I received this question:
I recently started Visual Latin lesson 40…and am very confused over the verbs and their conjugations. While I’m rather rusty on the endings, I could identify a verb if I had all four of the principal parts, and from there sort it into its proper conjugation. However, how would I go about identifying just a random verb that I come across while reading? And some of the conjugations have very similar endings, what happens when you figure out that the verb has the ending -ere in the second principal part, but you don’t know the endings from there. How would you figure out if it is a second or third conjugation? Obviously, you can go the simple route and just Google it…but I like knowing how things work (and the Romans didn’t’ have Google). Latin isn’t exactly something I’m good at, so it’s quite possible that I’m missing something or not making a particular connection.
Here is my reply:
I am sorry you are struggling with this. I get it. I’ve been teaching Latin for a long time, and I still get confused on verb endings. It’s infuriating.
Fortunately, there is help.
Check this site out: http://latin-dictionary.net/
You can plug a verb in, and this site will give you the four principle parts… and it will tell you what conjugation the verb is in.
Here are some examples:
- Ambulo http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/2964/ambulo-ambulare-ambulavi-ambulatus
- Moneo: http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/27191/moneo-monere-monui-monitus
- Curro: http://latin-dictionary.net/search/latin/curro
- Audio: http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/5536/audio-audire-audivi-auditus
I picked one verb from each of the conjugations.
There are some other tricks, too. I am going to try to create a video for you tomorrow when I am back in my office. I will send a link when it is up, or you can just take a look at my blog sometime this weekend. The video should be up in a day or so. My blog is on this page: https://dwanethomas.com/
Let me know if you need more help!
Dwane
