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The Present Tense

Seize the day and learn how to conjugate your Latin verb in the present tense. This video covers the present conjugation from start to finish for all conjugations.

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The Imperfect Tense

One of the most important and common of the tenses in Latin, the Imperfect Tense is more or less easy to recognize and form. This video covers its translation and formation so that any Latin student will be able to take a Latin verb and put it into the imperfect tense.

active voice indicative mood verbs

Participles in Latin

The participle in Latin is exceptionally important, even more so than it is in English. This video reviews the four participles of a standard verb: the present active, perfect passive, future active, and future passive (the gerundive), along with discussing how deponent verbs form their four participles.

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The Perfect Tense

Latin's Perfect Tense is as regular as a high-fiber diet. This video investigates the way to form this tense, which is either a regular (simple) past tense (I ate), or a completed present (I have eaten). Once you know a verb's principal parts and the endings -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt, the perfect is a breeze.

active voice indicative mood verbs

Irregular Verbs: sum, esse

The irregular verb sum, esse, is Latin's most important verb (not to mention the most common word in the entire language). But it's irregular, and that's a problem, right? Not if you understand how it got its irregularities. This video gives a good understanding of how sum, esse, works in the wild, and how it got its unusual forms.

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The Future Tense

The future is easy to understand, and a bit tricky to form, since it has a different approach for first and second conjugation verbs from those of the third and fourth. This video covers the basic formation and translation of verbs in the future tense in Latin.

active voice indicative mood verbs

The Pluperfect Tense

"Pluperfect" is a great pick up line: more than perfect. This video covers how Latin uses this "more than perfect" tense, what it looks like, and what exactly it means.

active voice indicative mood verbs

The Present Active Subjunctive

Let's learn how to conjugate a verb in the present active subjunctive. It's as easy as "we fear a liar" or "Wendy wears a giant diaper" (with, of course, a few irregulars). Keep in mind that the present subjunctive actually refers to actions happening at the same time as the main verb (unless it is the main verb, as it would be if it were a jussive, potential, optative, or deliberative).

active voice subjunctive mood verbs

Present Participles

The Latin present participle puts the NT in present. This video covers the formation and use of the present participle. It's not just all -ings (although that may be the easiest for you).

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Third Person Plural

This video shows how you can turn a sentence with a third person singular verb into one with a third person plural verb. It's not just about the verb - you have to make sure that the subject is also plural.

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The Future Perfect Tense

The Future Perfect Tense is the least used tense in Latin, but it's meaning and formation are quite logical. This video covers the meaning and conjugation of this rather uncommon tense.

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The Singular of the Present Tense

Not all verbs end in -t, and as you move from the first to second to third person, the ending changes with the subject. This video covers the idea of person in verbs and the singular present tense endings, -o, -s, and -t.

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Irregular Verbs: possum, posse

The irregular verb possum, posse, is related to that other big irregular verb, sum, esse. Which means that learning how to conjugate possum should be a piece of cake, and definitely not with the pot- calling the irregular verb.... Oh, never mind.

active voice indicative mood irregular verbs verbs

The Imperfect Active Subjunctive

This is the easiest of all Latin conjugations: take the 2nd principal part and just add your personal endings. No ifs, ands, or buts. No exceptions. This video looks a little bit deeper into how the imperfect active subjunctive is actually formed, and knowing what exactly makes up this conjugation will benefit you.

active voice subjunctive mood verbs

Irregular Verbs: Volo, Nolo, and Malo

The verb volo, velle, to want, is irregular in its conjugation and often takes an infinitive to complete its meaning. Related to volo are nolo, nolle, to not want, and malo, malle, to prefer, which also take infinitives that complete their meaning. This video covers the conjugation and use of these three verbs.

active voice indicative mood verbs

The Pluperfect Active Subjunctive

The pluperfect subjunctive is similar to the pluperfect indicative, only instead of using as your endings the imperfect indicative of sum, it's the imperfect subjunctive. Just don't forget to change the first e to an i!

active voice subjunctive mood verbs

The Perfect Active Subjunctive

The Perfect Active Subjunctive is an easy combination of the perfect stem, the infix -eri-, and the personal endings. But as you're forming it, keep in mind that it is only used with present tense main verbs to show an action that has been already completed.

active voice subjunctive mood verbs

Future Active Participles

The future active participle puts the U R in future. You will also find that this participle is used in the active periphrastic, a substitute for the future tense and also used in many situations where the future cannot happen.

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Deponent Verbs

Verbs in Latin come in two different voices, the active and the passive. But then there's this other set of verbs that don't seem to fit nicely into these categories. Deponent verbs are those that have passive forms, but we assign them active meanings in English: the look passive but are translated actively. This video discusses the concept of deponents with examples, and posits a possible explanation for the age old question: why do deponents even exist?

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  • LatinTutorial
  • Latin doesn't have to be hard, and with the help of online descriptions of complicated grammatical topics, I hope it isn't. If you're a teacher, feel free to use these videos in your class, either to flip the learning, or for review. If you're a student, learn as much as you can. Check out the about page for more information.