Personal Endings

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163. Verbs have regular terminations1 for each of the three Persons, both singular and plural, active and passive.2

Verb personal endings present tense

a. The Perfect Indicative active has special terminations.3

Verb personal endings perfect indicative active

b. The Imperative has the following terminations.

Verb personal endings present and future imperative

Footnotes

1. Most of these seem to be fragments of old pronouns, whose signification is thus added to that of the verb stem (cf. § 36). But the ending -minī in the 2nd person plural of the passive is perhaps a remnant of the participial form found in the Greek -μενος, and has supplanted the proper form, which does not appear in Latin. The personal ending -nt is probably connected with the participial nt- (Nominative -ns).

2. The Passive is an old Middle Voice, peculiar to the Italic and Celtic languages, and of uncertain origin.

3. Of these terminations is not a personal ending, but appears to represent an Indo-European tense-sign -ai of the Perfect Middle. In -is-tī and -is-tis, -tī and -tis are personal endings; for -is-, see § 169.c. Note. In -i-t and -i-mus, -t and -mus are personal endings, and i is of uncertain origin. Both -ērunt and -ēre are also of doubtful origin, but the former contains the personal ending -nt.

Suggested Citation

Meagan Ayer, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-947822-04-7. https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/personal-endings