CHAPTER 10

           "Fourth Conjugation and -io Verbs of the Third:
          Present and Future Indicative, Present Imperative
                       and Active Infinitive"

REVIEW OF VERBS

Despite its epic-sized title, you'll find that there is really
not so much to learn in this chapter after all.  You already know
the present and future tenses of the first three conjugations,
and you know how to form their imperatives and infinitive.  Let's
have a look at what you know so far about these verbs.

1.   The Present Tense

     To form the present tense of verbs of all conjugations, you
     simply take the stem of the verb (which includes its stem
     vowel) and add the personal endings.

2.   The Future Tense

     To form the future tense of all conjugations, you take the
     stem of the verb, then you add on a tense sign for the
     future, and then you add the personal endings.  For first
     and second conjugation verbs, the tense sign of the future
     is "-be-"; for the third conjugation, the tense sign is
     "-a-/-e-".

3.   The Imperative Mood

     To form the imperative mood in the singular, you use just
     the stem (without any additional ending); for the plural you
     add the ending "-te" to the stem.  (The exceptions to this
     rule are the third conjugation verbs "duc" and three others
     you haven't seen yet which lose their stem vowel short "-e"
     in the singular.  Their plural imperatives, however,
     resurrect the stem vowel and are entirely regular:
     "ducite".)

4.   The Infinitive

     The infinitive is just the stem plus the ending "-re" for
     all conjugations.


I.   First Conjugation: amo, -are

             PRESENT         FUTURE       IMPERATIVE    INFINITIVE

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________

                                                       _____________

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________


II.  Second Conjugation: moneo, -ere

             PRESENT         FUTURE       IMPERATIVE    INFINITIVE

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________

                                                       _____________

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________

III. Third Conjugation: mitto, -ere

             PRESENT         FUTURE       IMPERATIVE    INFINITIVE

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________

                                                       _____________

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________


FOURTH CONJUGATION: PRESENT, FUTURE, IMPERATIVE, AND INFINITIVE

This is going to be easy.  Look at the entry for the Latin verb
"to hear":  "audio, -ire".  Take a close look.  What's the stem
vowel, and what, therefore, is the stem of the verb?  Remember,
you discover the stem of a verb by dropping the "-re" infinitive
ending.  What's left is the stem (including the stem vowel).  So
the stem of the verb "to hear" is "audi-".  And it's to this stem
that you add the various tense signs, personal endings, and so on
to conjugate the verb.  Four conjugation verbs are verbs whose
stem ends in a long "-i-".  So how are you going to form the
present tense of this verb?  The formula of the present tense --
as you know already -- is: stem plus personal endings.  (There is
no intervening tense sign for the present tense).  In other
words, fourth conjugation verbs are verbs having an "-i-" for its
stem vowel, and it follows precisely the same rules as the other
conjugations for forming the present tense, with the one
exception that in the third person plural, an extra "-u-" is
inserted between the stem vowel "-i-" and the "-nt" personal
ending.  How about the future tense?  The fourth conjugation uses
the same tense sign as the third conjugation for the future
tense, inserting the letters "-a/e-" between the stem and the
personal endings.  Because the "-i-" is long it "survives" the
addition of endings. How about the present imperative?  It's just
like the other conjugations: the stem alone in the singular, and
the stem plus "-te" for the plural.  And finally the present
infinitive?  The stem plus "-re".

     So you can see that the principal difference between the
fourth conjugation and the others you've seen so far is the
quality of the stem vowel.  Conjugate the fourth conjugation verb
"to come".

IV.  Fourth Conjugation venio, -ire:

             PRESENT         FUTURE       IMPERATIVE      INFINITIVE

     1   _____________    _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3    _____________   _____________


___________

     1    _____________   _____________

     2    _____________   _____________  _____________

     3   _____________    _____________


THIRD CONJUGATION i-STEM: PRESENT, FUTURE, IMPERATIVE AND
INFINITIVE

The third conjugation contains a subset of verbs, called
"i-stems", that seem to imitate the fourth conjugation.  The
third conjugation, as you know, contains verbs whose stem vowel
is short "-e-".  The short "-e-" is almost entirely hidden in the
conjugation of the verbs because it changes to a short "-i-" or
short "-u-" before the personal endings in the present tense.
Still it follows all the same rules as the other verbs when
deriving its different forms.  Both the i-stem and non i-stem
third conjugation verbs have the stem vowel short "-e-" -- that's
why they're both third conjugation verbs.  But the "i-stem" third
conjugation verbs insert an extra "-i-" in some places in their
conjugation.  These places are really quite easy to remember, if
you know fourth conjugation verbs:  a third conjugation "i-stem"
verb inserts an extra "i" everywhere a fourth conjugation verb
has an "-i-".  In fact, you might want to think of a third
conjugation "i-stem" verb as a failed fourth conjugation verb --
as a verb which "wants" to be fourth.  Here's the dictionary
entry form many 3rd conjugation i-stem verbs.  Notice the extra
"-i-" in the first entry, and the short "-e-" of the infinitive
in the second:

                          capio, -ere
                          rapio,     -ere
                          cupio, -ere
                          facio, -ere
                          fugio, -ere

     Let's have a closer look at all this.  Write out the present
tense of the following verbs.  Remember, a third i-stem verb has
an extra "-i-" every where there's an "-i-" in the fourth
conjugation.

          THIRD (non i-stem)        FOURTH            THIRD i-STEM

            mitto, -ere           venio, -ire          capio, -ere

1st        _______________      _______________      _______________

2nd        _______________      _______________      _______________

3rd        _______________      _______________      _______________


1st        _______________      _______________      _______________

2nd        _______________      _______________      _______________

3rd        _______________      _______________      _______________

As you can see, the fourth and third i-stem verbs look identical.
But there is a difference.  Go back and put in the long marks
over the stem vowel long "-i-" of "venio".  The "-i-" is long in
the second person singular and plural, and in the first person
plural.  Now compare the forms of "venio" with those of "capio"
-- you can see the differences.  The "-i-" of a fourth
conjugation verb is long by nature and "wants" to stay long
wherever it can.  The stem vowel of a third conjugation verb is
short "-e-" which turns into short "-i-" or "-u-".  But it will
never become long "-i-" regardless of what ending is added to it.
Now, the difference between a short and long vowel may seem
rather subtle to us, but look again.  In Latin pronunciation, the
accent of a word falls on to the second to the last syllable if
the vowel in the syllable is long.  If it is short, then the
accent goes back to the third to the last syllable.  So, what's
the difference in the way these forms would have been pronounced?

                capmus    is pronounced   CAH peh muhs
                audimus   is pronounced   owh DEE muhs
Similarly
                captis    is pronounced   CAH peh tis
                auditis   is pronounced   owh DEE tis

So the difference for a Roman between these verbs in some the
forms would have been quite striking.

     What about the future tense of the third conjugation i-stem
verbs?  They look just like the fourth conjugation verbs: stem(i)
+ "a/e" + personal endings.

        THIRD (non i-stem)           FOURTH           THIRD i-STEM

             mitto, -ere           venio, -ire         capio, -ere

1st        _______________      _______________      _______________

2nd        _______________      _______________      _______________

3rd        _______________      _______________      _______________


1st        _______________      _______________      _______________

2nd        _______________      _______________      _______________

3rd        _______________      _______________      _______________

     Now let's consider the imperative mood.  In this case, there
is no difference at all between the third i-stem verbs and the
third non i-stems.  And why should there be?  They both have the
same stem vowel: short "-e-".

        THIRD (non i-stem)           FOURTH           THIRD i-STEM

             mitto, -ere           venio, -ire         capio, -ere

SINGULAR     __________            __________          __________

PLURAL       __________            __________          __________

VOCABULARY PUZZLES

You must be more alert now when you're looking in the dictionary
for a form.  The third i-stem verbs and fourth conjugation verbs
look the same in the first person singular.  You mustn't decide
-- even unconsciously -- which conjugation a verb is before
you've checked with the second entry.  The second entry, as you
know, tells you the stem vowel -- and the stem vowel tells you
the conjugation.  Pay attention.

-ficio, -cipio       The short "-a-" of the verbs "facio" and
                     "capio" change (or "grade") to short "-i-" in
                     compound forms of the verb -- i.e., when a
                     prefix is attached.  It will save you a lot
                     of time if you learn to recognize the root
                     "facio" in the verbs "perficio", "conficio",
                     "interficio", etc. instead of having to treat
                     every derived form as an entirely new
                     vocabulary item.

01/05/93