Personal Pronouns
The personal pronouns are used to indicate the subject of a sentence. We’ve dealt with this concept extensively as we learned how to conjugate verbs, and we’ve been using the personal pronouns in English translations of verbs. For example, as we translate amāmus as “we love”, “we” serves as a personal pronoun. These pronouns can also occur in other cases: for example, as an accusative direct object: “He loves us.”
The personal pronouns are primarily used in the oblique cases (genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative). We can explicitly state a nominative personal pronoun in Latin, but because the person and number of the verb indicates the subject, we normally only use an explicit personal pronoun in the nominative for the purposes of emphasis or differentiation from another subject.
There are three personal pronouns, each corresponding to the person of a verb (1st, 2nd, and 3rd person). Each of these pronouns can be singular (I, me, you, he/she/it, him/her/it) or plural (we, us, you all, they, them).
The 1st person personal pronoun is ego (singular), nōs (plural).
The 2nd person personal pronoun is tū (singular), vōs (plural).
The 3rd person personal pronoun is is, ea, id, which we’ve seen and used many times at this point.
The declension charts for these personal pronouns can be found here.
Take a look at the following examples of the personal pronouns in context:
- ducēs nōs regēbant. The leaders were ruling us.
- tibi carmina canam. I will sing songs to you.
- ab eīs urbs vidēbitur. The city will be seen by them.
Reflexive Pronouns
When a pronoun in a non-nominative case refers back to the subject of the sentence, we call this a reflexive pronoun (from the Latin verb reflectere “to turn back”). In English, reflexive are usually translated as with the suffix -selves:
- I love myself.
- You teach yourself Latin.
- I gave a present to myself.
- They helped themselves.
For first and second person pronouns in Latin, the form of the reflexive pronoun is the same as the personal pronoun. You can find the charts for 1st and 2nd person reflexive pronouns here. Below are some examples:
- mē amō. (“I love myself.”)
- tē amās. (“You love yourself.”)
- vōbīs donum datis. (“You all are giving a gift *to yourselves”.)
- nōs īuvāmus. (“We help ourselves.”)
Note how the person of the verb and the person of the pronoun match, which makes the pronoun a reflexive rather than just a personal pronoun. For example:
- mē amō. I love myself. (1st person verb, 1st person pronoun = reflexive)
- mē amās. You love me. (2nd person verb, 1st person pronoun = personal)
Things get a little trickier in the case of the third person pronoun. While there is no ambiguity in first and second pronouns (that is, “I”/”me” and “you” are always self-explanatory), there can be ambiguity in the third person pronoun (there are lots of possible hims and hers). As a result, Latin, like English, differentiates between the regular pronoun (is, ea, id) and the reflexive (suī = genitive, sibi = dative, sē = accusative, sē = ablative). Here is the third person reflexive pronoun in paradigm form, and here are some examples of the differences between using is, ea, id and suī, sibi, sē, sē:
- Amat eam. (“She loves her.”)
- Amat sē. (“She loves herself.”)
- Donum eī dat. (“He gives a gift to him” (i.e., a person other than himself))
- Donum sibi dat. (“He gives a gift to himself.”)
Note the differences here. When you use is, ea, id, you are referring to someone other than the subject. So, in “amat eam”, the subject “she” is not the same person as the direct object “her.” By using the reflexive in the second sentence, though, you make it clear that the direct object “herself” is the same person as the subject “she.”
Interestingly, the same forms are used for both the singular and plural 3rd person reflexive pronoun. This is because all reflexives refer back to their subject, and thus, there is no ambiguity between singular and plural.
- Amat sē. (“She loves herself.”)
- Amant sē. (“They love themselves.”)
Deponent Verbs
Deponent verbs are verbs that are passive in form, but active in meaning. That means that although we will conjugate the verb only in the passive voice, when we translate it, we will translate it actively. As such, deponents can act like intransitive or transitive verbs, the latter in the sense that they can take an accusative direct object. For example:
- ducem sequimur. We are following the leader.
You can tell what verbs are deponent based on their dictionary entry. Deponent verbs will have only three principal parts; these will correspond to the first three principal parts of a regular verb, except that the forms will be passive. Take a look at this sample 1st conjugation deponent verb:
- hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum - to exhort
hortor, although 1st singular present passive indicative in form, is translated actively as “I exhort.” hortārī, although a present passive infinitive in form, is translated actively as “to exhort.” hortātus sum, although 1st singular perfect passive indicative in form, is translated actively as “I exhorted” or “I have exhorted.”
We must be able to identify deponent verbs from regular verbs because the difference in translation is vast! Take a look at the following examples of deponent verbs used in context:
- montem magnum mirābantur. They were marveling at the large mountain.
- ignem ferōcem verēmur. We fear the fierce fire.
- nauta ā navī proficiscitur. The sailor departs from the ship.
Deponent Conjugation and Special Forms
Despite the different dictionary entry format, deponent verbs are still classified into conjugations like regular verbs based on the vowel in the second principal part and the ending of the first principal part. Note, for example, that:
- hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum, “to exhort, encourage”
is 1st conjugation based on the -ā- in the infinitive, but
- proficiscor, proficiscī, profectus sum, “to depart”
is 3rd conjugation. -ī is the present passive infinitive ending for 3rd conjugation verbs (as opposed to -ārī for 1st conjugation, -ērī for 2nd conjugation, or -īrī for 4th conjugation), and because there is no -io- in the first principal part, it’s a pure 3rd conjugation verb. Compare that against:
- morior, morī, mortuus sum, “to die”
Here we have another -ī ending on the infinitive, but the first principal part ends in -ior. Thus, it is a 3rd -io verb.
Once you have determined the conjugation of the deponent verb and its present stem, then you can conjugate it according to the passive voice rules of regular verbs. So, while the present tense of 1st conjugation hortor looks like this:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | hortor | hortāmur |
| 2nd | hortāris | hortāminī |
| 3rd | hortātur | hortantur |
the present tense of 3rd -io conjugation morior looks like this:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | morior | morimur |
| 2nd | moreris | moriminī |
| 3rd | moritur | moriuntur |
Imperfect Subjunctive of Deponents
If you want to form the imperfect subjunctive of a deponent verb, you must perform an extra step. Remember that the regular imperfect subjunctive simply adds personal endings onto the end of the second principal part (which ends in -re). The infinitive of a deponent, however, must be changed into a dummy active form before adding the personal endings to form the imperfect subjunctive.
For example, the deponent verb vereor, verērī, veritus sum, “to fear”, is 2nd conjugation. Before we conjugate it into the imperfect subjunctive, we have to take its infinitive and change it into what its active counterpart would look like:
verērī –> verēre-
verēre is not a valid form in Latin! It is simply an intermediate step that we have to take before we add the personal endings:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | verērer | verērēmur |
| 2nd | verērēris | verērēminī |
| 3rd | verērētur | verērentur |
The same goes for 3rd and 3rd -io verbs.
morī –> morere-
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | morerer | morerēmur |
| 2nd | morerēris | morerēminī |
| 3rd | morerētur | morerentur |
Semi-Deponents
There are also verbs that are classified as semi-deponent verbs, meaning that they are regular in the present system but deponent in the perfect system. For example,
- gaudeō, gaudēre, gavisus sum, “to rejoice”
Note how the first two principal parts look parts of a regular dictionary entry for a 2nd conjugation verb, but then the third principal part gives what looks like a perfect passive form. The conjugation of the present, imperfect, and future tenses of semi-deponents is completely regular, while the conjugation of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses is passive in form but active in meaning. Thus:
- gavisī sunt. They rejoiced. (not “they were rejoiced”)
Irregular Verbs
There are a number of irregular verbs in Latin, in the sense that their conjugation patterns often do not follow the normal rules or regular patterns that we’ve been learning for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd -iō, and 4th conjugation verbs. We’ve encountered two irregular verbs so far (sum and possum); here, we introduce 5 more.
- eō, īre, īvī/iī, ītus - to go
- ferō, ferre, tūlī, lātus - to bear, carry
- volō, velle, voluī - to want, wish
- nōlō, nolle, noluī - not to want
- mālō, malle, maluī - to prefer
The conjugation patterns for these five verbs can be found here.
Some general comments on memorizing the forms:
- The perfect system tenses (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect) and the imperfect subjunctive of these verbs are mostly formed completely regularly.
- The exceptions are the 2nd person singular and plural perfect active indicative of eō, which smushes the expected two i’s formed by the stem + ending (iistī, iistis) into a single i, resulting in the forms īstī and īstis. A similar smushing occurs for all forms of the pluperfect active subjunctive of eō: īssem, īssēs, īsset…; and the perfect active infinitive (īsse).
- The present tense of each of these verbs is the most irregular and requires the most attention.
- The only verb in this list that has a passive voice is ferō; its present passive conjugation is particularly irregular.
- The imperfect is formed relatively regularly, except on unexpected stems. For example, the imperfect stem for volō is volē-, to which you attach the -ba- infix and the personal endings.
- The future of eō uses 1st/2nd conjugation future endings (-bō, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt) on the stem ī-.
- The future of ferō, volō, nōlō, and mālō use 3rd/4th/3rd -iō future endings (-am, -ēs, -et, -ēmus, -ētis, -ent) on irregular stems (ferre > fer-; velle > vol-; nōlle > nōl-; malle > mal-).
- eō and ferō conjugate in the present subjunctive like 3rd conjugation verbs (with the vowel ā and the personal endings) on the stems e- and fer- respectively. (e.g., eam, eās, eat… and feram, ferās, ferat…).
- volō, nōlō, and mālō conjugate in the present subjunctive on irregular stems (velle > vel-; nolle > nol-; malle > mal-) with the unusual vowel -ī- plus the personal endings. (e.g., velim, velīs, velit…; nōlim, nōlīs, nolit…; mālim, mālīs, mālit…).