# past tense perfect endings



## labruja24601

Hello!
I was wondering if anyone would know some way to remember the past tense perfect endings for verbs in Latin, ex. bibit, dormit,  etc.?  I am fairly new to Latin, and after learning some of the endings in class today (with no way to memorize them) my head is spinning!    Any help would be much appreciated!  Thank you!


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## Kael

I'm not sure what you mean by "past tense perfect," but to remember the conjugation of verbs like dormit, just memorize this:


dorm-i           dorm-imus
dorm-isti     dorm-istis
dorm-it         dorm-erunt


It kind of rhymes when you think about it!


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## wonderment

Hola labruja,

I don’t know how to sugar-coat this—there’s no short-cut or easy way to learn Latin.  You just have to buckle down and actively memorize the paradigms. Make flash cards, and recite the verb conjugations aloud and repetitively; this will help fix them in memory. Try to think of them as incantations to ward off your dizzy spells.  

The back of your textbook should have all the paradigms for noun declensions and verb conjugations. You can also find them at this link. And this link has a useful verb conjugator. 

(The perfect active endings Kael gave you are correct, but the verb stem should be _dormiv-_, from the 3rd principal part.) 

Vale!


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## Amada

vidi
vidisti
vidit
vid*i*mus
vidistis
vid*e*runt

Past tense of vid*e*re (to see)
One more thing to remember: the accent! On this PC I don't have Latin fonts to write correctly the "quantity of vocals" (long or short).


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## Flaminius

Hello Amada,
Like you said, one should pay a lot of attention to the length of vowels in Latin.  Regarding perfect forms, some verbs (just like this _videre_) have the perfect stems that are only different from the present stems by the length of the vowels.

Here are the perfect forms of _videre_ (long vowels are marked by macron):
vīdī
vīdistī
vīdit
vīdimus
vīdistis
vīdērunt (vīdere)


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## labruja24601

Thank you so much!  I really appreciate all your help!  Hopefully my 'dizzy spells' will go away soon!  Thanks again!!


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## radagasty

wonderment said:


> (The perfect active endings Kael gave you are correct, but the verb stem should be _dormiv-_, from the 3rd principal part.)


 
Of course, the forms _dormisti,_ _dormistis _and perhaps even _dormierunt_ are quite acceptable, and arguably more common than the unsyncopated forms by the time of Quintilian.


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## wonderment

radagasty said:


> Of course, the forms _dormisti,_ _dormistis _and perhaps even _dormierunt_ are quite acceptable, and arguably more common than the unsyncopated forms by the time of Quintilian.


Thanks for reminding me--I completely forgot about syncopation. 

Hi again, labruja,

You already how the basic rule for forming the perfect active indicative: add the perfect endings (-ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt) to the perfect stem (which is the 3rd principal part minus the –ī). 

In addition to these regular forms, there are also syncopated or contracted forms. Perfect stems that end in -v- (like dormiv-) may be contracted when inflected. When this happens, the –vi- drops out. For example: dormīvistī --> dormīstī, dormīvimus --> dormīmus. Be careful with the 3rd person plural; it contracts from -ērunt -->  -ēre, as in dormivērunt --> dormivēre. Dormierunt is also possible.

ok, I’m starting to have dizzy spells myself.  To be honest, I don’t think you should stress out about syncopation at this early stage in your study of Latin. Focus on memorizing the regular forms, and just be aware that syncopated forms exist. You will learn more about these alternate forms when you encounter them in your reading of real Latin. 

Vale


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## labruja24601

Hello!
Thank you everyone for your help!  I really appreciate it and it's nice of you all to help me!

Wonderment:  I'm glad I'm not the only one with dizzy spells!    Thanks for your help, I think I am beginning to understand some of the endings!  Yay!  

labruja


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## radagasty

wonderment said:


> In addition to these regular forms, there are also syncopated or contracted forms. Perfect stems that end in -v- (like dormiv-) may be contracted when inflected. When this happens, the –vi- drops out. For example: dormīvistī --> dormīstī, dormīvimus --> dormīmus. Be careful with the 3rd person plural; it contracts from -ērunt --> -ēre, as in dormivērunt --> dormivēre. Dormierunt is also possible.


 
Note, though, that indiscriminate syncopation is generally disallowed. -_vi_- is regularly dropped from the perfect tenses (i.e., perfect, pluperfect & future perfect) when an _s_ follows, e.g., _dormīvistī_ --> _dormīstī_, but a contraction like _dormīvimus_ --> _dormīmus_, whilst attested, occurs only in verse, where it is very rare. Indeed, I would usually interpret _dormīmus_ as the present and not the perfect. Forms where only the -_v-_ is dropped are also found in verse, e.g., _dormīvit_ --> _dormiit_.


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## wonderment

radagasty said:


> Note, though, that indiscriminate syncopation is generally disallowed. -_vi_- is regularly dropped from the perfect tenses (i.e., perfect, pluperfect & future perfect) when an _s_ follows, e.g., _dorm?vist?_ --> _dorm?st?_, but a contraction like _dorm?vimus_ --> _dorm?mus_, whilst attested, occurs only in verse, where it is very rare. Indeed, I would usually interpret _dorm?mus_ as the present and not the perfect. Forms where only the -_v-_ is dropped are also found in verse, e.g., _dorm?vit_ --> _dormiit_.



Thanks again for the correction. Let me state the rule for syncopation more accurately this time by citing directly from Bennett’s _New Latin Grammar_:

Perfects in *-āvī*, *-ēvī*, and *-īvī*, with the forms derived from them, often drop the *ve* or *vi* before endings beginning with *r* or *s*. So also *nōvī* (from *nōscō*) and the compounds of *mōvī* (from *moveō*). Thus:—

amāvistī --> amāstī
amāvisse --> amāsse
amāvērunt --> amārunt
amāverim --> amārim
amāveram --> amāram
amāverō --> amārō
nōvistī --> nōstī
nōvisse --> nōsse
dēlēvistī --> dēlēstī
dēlēvisse --> dēlēsse
dēlēvērunt --> dēlērunt
dēlēverim --> dēlērim
dēlēveram --> dēlēram
dēlēverō --> dēlērō
nōverim --> nōrim
nōveram --> nōram
audīvisse --> audīsse

*labruja*, are you still with us? Hope so  Isn’t Latin endlessly fascinating? My advice in post #8 still holds. Hang in there, and don’t hesitate to ask questions when you’re confused about anything. Here’s another useful webpage on the Perfect Tenses.


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