Latin Present Indicative Active Verbs

Author: Indigo Curnick

Date: 2025-02-01

See Latin Verbs Basics for an introduction

In this blog we'll cover the conjugations of the Latin present indicative active verb conjugation. To review what that means we need to remember that a verb conjugation is defined by: person, tense, mood and voice.

In this case

• Tense = present
• Mood = indicative
• Voice = active

And as a reminder of what those mean

• Present: The action or state of being is happening now
• Indicative: The verb is stating a fact about the world
• Active: The subject of the verb performs the action

Examples of this idea in English are I am running, she eats the cake, he walks to work, they read the textbook and so on.

We'll consider five verbs from each of the conjugations, as well as seven irregular verbs.

First Conjugation

Consider

• amō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum - to love

• vocō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum - to call

• laudō, -ārē, -āvī, -ātum - to praise

• spectō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum - to look at

• parō, -āre, -āvī -ātum - to prepare

Observe that the final a of the stem is sometimes long and sometimes short! Do not miss this detail!

Second Conjugation

Consider

• habeō, -ēre, -uī, -itum - to have, to hold

• videō, -ēre, vīdī, vīsum - to see

• moneō, -ēre, -uī, -itum - to advise, to warn

• teneō, -ēre, -uī, -tum - to hold

• timeō, -ēre, -uī - to fear (no passive, or past participle, hence only three forms)

Again, observe that the final e of the stem is sometimes long and sometimes short! Do not miss this detail!

Third Conjugation

Consider

• dūcō, -cere, -xī, ductum - to lead

• mittō, -ere, mīsi, missum - to send

• legō, -ere, lēgī, lēctum - to choose, to read

• scrībō, -bere, -psī, -ptum - to write, to draw

• vincō, -ere, vīcī, victum - to conquer

Fourth Conjugation

Consider

• audiō, -īre, -īvī, -ītum - to hear

• veniō, -īre, vēnī, ventum - to come

• sciō, -īre, -īvī, -ītum - to know

• sentiō, -īre, sēnsī, sēnsum - to feel

• aperiō, -īre, -uī, -tum - to open

Irregular Verbs

Unfortunately, Latin has its own bag of irregular verbs. We can't possibly list all of them now, but here's a few to memorise

Consider

• sum, esse, fuī - to be (the most important verb - you MUST memorise this)

• posse, -sse, -tuī - to be able

• eō, īre, īvī, itum - to go

• ferō, ferre, tulī, lātum - to carry

• volō, velle, voluī - to want

• nōlō, -le, -uī - to not want

• mālō, -le, -uī - to prefer

Next Steps

Memorise all of the verb forms here before moving onto the next verb form. Place all of these into Anki - once you've memorised them all this should be enough examples to be able to recognise the verb form in written text.