The Present Indicative
The present is right now. But “right now” as you read this is not the same “right now” as when these words were being written. Obviously, the idea of present tense is not as simple as it might seem, is it? Your concept of the present is relative to your reading this sentence. In an hour, your “present” will have changed and your reading of the last sentence will have faded into the past.
Of the six tenses in Latin, the present tense is the only one that has different formation rules for each conjugation. The first two principal parts give you all the information you need to form the present tense. As you may recall, the conjugation to which a verb belongs is governed by its infinitive ending (i.e., the ending on its second principal part). The breakdown goes like this:
First conjugation: -ā re (e.g., stī , stā re [to stand])
Second conjugation: -ē re (e.g., moneī,monē re [to warn])
Third conjugation: -ere (e.g., mittī, mittere [to send])
Third conjugation -iī: -ere (e.g., capiī, capere [to take])
Fourth conjugation: -ī re (e.g., sentiī , sentī re [to feel])
Examine the above list and you will notice that before the -re of each infinitive ending is a “theme” vowel: -ā - for first conjugation, -ē - for second, and so on. The theme vowels are the distinguishing features among the conjugations in the present tense.
Table 11-1 Present Tense Across the Conjugations
First and second conjugation verbs are fairly unremarkable in the present indicative. All you have to do is drop the -re from the infinitive and attach personal endings to the theme vowel. The only thing to watch out for is in the first person singular of first conjugation verbs. There, the theme vowel and the personal ending combine, leaving you with just -ī.
The personal endings in the present tense are the same as the ones you learned for the imperfect tense. There is, however, one exception. The -m for the first person singular (i.e., the “I” form) is replaced with an -ō. The present indicative is one of the few places you will see -ō instead of -m.
Third and fourth conjugation are not as predictable. In third conjugation, the short vowel -e-combines with the -ī in the first person singular, then weakens to an -i-, and eventually bottoms out to a -u- in the third person plural. If a verb has a first principal part that ends in -iī — which is true for some third and all fourth conjugation verbs — then it forms the present tense the same way as third. The only difference is that wherever the third conjugation doesn't have an -i-, these -iī verbs add one, so -ī becomes -iī and -unt becomes -iunt.
The subjunctive mood also has present tense forms — perfect tense, too — but they aren't very common. You will learn them along with the subjunctive uses where they are used most often.
