Salvete Omnes,

I hope you have reviewed the previous blog posts for basic noun and verbs as well as some prepositions:

• Verbs 
• Nouns Part I 
• Nouns Part II
• Nouns Part III & Adjectives

Imperfect Active Indicative

The last thing we are going to review before translating is the Imperfect Tense of Verbs:

The imperfect active indicative is often translated as a past action that occurred over time. For example:

“What were you doing last night?” “I was running.” or “We were watching a movie.”

The same idea could be conveyed using a simple past statement as well:

“What were you doing last night?” “I ran.” or “We watched a movie.”

 However, in Latin the Imperfect tense is not always optional in Latin. There are reasons for it use grammatical

The following are the endings for most verbs in the Imperfect. We have so far covered this year, the 1st and 2nd conjugation as well as the irregular verb “esse” meaning “to be” or ero “I am”.

	singular	plural
1st	-bam	-bamus
2nd	-bas	-batis
3rd	-bat	-bant

Although, we have not revied infinitives yet nor other conjugations of verbs – here is a chart of the imperfect tens:

Conjugation in the Imperfect tense
	1st	2nd	3rd	mixed	4th	Irregular
Infinitive:	amare	sedere	legere	capere	venire	ire	velle	esse
Singular
1st person:	amabam	sedebam	legebam	capiebam	veniebam	ibam	volebam	eram
2nd person:	amabas	sedebas	legebas	capiebas	veniebas	ibas	volebas	eras
3rd person:	amabat	sedebat	legebat	capiebat	veniebat	ibat	volebat	erat
Plural
1st person:	amabamus	sedebamus	legebamus	capiebamus	veniebamus	ibamus	volebamus	eramus
2nd person:	amabatis	sedebatis	legebatis	capiebatis	veniebatis	ibatis	volebatis	eratis
3rd person:	amabant	sedebant	legebant	capiebant	veniebant	ibant	volebant	erant

Gerunds

I would review the Gerund forms for two words in this month’s homework that may be a little awkward.

Gerunds vs. Gerundives

Notes for the Homework:

1. Use a trusted dictionary online or paper (I still use my Oxford Latin Dictionary), but I would recommend these two dictionaries: Dictionary A and Dictionary B.
2. When translating sentences or paragraphs, DO NOT WRITE ABOVE OR NEAR THE LATIN TEXT. For your running list of vocabulary, definitions, and figuring out the noun and verb form, keep it on a separate piece of paper.
3. In Latin texts, sentences can run on for a while and translating each word at a time in order can be daunting and not make much sense in terms of translating (what are they trying to say?!). However, once you get to a comma, colon, semicolon, the sentence may make more sentence – IF NOT, wait until you get to the end of the sentence.
4. Sometimes the subject or verb may be implied based on a previous sentence.

Homework

Here is the text we will be tackling over the next few posts. It is from the beginning of Hobbitvs Ille:

in foramine terrae habitabat *hobbitus: nec foedum,sordidum madidumque foramen, nec extremis lumbricorum atque odore caenoso impletum, nec etiam foramen aridum, inane, harenosum, in quo nihil erat ad considendum aut
edendum aptum; immo foramen-hobbitum, ergo commodum.

Vocabulary:

• hobbitus is an invented word for this adaptation meaning “Hobbit” (2nd Declension Noun)
• que(added to the end of another word) means “and”
• Considendum and Edendum are gerunds from the verbs consido and edo.