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Quick Latin question! (the verb sum)


EKT
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We are working on lesson 7.1 in Lively Latin. In the video lesson, our instructor says that the four principal parts of the verb Sum (to be) are:

 

sum

esse

fui

futurus

 

 

However, on our printed flashcards and in the answer sheet, the four principal parts are listed as:

 

sum

esse

fui

futurum

 

 

So...is it futurus or futurum? Can anyone help us out? Thank you!

 

 

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They are technically both correct. The 4th principal part can be the perfect passive participle, which is the "us"  ending, while the "um" ending is the supine. Many grammars and dictionaries list the supine as the fourth principal part instead of the perfect passive participle. 

 

Which one to use? I'm not sure what to recommend as I have not used that program. How to explain it? I'm sure others will have a better explanation. My professor prefers to use the perfect passive participle as the fourth principle part, but my dictionary lists the supine. 

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There is a little disagreement in the Latin community about what the fourth principal part should be in a dictionary entry, but the upshot is that it doesn't matter much.  Some use the perfect passive participle as the fourth principal part, like "amatus".  Note that participles, while derived from verbs, function as adjectives, and thus have number, gender and case.  So, technically, that's "amatus, a, um", but no one writes that all out.  Don't worry, they are like 1st/2nd declension adjectives, so you don't need to learn a new set of endings.  So, the beloved man is "vir amatus", the beloved girl, "puella amata".  (And often, the noun is left out, and the adjective starts to work like a noun:  "amatus": "The beloved man".)


 


The problem with this is that only transitive verbs have passive forms.  So, intransitive verbs have no passive participles.  However, there's a rarely-used verb form, the supine, which looks a lot like a participle.  That's the one ending in "um".  So, as most verbs have a supine form, some dictionaries just list that as the fourth principle part.


 


Whether you memorize the supine or the participle doesn't matter, as you can easily go from one to the other.  What is really confusing is that some dictionaries list the participle for verbs that have them, and the supine for verbs that don't.


 

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