The perfect tense can show an action that was completed at the time of speaking (or writing), or it can just make a general reference to something that happened in the past. It is by far the most common of the tenses and the easiest to form.

Perfect tense formation is extremely straightforward. All verbs, regardless of conjugation (even the irregular verbs!), form perfect tense the same way. Perfect tense forms consist of the perfect stem and a personal ending. The perfect stem is the third principle part of a verb minus the final -ī. The perfect tense also has its own set of special personal endings.

Perfect Stems

Perfect stems come from the third principal part of a verb. They are variations on a verb's present stem (second principle part minus the final -re). There are four ways a perfect stem can vary from a present stem. Some verbs even use more than one of these methods to distinguish their perfect and present stems. If you know what to look for, you will easily be able to recognize perfect stems when you run across them in a sentence.

Here are the four different ways verbs alter their present stems to form perfect stems:

Syllabic Augment: the present stem gains a -v or -u at the end.

• amō , amā re, amā vī , amā tum (to love)

• moneō , monē re, monuī , monitum (to warn, advise)

• dormiō , dormī re, dormī vī , dormī tum (to sleep)

Temporal Augment: the central vowel of the present stem lengthens.

• videō, vidē re, vī dī , vī sum (to see)

• faciō, facere, fē cī , factum (to make)

• agō, agere, ē gī, ā ctum (to do)

Aorist: the present stem adds an s, or its last letter becomes an s.

(Note: The letter c or g followed by an s becomes x.)

• maneō, manē re, mā nsī , mā nsum (to stay)

• plaudō, plaudere, plausī , plausum (to clap)

• dī cō, dī cere, dī xī, dictum (to say)

Reduplication: the first letter or syllable of the present stem is repeated. (Note: Prefixes take the place of a reduplicated syllable.)

• currō, currere, cucurrī , cursum (to run)

• recurrō, recurrere, recurrī , recursum (to run back)

• pellō, pellere, pepulī , pulsum (to beat)

• repellō, repellere, reppulī , repulsum (to beat back)

Perfect Personal Endings

The perfect tense has its own set of special personal endings. (Don't be nervous, this is the only tense that does!) These special endings are shown in TABLE 4-6.

Table 4-6 Special Personal Endings for Perfect Tense

Forming the Perfect Tense

A verb in perfect tense consists of a perfect stem, which you get from taking the third principle part and dropping the final -ī, then adding one of the special perfect personal endings. A full conjugation of the verb in perfect tense would look like TABLE 4-7.

Table 4-7 Perfect Tense of dō, dare, dedī, datum

Using the Perfect Tense

The perfect tense takes on the role of two original tenses on the aspect chart (TABLE 3-1). As the present time completed tense, it stresses the current “doneness” of an action. As the past time aorist aspect tense, it simply refers to something that happened. Those two functions merge to create a tense that denotes a single completed act. The possible translations for the form vēnē runt are few:

The imperfect tense (continuous aspect) and the perfect tense (completed aspect) are often contrasted with one another. Here is a sentence that makes the distinction very clear: Canēs latrā bant cum advē nit. (“The dogs were barking when he arrived.”)

The barking took place over a period of time and was in progress (imperfect latrā bant) when the arrival — a single completed act (perfect advē nit) — occurred.

Practice Conjugating the Perfect

Conjugate these verbs fully in the perfect tense. Check the back of the book to see how well you do.

• pō nō, pō nere, posuī, positum

• capiō, capere, cē pī, captum

• amō , amā re, amā vī , amā tum

• habeō , habē re, habuī , habitum

• audiō , audī re, audī vī, audī tum