# Latin/Lesson 8-Imperfect and Future

# Imperfect and Future constructs

Warning: Beyond the imperfect, this page is not entirely clear. Do not
use it beyond the basic imperfect if you are a first time Latin student.
See discussion for my thoughts on this.

## Imperfect Active Indicative

The imperfect is a construct like:

:   **I was seeing.**

In Latin it would look like this:

:   **Vidēbam.**

English has a similar construct called progressive past. Actions seem
incomplete, and so the imperfect label. For example, \"I was running,\"
\"We were sailing,\" \"They were calling.\" Note that \'to be\' is
always there. Latin, however, would sometimes use imperfect like simple
past; accordingly, \"We were sailing\" could be translated as \"We
sailed.\" Other translations of imperfect can be used to/kept such as
\"We used to sail/We kept sailing.\"

Regardless of language, the concept of an imperfect is important.
Imperfect is called imperfect for a reason - in Latin, the verb
\"perficere\" means to finish/complete, which is what perfect is from.
Thus, imperfect, in the grammatical sense, means not finished - that the
action could be or could not be completed. Perfect instead means it has
been finished - I saw. You have already seen, and it is now completed. I
was seeing implies that the action is not yet completed.

The perfect tense, which we will learn later, is a more immediate
reference to the past. The name, imperfect, helps you remember its use:
in situations where you can\'t say when an event started or ended or
happened, you must use the imperfect.

In situations where you can know when an event started or ended or
happened, use the perfect.

You conjugate the imperfect tense this way: verb + -bā- + personal
ending

The endings for imperfect are:

Sg.

1.  **-bam**
2.  **-bās**
3.  **-bat**

Pl.

1.  **-bāmus**
2.  **-bātis**
3.  **-bant**

Note that the only thing we add are ba + the personal endings (the same
as in the present tense) to the infinitive stem. This gives us the
imperfect conjugation.

Note that in third and fourth conjugations, you will have to form it
differently. There is \*no\* rule to explain this, it just is, although
there are memorization techniques that can help.

ven`<U>`{=html}i`</U>`{=html}re is 4th conjugation and is formed like:

:   veniēbam
:   veniēbās
:   veniēbat
:   veniēbāmus
:   veniēbātis
:   veniēbant

For third conjugation -iō stem verbs, the imperfect is like so: capere
(to capture or seize)

:   capiēbam
:   capiēbās
:   capiēbat
:   capiēbāmus
:   capiēbātis
:   capiēbant

Note that it is easiest to think of what the endings -ere and
`<U>`{=html}i`</U>`{=html}re lack. The imperfect -bā- + the personal
ending, which we can call the imperfect conjugation, must be prefixed by
-iē-.

A few examples:

:   **amābam** - **I was loving** (A-conjugation\--1st)
:   **monēbātis** - **You were warning \[object/personage\]** (of
    something negative) (Pl.) (2nd Conjugation)
:   **vincēbāmus** - *\'We were defeating* (3rd conjugation)
:   **capiēbant** - **They were catching** (short I-conjugation\--3rd
    conjugation)
:   **pellēbat** - **She/he/it was propelling** (drive something (not a
    vehicle), propel something) (consonantic conjugation)

(Wiki-reading tips: See discussion. Some of the above may be unclear,
however the clarifying \'\--\' and \'/\' indicate verification. We may
not know what the original author intended, but we know what
conjugations the examples are.)

## Future I, Active

Future active is a tense which, unsurprisingly, refers to something
which has not yet happened. The endings are fairly basic, and follow
fairly regular rules - however, the future endings used in 1st and 2nd
conjugation differ from the endings of 3rd, 3rd-iō, and 4th.

For example - \"amō, amāre\" (1st conjugation) would be

:   Amābō - I will love
:   Amābis - You will love
:   Amābit - He/She/It will love
:   Amaābimus - We will love
:   Amābitis - Y\'all will love
:   Amābunt - They will love

NOTE: 1st person singular and 3rd person plural use -bō and -bunt, not
-bi-.

NOTE: the B and the BIs - the distinguishing feature of future tense in
Latin.

With \"veniō, venīre\" (4th conjugation), however, the endings are
different. In future, this is what they look like:

:   Veniam - I will come
:   Veniēs - You will come
:   Veniet - He/She/It will come
:   Veniēmus - We will come
:   Veniētis - Y\'all will come
:   Venient - They will come

\[deleted paragraphs go here. deleted to maintain rigorous accuracy,
which we will go back to striving for.)

To clarify: ven`<U>`{=html}ī`</U>`{=html}re, veniō.. we know it is 4th
conjugation verb and if we look at its first person singular
conjugation, we see that it is an -iō verb, because the conjugation of
the first person singular is \"ven**i**o\". (an io category exists
within 3rd and fourth conjugations and is a more general concept which
we will briefly introduce here by using venire, venio as an example).

Let\'s first identify what we know.

We know it is 4th conjugation -io because it ends in
`<U>`{=html}ī`</U>`{=html}re, which tells us that it is 4th conjugation,
and io because its first person singular ends in io (venio). Because it
is -iō, we leave the -i- in. So, when we are asked (as all textbooks
should phrase these `<B>`{=html}new`</B>`{=html} questions):

**What are the steps to form the future 2nd person conjugation?**

We say:

1.  It is better to know more than you need: check the infinitive
    nominative singular, we now know that it is 4th conjugation io.
2.  We now know that we can form the stem: the stem is veni and can then
    add a personal ending\--leaving in the i. We leave in the i because
    it is io. Because it looks weird, we never leave the i in the future
    perfect.

What is the form for venīre, in the future tense, in the 2nd person?

The answer is veniēs.

## Future conjugation

Example: **I will love**:

:   **amā*b*ō**

The table at the end of this page tries to summarize the future tense,
with both sets of personal endings. As the warning notes, this summary
may confu panda

As an aid to your understanding, this table only applies to the future
tense. Do not assume the table is displaying a pattern that is somehow
applicable to all of Latin.

(Wiki-reading-tip: This is why they are in the future section, and were
not discussed before.)

The A- and the E- conjugation are (relatively) straight-forward. The
others are more advanced, and as the warning notes, could confuse a
first-time student. Commercial textbooks probably explain it better at
this point, although laying their explanation in a table like the one
below is well-advised. Leave items marked with a ? in until issues are
resolved.

Take a look at the following table:

  ----------------- ------------------ ---------------------------------- --------------- -----------------
  **A**             **E**              \'\'\'long I (vincere/3rd conj.)   **short I**     **Consonantic**
  amā-**b**o        monē-**b**o        vinc-**a**m                        capi-**a**m     pell-**a**m
  ama-**b***i*s     mone-**b***i*s     vinc-**e**s                        capi-**e**s     pell-**e**s
  ama-**b***i*t     mone-**b***i*t     vinc-**e**t                        capi-**e**t     pell-**e**t
  ama-**b***i*mus   mone-**b***i*mus   vinc-**e**mus                      capi-**e**mus   pell-**e**mus
  ama-**b***i*tis   mone-**b***i*tis   vinc-**e**tis                      capi-**e**tis   pell-**e**tis
  ama-**b***u*nt    mone-**b***u*nt    vinc-**e**nt                       capi-**e**nt    pell-**e**nt
  ----------------- ------------------ ---------------------------------- --------------- -----------------

The vocabulary mostly consists of verbs, and can easily be looked up in
a dictionary. We will give a limited translation below, and the rest,
for those who are particularly adept at language learning, can be
learned through immersion.

:   capere (3rd conjugation\--short ere): to seize, metaphorically or
    literally \[see dictionary for full explanation\]
:   amare (first conjugation -are): to love

## Exercises

