2.12 Present Tense: Fourth Conjugation — Epoché
What you will be able to do Conjugate audiō through all six persons of the present. Lay all four conjugations out on one page and say what distinguishes each. Identify the conjugation of an unfamiliar verb from its dictionary entry alone. Tell a fourth-conjugation verb from a third-conjugation -iō verb. Read sentences like Omnia hic sunt. [41] — They've got everything here! — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 2.11 — the third conjugation. The fourth conjugation is small, regular, and almost identical to the -iō type of the third. Once it is on the page, all four families are in place, and the second half of this lesson puts them side by side. From here to the end of the phase the verbs get new tenses rather than new families, so this is a good place to stop and see the whole shape. The table Person Fourth Third - iō , for comparison 1st singular audiō I hear capiō I take 2nd singular audīs capis 3rd singular audit capit 1st plural audīmus capimus 2nd plural audītis capitis 3rd plural audiunt capiunt Infinitive audīre , with a long ī — and that is the difference. The fourth conjugation has a genuine long stem vowel; the third -iō type has a short one. Now all four on one page, third person singular and plural plus the infinitive, which is all you need to identify any Latin verb. Conjugation Infinitive 3rd sg / 3rd pl first — stem in ā amāre amat / amant second — stem in ē monēre monet / monent third — consonant stem regere regit / regunt third -iō capere capit / capiunt fourth — stem in ī audīre audit / audiunt How to read the table The infinitive identifies the family, and only the infinitive. Look down the middle column: -āre , -ēre , -ere , -ere , -īre . Four distinct endings for five patterns, and the two that share an ending — the third and the third -iō — are told apart by the first person singular. So the dictionary's first two forms together always give a unique answer: If the entry is then it is -ō, -āre first -eō, -ēre second -ō, -ere third, consonant stem -iō, -ere third, -iō type -iō, -īre fourth The third singular is the treacherous form. audit and capit are the same shape, and so are monet and — for a reader who does not know the verb — nothing else. The long vowel of the fourth conjugation shortens before final -t , exactly as in the first and second, so the one place the families are most alike is the form you meet most often. There is no way round this except knowing your verbs, which is what the Vocabulary volume is for. The third plural is the useful form. Look at it again: amant , monent , regunt , capiunt , audiunt . Five distinct shapes. If you are trying to work out the conjugation of a verb from a sentence rather than from a dictionary, the third person plural is the form that tells you most. The fourth conjugation is small and coherent. Its members are mostly verbs of perception and motion: audiō hear, sentiō feel, sciō know, nesciō not know, veniō come, inveniō find, dormiō sleep, pūniō punish, mūniō fortify, fīniō finish, aperiō open. You have already met four of those in earlier lessons without being told which family they were in. A remark on the whole system, now that it is visible. The four conjugations are not four sets of endings; they are one set of endings on four kinds of stem . The endings -ō -s -t -mus -tis -nt have not changed once in seven lessons, and they will not change for the rest of the active indicative. Everything that looks like variety is the stem vowel: long ā , long ē , nothing, short i , long ī . Holding that in mind is the difference between memorising four tables and understanding one. Seen in real Latin Latin English The verb and its family Omnia scio. [1] I know everything. sciō fourth; omnia neuter plural accusative Scio quod nescio. [2] I know that I do not know. two fourth-conjugation verbs, one negative Scio ubi sit. [3] I know where she is. sit is a subjunctive — second phase Nemo venit. [4] Nobody came. venit — present or perfect, and only context decides Quis venit? [5] Who's coming? the same form read as a present Domum venit. [6] He's come home. domum accusative of motion — no preposition Mecum venit. [7] He came with me. mēcum — the preposition stuck on the end Nemo mecum venit. [8] No one is coming with me. the same, negated Nomen tuum verum scio. [9] I know your real name. sciō with a three-word neuter object Scio me esse. [10] I am aware that I exist. accusative plus infinitive again The fourth and fifth are the honest difficulty of this conjugation, and it is worth meeting now rather than later. venit is both the present "he comes" and the perfect "he came", and the only difference in classical Latin is the length of the e : venit against vēnit . Since no text prints the macron, the reader decides from the context. You met this pair in lesson 0.2 as a minimal pair for vowel length; here it is doing its real job, and you can see why that lesson insisted the distinction was not decorative. The seventh sentence shows a small oddity worth knowing. mēcum is cum + mē , written as one word with the preposition after the pronoun. Latin does this with the personal pronouns only: mēcum , tēcum , nōbīscum , vōbīscum , sēcum . It is the phrase behind the liturgical Dominus vōbīscum . New words Word (dictionary form) Meaning Note audiō la I hear; I listen to; I obey Part of speech verb, 4th conjugation ( audīre, audīvī, audītum ) How it differs from English the third sense is why obedient and audience share a root veniō la I come, arrive Part of speech verb, 4th conjugation ( venīre, vēnī, ventum ) How it differs from English present venit against perfect vēnit — one macron Nemo venit. Nobody came. Quis venit? Who's coming? sentiō la I feel, perceive; I think, hold an opinion Part of speech verb, 4th conjugation ( sentīre, sēnsī, sēnsum ) How it differs from English the second sense is the source of sēnsus in lesson 1.6 dormiō la I sleep Part of speech verb, 4th conjugation ( dormīre, dormīvī, dormītum ) How it differs f