Person and Number Endings

A finite Latin verb normally identifies its subject inside the verb itself. In veniō “I am coming,” -ō marks first-person singular; in veniunt “they are coming,” -nt marks third-person plural. English usually needs a separate subject pronoun, but Latin can omit one because person and number are built into the ending.

These endings do more than replace pronouns. Combined with the stem and tense or mood marker, they let you work outward from a visible form to a grammatical analysis. That habit is safer than guessing from an English translation.

Person and number: the two coordinates

Person describes the subject’s role in the speech situation. First person includes the speaker (“I,” “we”), second person addresses someone (“you”), and third person refers to anyone or anything else (“he,” “she,” “it,” “they”). Number distinguishes singular from plural.

These are the basic active endings of much of the present system. The first-person singular alternates: the present indicative commonly has -ō, as in amō “I love,” while forms such as amābam “I was loving” and amem “I may love” have -m. Sound changes can obscure the boundary between stem and ending, so learn the whole visible form as well as the abstract ending.

The ending -ō gives both “I” and singular. No ego is needed unless “I” is contrastive.

Here the pronouns make a deliberate contrast. Without that contrast, manēmus and ītis would identify “we” and plural “you” by themselves.

The same ending can attach to different conjugations

The conjugation determines the stem and connecting vowel, but person-number remains stable. Compare the third-person plural present active:

The immediately preceding vowel is not always the person ending. In regunt, for example, -u- connects reg- to -nt. This is why mechanically chopping off the last two letters is useful but not a complete morphological explanation.

Both audiunt and claudunt are third-person plural, agreeing with mercātōrēs. Latin agreement is grammatical: the ending matches the subject’s person and number, not the nearest noun.

Active and passive endings

Voice changes the ending set. Present-system passive endings are commonly introduced as -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur.

The passive endings identify two different subjects: -ris means second-person singular, while -tur means third-person singular. The prepositional phrase ā magistrō names the agent; it is not the subject.

The -ntur ending agrees with plural portae. English “are being closed” uses three words; Latin expresses person-number, voice, tense, and mood in the single finite form clauduntur.

See Active and Passive Voice for how the two voices organize participants.

Perfect active endings form a separate set

The perfect active indicative does not simply reuse the present-system active endings. Its six endings are -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt (with -ēre as an alternative third-person plural form, especially (literary) and in verse).

The English translation cannot tell you which Latin stem or ending to build. Vēnistī is recognized from the perfect stem vēn- plus perfect second-person singular -istī. Its perfect can be translated “came” or “have come” according to context; the Latin form is not a one-to-one equivalent of either English tense.

Agreement when subjects are named

A singular subject normally takes a singular verb and a plural subject a plural verb. Coordinated subjects ordinarily take a plural verb, though agreement can be influenced by word order and emphasis, especially in (literary) prose and poetry. At A1, produce the regular semantic agreement.

Latin verbs do not mark the subject’s gender. Venit can mean “he comes,” “she comes,” or “it comes”; only context or an expressed noun supplies gender.

A reliable parsing procedure

Start from the right edge, but do not stop there. First identify a likely person-number and voice ending. Then locate the tense or mood marker and the stem. Finally check that your proposed subject agrees with the ending. For amābāmus: -mus = first plural active; -bā- = imperfect indicative marker; amā- = present stem. The result is “we were loving,” “we used to love,” or another contextual imperfect rendering.

Building from English in the opposite direction is risky. English “you” does not distinguish singular from plural, while Latin requires -s/-ris or -tis/-minī. Establish the intended participant first.

Common Mistakes

1. Adding a subject pronoun mechanically

2. Reading -t as past tense because English often adds -ed

3. Treating English “you” as automatically singular

4. Mistaking a passive ending for an active subject plus an object

Key Takeaways

The ending of a finite Latin verb normally marks the subject’s person and number, and it also helps mark voice. Present-system active endings center on -ō/-m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt; passive endings center on -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur. Perfect active forms have their own set. Parse these signals before translating, because an English pronoun or tense label rarely tells you enough to construct the Latin form.