The main Latin tenses can be divided into two groups: the present system (also known as tenses), consisting of the present, future, and imperfect; and the perfect system (also known as tenses), consisting of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect.Kennedy (1962), p. 56.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 64.Allen & Greenough (1903), p. 72.Haverling (2012), p. 340.
To these six main tenses can be added various periphrastic or compound tenses, such as 'I am going to lead', or 'I have led'.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), pp. 88, 160. However, these are less commonly used than the six basic tenses.
In addition to the six main tenses of the indicative mood, there are four main tenses in the subjunctive mood and two in the imperative mood. Participles in Latin have three tenses (present, perfect, and future). The infinitive has two main tenses (present and perfect) as well as a number of periphrastic tenses used in reported speech.
Latin tenses do not have exact English equivalents, so that often the same tense can be translated in different ways depending on its context: for example, can be translated as 'I lead', 'I am leading' or 'I led', and can be translated as 'I led' and 'I have led'.cf. Wigtil (1992). In some cases Latin makes a distinction which is not made in English: for example, imperfect and perfect both mean 'I was' in English, but they differ in Latin.
Overview The six main tenses Active voice The six main indicative tenses in classical Latin are the following, using the verb as an example:Kennedy (1962), pp. 56–57, 68–69.
(a) tenses Present: 'I lead, I am leading' Future: 'I will lead, I will be leading' Imperfect: 'I was leading, I used to lead'
(b) tenses Perfect: 'I led, I have led' Future Perfect: 'I will have led' Pluperfect: 'I had led'
The three tenses are made using a different stem (in this case dūx- instead of dūc-).Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 65. The perfect stem can usually not be guessed, and must be learnt from a dictionary.
Passive voice There are also indicative paradigms for all six tenses in the passive voice, as follows:
(a) tenses Present: 'I am led, I am being led' Future: 'I will be led, I will be being led' Imperfect: 'I was being led, I used to be led'
(b) tenses Perfect: () 'I was led, I have been led' Future Perfect: () 'I will have been led' Pluperfect: () 'I had been led'
The system has simple tenses in the active () and compound tenses in the passive (). The periphrasis for the perfectum passive tenses is made of a passive perfect participle (, which changes according to the gender and number of the subject) combined with different tenses of the verb 'I am'. The forms in brackets were rare in Classical Latin, but became more common in post-classical times. In some cases, during the classical period, a difference in meaning between the two forms can be discerned.de Melo (2012), pp. 89, 93.
The order of the words in a compound tense can be inverted, e.g. etc. If the negative adverb 'not' is added, various orders are possible, e.g. 'he did not dare' (the first is the most common).
Deponent verbs Certain verbs in Latin have the form of a passive verb, but the meaning is active. These verbs are known as deponent verbs.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), pp. 64–65; Kennedy (1962), pp. 105–106. An example is the verb 'I follow':
(a) tenses Present: 'I follow, I am following' Future: 'I will follow, I will be following' Imperfect: 'I was following, I used to follow'
(b) tenses Perfect: () 'I followed, I have followed' Future Perfect: () 'I will have followed' Pluperfect: () 'I had followed'
Periphrastic tenses The so called "periphrastic conjugation" is formed from the future participle (, etc., depending on the gender and number of the subject) combined with various tenses of the verb 'I am'.Kennedy (1962), p. 61; Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 88. For example:
'I am going to lead, I am planning to lead' 'I will be going to lead' 'I was going to lead, I was planning to lead' 'I was going to lead'
and so on. Examples are given below.
A passive periphrastic conjugation can be made using a gerundive instead of a participle. This usually has a necessitative meaning such as 'need' or 'have to':Gildersleeve & Lodge (1985), p. 88.
'I need to be led' 'I will need to be led' 'I needed to be led'
and so on. The gerundive also changes according to the number and gender of the subject ( etc.
A third type of periphrastic conjugation, which eventually developed into the perfect or pluperfect tenses in Romance languages such as Italian and French, is formed from the accusative perfect participle ( etc., according to the gender and number of the object) combined with various tenses of 'I have', for example:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 160; Haverling (2012), p. 373.
'I have led' 'I will have led' 'I had led'
Archaic forms Occasionally, especially in poetry, there occur archaic forms which don't conform to the usual patterns of tense formation. These include futures or future perfects with -s- such as 'I will have ordered', 'I will ensure'; subjunctives with -s- such as 'I would dare', 'I would do'; archaic subjunctives such as , or ;Lewis & Short, Latin Dictionary, s.v. sum, do. infinitives in -ier or -assere such as or ; shortened perfect or pluperfect forms such as (for ), (for ), (for ) etc. These are discussed below.
Indicative Present Formation
The present tense of regular verbs is formed in different ways according to the conjugation of the verb. 1st conjugation: 'I love' () 2nd conjugation: 'I see' () 3rd conjugation (-ō): 'I lead' () 3rd conjugation (-iō): 'I capture' () 4th conjugation: 'I hear' ()
The six endings in brackets mean 'I, you (singular), he/she/it, we, you (plural), they' respectively. Thus means 'you (sg.) love', 'he/she/it loves' and so on.
Irregular verbs: I give' () 'I bear' () 'I go' () 'I want' () 'I am' () 'I am able' ()
Passive and deponent verbs: 1st conjugation: 'I am loved' () 2nd conjugation: 'I am seen, I seem' () 3rd conjugation (-ō): 'I am led' () 3rd conjugation (-iō): 'I am captured' () 4th conjugation: 'I am heard' ()
Meanings There is no distinction of aspect in the present tense: can mean 'I do (now)', 'I do (regularly), or 'I am doing'; that is, it can be perfective, habitual, or progressive in aspect. Other possible meanings in certain contexts are 'I have been doing', 'I did', and 'I was doing'.
Current situation
The present tense can refer to a current situation: (Cicero)Cicero, in Cat. 1.2. 'the Senate understands this; the Consul sees it; yet this man is still alive'
(Cicero)Cicero, Academica Pos. 2. 'perhaps you are telling the truth'
(Plautus)Plautus, Trinummus 1085. 'where is my son living currently?'
(Plautus)Plautus, Stichus 319. 'where are you coming from? what are you carrying? what are you hurrying for?'
Habitual
The present tense can also be used for habitual actions:
(Cicero)Cicero, Att. 5.1.3. 'I suffer these things every day'
General truths
The present, as in English, can also describe a general truth:Pinkster (1990), p. 224. (Catullus)Catullus, 5.1. 'suns can set and return again'
Perfective present
It can also be used performatively to describe an event which takes place at the moment of speaking or immediately after it: (Cicero)Cicero, pro Flacco 39. 'I come (I'll come) now to the testimony of the Dorylensians'
Perfect continuous meaning
The present can sometimes mean 'has been doing', referring to a situation that started in the past and is still continuing. In some sentences a length of time is given and the adverb 'now' is added:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), pp. 157, 159.
(Cicero)Cicero, Verr. 2.4.38. 'he has been living in Lilybaeum for many years now'
(Plautus)Plautus, Mostellaria 954. 'no one has been living here for six months now'
(Cicero)Cicero, Verr. 2.2.23. 'he has been a Roman citizen for a long time now'
The present tense can also be used in this meaning when combined with a temporal clause using :Woodcock (1959), p. 176. (Terence)Terence, Eun. 84. 'I've been trembling and shivering ever since I caught sight of her'
Sometimes the clause itself has the present tense:
(Martial)Martial, 6.21.7. 'ever since he has been (lit. 'is') mine, he has never harmed me with a mistress'
(Cicero)Cicero, Att. 2.11.1. 'I've been feeling completely out of touch ever since I've been in Formiae'
(Ovid)Ovid, Tris. 5.10.1. 'since I have been (lit. 'we are') in Pontus, the Danube has frozen over three times'
Another idiom is the following using the conjunction :Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 372. multī annī sunt cum in aere meō est (Cicero)Cicero, Fam. 15.14.1. 'he has owed me money for many years now' (lit. 'there are many years that he is in my bronze')
Historic present
The present tense is often used in narrative in a historic sense, referring to a past event, especially when the writer is describing an exciting moment in the story. This is known as the 'historic present': (Caesar)Caesar, B.C. 6.38. 'he sees the enemy threatening ... he immediately seizes weapons from those next to him ...'
According to Pinkster, the historic present is the most frequent tense used in narrative in both prose and poetry.
In Caesar when a verb is placed initially in the sentence, as in the first example above (), it is very frequently in the present tense.Devine, Andrew M. & Laurence D. Stephens (2006), Latin Word Order. Structured Meaning and Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 159.
Another situation where the use of the historic present is frequent is in utterance verbs, such as 'they give a pledge' or 'they beg'. More than half the historic presents in Caesar are of this kind.See Viti (2010).
In biographical writing, however, the perfect is used much more often than the present.Schlicher (1931), pp. 58–59.
Imperfect meaning
The present tense can replace not only the perfect tense, but also sometimes the imperfect tense:Pinkster (1990), p. 240. (Caesar)Caesar, B.G. 6.37.6. 'in the whole camp there is panic' (i.e. people were panicking)
After 'while', in a past context, the present indicative regularly has the meaning of an imperfect tense:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 157. (Ovid)Ovid, Met 4.55. 'while she was fleeing, her cloak () slipped from her back () and she left it behind'
But when is followed by an imperfect tense it usually has the meaning 'as long as'. The difference is that in this case the two actions are co-extensive:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 365. Ovid, Met 7.577. 'you could see them wandering half dead through the streets, as long as they had the strength to stand'
Potential meaning
Another idiom that can be mentioned is the phrase , which means 'it would take a long time' or 'it would be tedious'. It is frequently used by Cicero as well as other writers:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 168. (Nepos)Nepos, Hann. 5.4. 'it would be tedious to recount all the battles'
Future Formation
The future indicative has various endings depending on the verb. First conjugation verbs and and its compounds have a future ending in -bō (passive -bor); and its compounds have a future ending in -erō; other verbs have a future ending in -am (passive -ar):
1st conjugation: 'I will love' () 2nd conjugation: 'I will see' 3rd conjugation (-ō): 'I will lead' () 3rd conjugation (-iō): 'I will capture' () 4th conjugation: 'I will hear'
Irregular verbs: 'I will give' 'I will bear' 'I will go' 'I will want' 'I will be' () 'I will be able'
Passive and deponent verbs: 1st conjugation: 'I will be loved' () 2nd conjugation: 'I will be seen, I will seem' 3rd conjugation (-ō): 'I will be led' () 3rd conjugation (-iō): 'I will be captured' 4th conjugation: 'I will be heard'
A future meaning can also be expressed using a periphrastic future such as 'I am going to lead' (see below).
Meaning