Latin course for the Virtual School of Languages

Lesson 20: Davus lies

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Text
(Having returned home, Davus now has to explain to his master where he
had been all the time - and he tells an amazing tale:)
Modo Via Lata ibam, sed ecce: Gallus, vir firmus, me capessit et clamat:
"Quo vadis, furcifer?"
Ego trepido et: "Va-vado", inquam, "vadebam..."
Gallus autem: "Nunc vade mecum! Nisi vades, te traham!"
Ego a nonnullis viris auxilium peto, virique e Gallo quaerunt: "Quo puerum
ducere paras?"
Tum Gallus: "Fugitivus est, dominusque puerum suum repetit. Officia quidem
spernit, sed mox in agris laborabit!"
Statim viri rident et: "Pete ab aliis auxilium, et tu, Galle, trahe puerum! Vadite!"
Cedebam igitur cum Gallo, diuque me trahebat; ego autem a deis auxilium
petebam - et ecce: Evado, ad dominum meum propero, cunctisque deis
gratus sum!
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Reading vocabulary you needn't learn:
Via Lata (Ablative): on the Via Lata (a street in Rome)
furcifer: rascal
fugitivus: slave who fled


Vocabulary

quaerere

to seek; examine; ask; obtain

Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it.	

Grammar
So far, you have learned about three forms of verbs: those of the A-Conjugation 
ending in -are, those of the E-Conjugation ending in -ere and
irregular ones (like esse or ire). There is no difference to talk about between verbs
ending in -are like vocare and verbs ending in -ere like sedere, except that the -ao
for the first person singular of verbs ending in -are is contracted to -o. In this lesson,
you will learn about a third type however, verbs of the Consonantal Conjugation. It
is called the Consonantal Conjugation because there really is no sound between the
last consonant of the stem and the infinitive ending -re. Since these words would be
hard to pronounce without any vowel in between, the Romans later added vowels 
that are very short. Unfortunately, that means these verbs act a bit different from those
you know. 

First of all, I'll conjugate one in the present tense and give you verbs of the A-Conjugation
and the E-Conjugation for comparison:
ducere		vocare		sedere
duc-o		voc-o		sede-o
duc-i-s		voca-s		sede-s
duc-i-t		voca-t		sede-t
duc-i-mus	voca-mus	sede-mus
duc-i-tis	voca-tis	sede-tis
duc-u-nt	voca-nt	sede-nt

Imperative: Duc(e)! Voca! Sede!
                  Ducite! Vocate! Sedete!

Note: the final e in the singular imperative of ducere and dicere, as well as two verbs that
you don't yet know (facere and ferre) is normally dropped.

Now the past tense: the extra vowel -e- is placed between verb stem and the past tense
sign -ba- with the personal endings, so that the verb looks like it's from the E-Conjugation.
Examples: duc-e-ba-m, pet-e-ba-tis, quaer-e-ba-s.

The future tense: instead of adding -bo, -bi- or -bunt, the future form of verbs of the
Consonantal Conjugation is formed by changing the extra vowel to e. Since there is no
extra vowel in the first person singular, the -o is changed into -am instead (like in the past
tense). Compare the future forms of "ducere" with the present ones above:
duc-am, duc-e-s, duc-e-t, duc-e-mus, duc-e-tis, duc-e-nt. 

If you didn't know that ducere was a verb of the Consonantal Conjugation, you'd assume
that the form "ducet"(he/she will lead) was the present tense, like "videt"(he/she sees). So
it's useful to memorise which words are from the E-Conjugation and which ones are from
the Consonantal Conjugation. All verbs you have learnt so far, except those in -are of course,
are from the E-Conjugation. From now on, I'll indicate verbs of the E-Conjugation in the 
vocabulary list by placing a hat (^, also called circumflex accent) on the last e before the 
infinitive ending -re. That indicates that the e is not an extra vowel but a long e. Example: 
you'll see "vidêre" because videre is of the E-Conjugation, but "ducere" doesn't get an 
accent because the e is short, it's a verb of the Consonantal Conjugation.
Note that you won't get this help in the texts, because in original texts and most modern
prints you don't have it either.

You now know everything there is to know about the A-, E- and Consonantal Conjugation
in the present tense. You might want to print this card, which shows you all the present tense
endings at once. With this card, you can revise the conjugations everywhere you go.


Exercise
Create the equivalent form of petere for each of these words:
imus - valeo - audent - imminebunt - abundabat - praedicabo - 
obtinebitis - habitate - liberat - terrebimus - implere -
i - regnant - adiuvabunt - vitabit - negabant

Exercise answers:
petimus - peto - petunt - petent - petebat - petam
petetis - petite - petit - petemus - petere -
pete - petunt - petent - petet - petebant