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Fill in the blank to complete the sentence according to the translation: Don’t forget to use macrons, or your answers will not be recorded correctly. If you are having trouble creating macrons, you can copy/paste them into your answers using the following: ā ē ī ō ū Saepe mē [vocat].      She often summons me. Nihil [videmus]!      We see nothing! Nōn [valent]. They are not strong. Mē [monere] dēbēs. You ought to warn me. Sī mē terrētis, [erratis]. If you (pl.) terrify me, you (pl.) are making a mistake.

Translating tense When translating, it is worth remembering that the Latin present tense can be represented by a number of different tenses in English. The verb vocāmus (1st person, plural, present, indicative, active), for example, can be generally translated as follows: “we summon” (the simple present) “we are summoning” (the progressive present) “we do summon” Of these three translations, the simple present will probably be the most common, closely followed by the progressive present. The third option “We do summon” is comparatively rarer and may be used for emphasis. This is also the form of the verb, however, that is often used in English to negate verbs and to phrase questions: negating verbs: “We do not summon” (nōn vocāmus) phrasing questions: “Do we summon?” (vocāmusne?) or “What do we summon?” (Quid vocāmus?) We can also use the progressive form of the present to negate verbs and ask questions, in which case we simply supply “not” (“We are not summoning”), or reverse the word order in a typical sentence (e.g. “Are we summoning?”). Since English has many more tenses than Latin in general, we will learn what tenses are available as possible translations every time we learn a new Latin tense. Often, the translation is left to our own interpretation, but it is always worth experimenting with different possibilities to see which offers the best sense.

Select all the possible translations of the following question: Quid laudās?

Complementary infinitives Infinitives in Latin serve several functions. In addition to helping us form the present stem of the verb, infinitives can also be used in sentences as “complements” of verbs like dēbeō, dēbēre. When used like this, we call this a complementary infinitive. When we see a complementary infinitive, we will have to think about how best to translate it with the verb it goes with. As have seen, dēbeō, dēbēre has several possible translations. Taken on its own, this verb usually means “to owe”, as in “I owe a debt” (“debt” in English is derived from the fourth principal part, dēbitum!). But when it is complemented by an infinitive, one of the other translations — “ought, must, should” — is more suitable. The phrase dēbēs cōgitāre, for example, could be translated: “you ought to think” “you must think” See how some verbs in English retain the word “to” when using a complementary infinitive, but others don’t.  What this shows us is that when we read vocabulary lists, we should keep an eye out to see if there are distinctions in how the verb is translated. Meanings separated by commas are usually equivalent (or “synonyms”), but those separated by a semi-colon usually indicates a distinct usage that might be more applicable depending on how it fits in the rest of the sentence.

We also need to understand what this verb means in English. Look at the vocabulary entry for vocō, vocāre, vocāvī, vocātum. What English verbs are suggested as the translation for this verb? Select all correct answers!

Using vocabulary entries When we read Latin, it’s very important to use all the tools we have at our disposal. Vocabulary lists and entries are very important in this regard, but we have to know how to use them. In Wheelock’s Latin, vocabulary entries for verbs typically contain: first, the principal parts of the verb; next, the translation of the verb into English; and finally, in parentheses, a list of cognate words in English that help us remember the words with English words that are derived from Latin. In the instance of vocō, vocāre, the English translation “call, summon” is offered. These words are separated by a comma, which indicates that these are both roughly equivalent translations. We could translate this sentence: “Maecenas and Vergil are summoning me today” or “Maecenas and Vergil are calling me today”, and both would be correct. Note that in this translation, since we have named subjects, we don’t need a pronoun: “Maecenas and Vergil *they are summoning me today” would be incorrect! Some verbs, however, have translations separated by semi-colons, like dēbeō, dēbēre: “to owe; ought, must”. This verb appears in the next sentence, so let’s keep reading to see how we translate this verb!

Noster, nostra, nostrum This is the vocabulary entry for the same adjectives. Notice that the base changes between the masculine nominative singular and the feminine and neuter nominative singulars, which exhibit the base nostr-. Which of the following 2nd declension nouns does this changing base most closely resemble?

Et Leōnidās, rēx Lacedaemoniōrum, exclamat… Which of the words above appear to be the subject of exclamat? Check all correct answers! You might glance at the short entry on “Apposition” in Caput III for help!

Fill in the blanks using the dropdown menus: The present stem of first and second conjugation verbs may be found by dropping [re] from the [second] principal part.

Forming the imperfect and future tenses: 1st and 2nd conjugations Watch the following video to see how the imperfect and future tenses are formed in the 1st and 2nd conjugations. These forms can also be found by consulting Caput V in Wheelock!