." "These women have spoken the truth.") The simple past is a separate verb form that indicates a completed action. ("I came, I saw, I conquered.") Another related form, which uses "did" as an auxiliary, is used for emphasis, negation or interrogation. ("I did see you at the Forum, didn't I?")

In Latin, the perfect indicative is equivalent to all of these.

The perfect endings:

(1) There is an alternative third person plural ending, -ēre, used mainly in poetry. For example, amāvēre = amāvērunt.

Although these endings apply to all Latin verbs, each verb's stem changes differently in the perfect tense. To find the stem, use the third principal part, which is the first person singular perfect active indicative form of that verb.


 * To conjugate the perfect present, attach the personal ending to the perfect stem.

Example

 * amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum; to love, like
 * Note that amāvī is the first person singular perfect active indicative. Drop the -ī to get the stem, which is amāv-, then add personal endings.

Singular:
 * amāv- + -ī = amāvī  (I have loved.)
 * amāv- + -istī = amāvistī (You have loved.)
 * amāv- + -it = amāvit  (He/She/It has loved.)

Plural:
 * amāv- + -imus = amāvimus  (We have loved.)
 * amāv- + -istis = amāvistis (You have loved.)
 * amāv- + -ērunt = amāvērunt (They have loved.)

Basically, the Perfect indicative active is the perfect tense under a flash name.

Rules for Finding the Perfect Stem
The perfect stem can often be guessed by knowing the verb's first person singular and infinitive. Here are some rules that perfect stems often follow.