Present Indicative of Eo

Eō, īre, iī (or īvī), itum means “go.” Its present indicative is common, compact, and unmistakably irregular: some forms begin with long ī-, while the third-person plural is eunt. The alternation looks less arbitrary once you treat eō as a high-frequency verb with its own present stem pattern rather than forcing it into one of the four regular conjugations.

These forms are present active indicative. They report actual or habitual movement from the speaker’s viewpoint. Because English “I go” and “I am going” are separate constructions while Latin has no obligatory present progressive, one Latin form may correspond to either English expression.

The six present forms

The personal endings are familiar even though the stem alternates: -ō, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt. The forms īs, īmus, and ītis have long ī; it has short i; eō and eunt preserve e-. The third-person plural is eunt, never iunt. These are inherited forms, not a productive recipe to apply to ordinary fourth-conjugation verbs.

Parse from the ending outward

When you see ītis, identify -tis as second-person plural before translating. The remaining ī- points to eō. When you see eunt, -nt gives third-person plural; the irregular vowel then confirms this verb. This order matters because English does not distinguish singular and plural “you,” but Latin does.

Latin usually omits subject pronouns. Īmus already says “we go,” and adding nōs is appropriate only for contrast or emphasis: nōs īmus, vōs manētis “we are going; you are staying.” That contrast is (neutral Classical prose), not a required pronoun pattern.

Present time is broader than English “go”

The Latin present can describe movement happening now, a repeated route, or a general tendency. English normally says “I am going to the forum” for current movement but “I go to school every day” for habit. Latin can use eō or īmus in both settings; adverbs such as nunc and cotīdiē supply the contrast.

This example also gives a tense contrast. Eō is present; ībō is future. Do not choose between them by matching the English word “going.” English “am going tomorrow” can refer to the future, but Latin selects a tense according to how the speaker presents the event. A stated future event can use a future form even when English prefers a present progressive.

The paired subjects aliī ... aliī are plural, so both eunt and manent are plural. The contrast also shows that the person-number ending remains decisive even when the two verbs belong to different paradigms.

An authentic poetic line shows ordinary third-person singular it in elevated context (literary). Its relative pronoun refers back to the dead sparrow mourned in the poem. The line is reproduced without added macrons:

Expressing destination and route

With most ordinary destinations, Latin uses ad + accusative: ad forum eō. With cities, small islands, and domus “home,” motion toward normally uses the bare accusative: Rōmam it “he goes to Rome,” domum eunt “they go home.” This is a property of destination expressions, not an irregular feature of eō itself.

For source, ā/ab or ē/ex + ablative is common: ex castrīs eunt. Means or route may appear in the ablative, as in pedibus īmus “we go on foot.” Learn these case patterns separately from the verb ending. The finite verb tells who goes; the case phrase tells where, from where, or how.

Principal parts and compounds

The principal parts eō, īre, iī/īvī, itum divide the system into useful stems. The first two establish the irregular present and infinitive. The alternative perfects iī and īvī are both Classical; their variation does not alter the present paradigm. Itum supplies the supine stem used elsewhere.

Many prefixed compounds retain the behavior of eō: adeō “approach,” exeō “go out,” ineō “enter,” trānseō “cross.” Sound and spelling at the prefix boundary require their own attention, so they are treated on Eo and Its Compounds. The six simple present forms here remain the foundation.

Voice and register

Simple eō is normally intransitive: it describes the subject’s movement and therefore has no ordinary direct object to become a personal passive subject. Latin nevertheless has the impersonal passive ītur, “people go,” “one goes,” or “there is a going.” It occurs in prose as well as poetry and has no nominative personal subject.

The quotation is reproduced without added macrons. Itur is third-person singular present indicative passive used impersonally, not an alternative active form of “he goes.”

The everyday movement uses on this page are (neutral Classical prose). Poets can vary word order, omit an expected directional phrase, or exploit a form’s metrical shape (literary), but those licenses do not create alternative basic persons such as iunt.

Common Mistakes

1. Making the third-person plural mechanically from ī-. Its inherited form begins with e-.

2. Copying the English progressive word for word. Latin does not use sum + eō for ordinary “I am going.”

3. Confusing īs with the pronoun is. Vowel length and syntax identify the verb.

4. Using ad before a city name or domum. These destination nouns normally stand in the accusative without a preposition.

Key Takeaways

The present is eō, īs, it, īmus, ītis, eunt. Parse person and number before choosing an English translation, remember that the Latin present can mean either “go” or “be going,” and keep destination case syntax separate from the irregular verb forms.