Lego: To Read or Choose | Latin Grammar

Legō means “read,” but also “gather,” “collect,” “pick,” or “choose.” Its principal parts are legō, legere, lēgī, lēctum. Present leg-, perfect lēg-, and supine lēct- are distinguished by vowel quantity and consonants.

The semantic link is selection: the eye gathers written signs just as a hand gathers or chooses objects.

Active Paradigms

Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl
Present	legō	legis	legit	legimus	legitis	legunt
Imperfect	legēbam	legēbās	legēbat	legēbāmus	legēbātis	legēbant
Future	legam	legēs	leget	legēmus	legētis	legent
Perfect	lēgī	lēgistī	lēgit	lēgimus	lēgistis	lēgērunt / lēgēre
Pluperfect	lēgeram	lēgerās	lēgerat	lēgerāmus	lēgerātis	lēgerant
Future perfect	lēgerō	lēgeris	lēgerit	lēgerimus	lēgeritis	lēgerint

Subjunctive	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl
Present	legam	legās	legat	legāmus	legātis	legant
Imperfect	legerem	legerēs	legeret	legerēmus	legerētis	legerent
Perfect	lēgerim	lēgerīs	lēgerit	lēgerīmus	lēgerītis	lēgerint
Pluperfect	lēgissem	lēgissēs	lēgisset	lēgissēmus	lēgissētis	lēgissent

Puer librum legit.

The boy is reading a book.

Poēmata veterum legēbāmus.

We were reading the poems of the ancients.

Crās epistulam tuam legam.

Tomorrow I shall read your letter.

Tōtum librum ūnā nocte lēgit.

She read the whole book in one night.

Without macrons, present legit and perfect lēgit look identical. Context, time expressions, and narrative sequence resolve them.

Passive Voice

Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl
Present	legor	legeris	legitur	legimur	legiminī	leguntur
Imperfect	legēbar	legēbāris	legēbātur	legēbāmur	legēbāminī	legēbantur
Future	legar	legēris	legētur	legēmur	legēminī	legentur
Present subj.	legar	legāris	legātur	legāmur	legāminī	legantur
Imperfect subj.	legerer	legerēris	legerētur	legerēmur	legerēminī	legerentur

Perfect passive uses lēctus, -a, -um with sum: lēctus est, lēcta erat, lēctī erunt; lēctus sit, lēcta esset.

The participle agrees with the subject: liber lēctus est, epistula lēcta est, carmina lēcta sunt. The auxiliary distinguishes the perfect-system tenses, while lēct- remains constant.

Form	Parsing	Meaning
lēctus est	perfect indicative	he/it was read or chosen
lēctus erat	pluperfect indicative	he/it had been read or chosen
lēctus erit	future perfect indicative	he/it will have been read or chosen
lēctus sit	perfect subjunctive	he/it may have been read or chosen
lēctus esset	pluperfect subjunctive	he/it would have been read or chosen

Omnia carmina ante diem certāminis lēcta erant.

All the poems had been read before the day of the competition.

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The form lēctus does not tell you whether “read,” “gathered,” or “chosen” is intended. Its noun and context do: a liber is read, flōrēs are gathered, and a magistrātus is chosen.

Hic liber ā multīs legitur.

This book is read by many people.

Litterae tuā voce lēctae sunt.

The letter was read aloud in your voice.

Imperatives and Non-Finite Forms

Present commands are lege, legite; passive legere, legiminī. The (formal/archaic) future imperative has active legitō (2nd/3rd singular), legitōte (2nd plural), leguntō (3rd plural), and passive legitor (2nd/3rd singular), leguntor (3rd plural).

Lege epistulam lentē et clārē.

Read the letter slowly and clearly.

Category	Active	Passive
Present infinitive	legere	legī
Perfect infinitive	lēgisse	lēctum esse
Future infinitive	lēctūrum esse	lēctum īrī
Participles	legēns; lēctūrus	lēctus; legendus
Gerund	legendī, legendō, legendum, legendō	—
Supines	lēctum, lēctū	—

In the compact infinitive forms above, lēctum esse and lēctūrum esse stand for participles that agree with their accusative subject: for example, eam lēctam esse and eōs lēctūrōs esse. Future passive lēctum īrī, by contrast, contains the indeclinable accusative supine lēctum.

Dīxit sē epistulam lēgisse.

He said that he had read the letter.

Hic liber omnibus legendus est.

This book must be read by everyone.

Gerundive legendus often means “to be read” or “worth reading”; context distinguishes strict obligation from recommendation.

The future active participle lēctūrus expresses intention or imminence. The gerundive construction marks the person responsible with a dative: mihi liber legendus est means “I must read the book,” not “the book is for me to be read” in ordinary idiomatic translation.

Hunc librum proximā hieme lēctūrus sum.

I intend to read this book next winter.

Discipulīs tria carmina legenda sunt.

The students must read three poems.

Reading and Reading Aloud

The text is accusative. Latin legere can mean read silently or aloud; clārē, magnā vōce, or an audience phrase makes oral delivery explicit.

Magister discipulīs fābulam magnā vōce lēgit.

The teacher read the story aloud to the students.

The dative discipulīs is the audience/recipient, not the direct object. Perfect lēgit is marked by its long vowel in teaching text.

Latin does not have to add a separate verb corresponding to English “read aloud.” The manner phrase creates that interpretation. Conversely, secum legere or a context of private study may suggest silent reading. Claims that Romans invariably read aloud go beyond what the grammar supports.

In bibliothēcā sēcum epistulam legēbat.

He was reading the letter to himself in the library.

Gathering and Choosing

In agricultural or selective contexts legō means gather/pick or choose. The direct object and situation select the gloss.

Puerī flōrēs in hortō legunt.

The children are gathering flowers in the garden.

Iūdex ex omnibus optimum lēgit.

The judge chose the best from all of them.

Source of selection can use ex plus ablative. Reading and choosing are not separate conjugations; all share lēgī, lēctum.

Simple legō can mean “choose,” but ēligō and dēligō make selection more explicit and are often clearer in prose. With ex plus ablative, the larger set is expressed separately from the chosen accusative object.

Ex quīnque candidātīs duōs lēgimus.

From five candidates we chose two.

Compounds and Vowel Changes

The family is large: colligō, colligere, collēgī, collēctum “collect”; ēligō, ēligere, ēlēgī, ēlēctum “choose”; dēligō “select”; intellegō “understand”; and neglegō “neglect.” Third-conjugation relegō, relegere, relēgī, relēctum means “read again,” whereas first-conjugation relēgō, relēgāre, relēgāvī, relēgātum means “send away, banish.” Compounds often change the prefix or stem vowel and must be learned individually.

Cīvēs novum magistrātum ēlēgērunt.

The citizens elected a new magistrate.

Servī frūmentum ex agrīs collēgērunt.

The slaves gathered grain from the fields.

The compound’s meaning determines its syntax. Intellegō ordinarily takes the thing understood as its object; neglegō takes what is disregarded; ēligō takes the selected person or thing. Etymological connection helps memory, but it does not license translating every compound with “read.”

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Learn each compound with all four principal parts. Prefixes can assimilate (con- + legō → colligō) and the perfect/supine vowels may not match what a learner predicts.

Aspect and Completion

Imperfect legēbat presents reading/gathering in progress; perfect lēgit can imply completion when a bounded object such as tōtum librum is present. Without such context, perfect simply views the act as a whole.

This difference matters in narrative. Dum librum legēbat, amīcus vēnit provides background; librum lēgit et respondit advances the sequence. English often uses the same simple past for both, so tense choice in Latin must reflect viewpoint rather than mechanical word substitution.

Librum lēgit, deinde sententiam mūtāvit.

He read the book and then changed his opinion.

Parsing Diagnostic

Identify leg-, lēg-, or lēct- and use macrons/context to distinguish present legit from perfect lēgit. Then let the object choose among read, gather, and select. In compounds, retrieve the correct principal parts rather than mechanically attaching a prefix. The wider pattern is explained under lengthened-grade and root perfects.

Common Mistakes

Inventing the perfect

❌ Librum legīvī.

Incorrect — the perfect is lēgī.

✅ Librum lēgī.

I read the book.

Inventing the participle

❌ Epistula legita est.

Incorrect — the participle is lēcta.

✅ Epistula lēcta est.

The letter was read.

Ignoring present/perfect quantity

❌ Herī librum legit.

Incorrect in marked teaching prose for ‘yesterday he read’: the perfect is lēgit.

✅ Herī librum lēgit.

Yesterday he read a book.

Regularizing a compound

❌ Frūmentum colligāvērunt.

Incorrect — colligō has perfect collēgērunt.

✅ Frūmentum collēgērunt.

They gathered the grain.

Key Takeaways

Memorize legō, legere, lēgī, lēctum.
Context and object distinguish reading, gathering, and choosing.
Macronized legit/lēgit separates present and perfect; unmacronized texts require syntax and context.
Compounds are frequent but show lexical vowel and meaning changes.

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