{"id":714,"date":"2016-07-29T20:53:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-30T00:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/?post_type=chapter&p=714"},"modified":"2016-08-22T14:14:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T18:14:23","slug":"%c2%a762-the-two-keys-to-the-latin-verb","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/chapter\/%c2%a762-the-two-keys-to-the-latin-verb\/","title":{"raw":"\u00a762. The Two Keys to the Latin Verb","rendered":"\u00a762. The Two Keys to the Latin Verb"},"content":{"raw":"

From other language study, you are familiar with the concept of PRINCIPAL PARTS\u2014that bare-bones set of information that enables us to predict how any given verb will perform. In French, for instance, if you want to control the verb that means \u201csee,\u201d you have to know the forms \u201cvoir, voyant, vu, je vois, je vis.\u201d <\/i>A foreigner learning English can solve the mysteries of our verb by learning the three forms \u201csee, saw, seen.\u201d <\/i>For many centuries, Latin verbs have been learned by means of FOUR principal parts; in this case, video<\/b>, videre<\/b>, vidi<\/b>, visus<\/b>. You\u2019re perhaps aware that our word video<\/i> is the Latin for \u201cI see\u201d\u2014though there may be more people alive today, using that word in English without knowing its source, than all the speakers of Latin in human history. If you have had any kind of a close encounter with the ancient world, you will know that Julius Caesar is supposed to have said, \u201cveni<\/b>, vidi<\/b>, vici<\/b>\u201d (\u201cI came, I saw, I conquered\u201d); therefore vidi<\/b> must mean \u201cI saw.\u201d But is there any practical reason for us to learn video<\/b> and vidi<\/b>? With very few exceptions\u2014video<\/i> (\u201cI see\u201d), audio<\/i> (\u201cI hear\u201d), and credo<\/i> (\u201cI believe\u201d)\u20141st person Latin verb forms are not reflected in English. Accordingly, of the four traditional principal parts, we need only concern ourselves with two: vid<\/b>e\u0304\u0301<\/strong><\/b>re<\/b>, the PRESENT INFINITIVE<\/strong><\/b> (\u201cto see\u201d), and visus<\/b>, the PERFECT PARTICIPLE<\/strong><\/b> (\u201cseen\u201d). These two forms are the source of countless English words. From videre<\/b>, the present infinitive, come such derivatives as provide<\/i> and evident<\/i>; from visus<\/b>, the perfect participle, come vision<\/i>, visible<\/i>, visual<\/i>, proviso<\/i>, and the like. Because the one Latin form cannot be predicted from the other, we must learn them both as vocabulary items. That is not a hard task, however, given their clear resemblance to English derivatives; and it is well worth the effort in terms of the increase it will bring to your understanding of English vocabulary.<\/p>\r\n

For the sake of convenience, we shall be using the terms PRESENT INFINITIVE and PERFECT PARTICIPLE, a verbal adjective that is often called the \u201cpast participle\u201d by English lexicographers. Although you should be familiar with the labels, there is no reason to know how the two forms were used grammatically in Latin. In fact, all we really need are the present base (or stem) vid(e)<\/b>- and the perfect base (or stem) vis-<\/b>. For most verbs, the present base is obtained by dropping the -re<\/b> of the infinitive, and the perfect base by dropping the -us <\/b>ending of the perfect participle. Still, it is probably easier and more memorable to learn them as videre <\/b>\/ visus<\/b> than as vid(e)- <\/b>\/ vis-<\/b>.<\/p>\r\n

If you want an almost infallible trick for remembering any Latin perfect participle, THINK OF AN ENGLISH DERIVATIVE IN -ION<\/em><\/i>. By firmly associating vis-us <\/b>with the English word vis-ion<\/i>, you can learn it without any painful effort of memory.<\/p>","rendered":"

From other language study, you are familiar with the concept of PRINCIPAL PARTS\u2014that bare-bones set of information that enables us to predict how any given verb will perform. In French, for instance, if you want to control the verb that means \u201csee,\u201d you have to know the forms \u201cvoir, voyant, vu, je vois, je vis.\u201d <\/i>A foreigner learning English can solve the mysteries of our verb by learning the three forms \u201csee, saw, seen.\u201d <\/i>For many centuries, Latin verbs have been learned by means of FOUR principal parts; in this case, video<\/b>, videre<\/b>, vidi<\/b>, visus<\/b>. You\u2019re perhaps aware that our word video<\/i> is the Latin for \u201cI see\u201d\u2014though there may be more people alive today, using that word in English without knowing its source, than all the speakers of Latin in human history. If you have had any kind of a close encounter with the ancient world, you will know that Julius Caesar is supposed to have said, \u201cveni<\/b>, vidi<\/b>, vici<\/b>\u201d (\u201cI came, I saw, I conquered\u201d); therefore vidi<\/b> must mean \u201cI saw.\u201d But is there any practical reason for us to learn video<\/b> and vidi<\/b>? With very few exceptions\u2014video<\/i> (\u201cI see\u201d), audio<\/i> (\u201cI hear\u201d), and credo<\/i> (\u201cI believe\u201d)\u20141st person Latin verb forms are not reflected in English. Accordingly, of the four traditional principal parts, we need only concern ourselves with two: vid<\/b>e\u0304\u0301<\/strong><\/b>re<\/b>, the PRESENT INFINITIVE<\/strong><\/b> (\u201cto see\u201d), and visus<\/b>, the PERFECT PARTICIPLE<\/strong><\/b> (\u201cseen\u201d). These two forms are the source of countless English words. From videre<\/b>, the present infinitive, come such derivatives as provide<\/i> and evident<\/i>; from visus<\/b>, the perfect participle, come vision<\/i>, visible<\/i>, visual<\/i>, proviso<\/i>, and the like. Because the one Latin form cannot be predicted from the other, we must learn them both as vocabulary items. That is not a hard task, however, given their clear resemblance to English derivatives; and it is well worth the effort in terms of the increase it will bring to your understanding of English vocabulary.<\/p>\n

For the sake of convenience, we shall be using the terms PRESENT INFINITIVE and PERFECT PARTICIPLE, a verbal adjective that is often called the \u201cpast participle\u201d by English lexicographers. Although you should be familiar with the labels, there is no reason to know how the two forms were used grammatically in Latin. In fact, all we really need are the present base (or stem) vid(e)<\/b>– and the perfect base (or stem) vis-<\/b>. For most verbs, the present base is obtained by dropping the -re<\/b> of the infinitive, and the perfect base by dropping the -us <\/b>ending of the perfect participle. Still, it is probably easier and more memorable to learn them as videre <\/b>\/ visus<\/b> than as vid(e)- <\/b>\/ vis-<\/b>.<\/p>\n

If you want an almost infallible trick for remembering any Latin perfect participle, THINK OF AN ENGLISH DERIVATIVE IN -ION<\/em><\/i>. By firmly associating vis-us <\/b>with the English word vis-ion<\/i>, you can learn it without any painful effort of memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"Chapter 9: The Latin Verb System","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[52],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-714","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":585,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1655,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/714\/revisions\/1655"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/585"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/714\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}