The perfect tense is the simple past tense in Latin. While the imperfect is past progressive ("I was running"), the perfect is past complete ("I ran").
The perfect tense is built from the third principle part. It also has its own special set of endings.
Perfect Personal Endings
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Singular (translation) |
Plural (translation) |
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1st person |
ī (I) |
imus (we) |
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2nd person |
istī (you) |
istis (y'all) |
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3rd person |
it (he, she, it) |
ērunt (they) |
No other Latin tense uses these endings.
The stem for the perfect is found by removing -ī from the third principle part. To this stem, we add the endings above. This is true for all conjugations of verbs, including irregular verbs like sum.
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laudō -āre -āvī |
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faciō -ere fēcī |
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perfect stem: |
laudāv |
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fēc |
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Singluar |
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1st |
laudāvī |
I praised |
fēcī |
I made / did |
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2nd |
laudāvistī |
you praised |
fēcistī |
you made / did |
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3rd |
laudāvit |
he/she/it praised |
fēcit |
he/she/it made / did |
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Plural |
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1st |
laudāvimus |
we praised |
fēcimus |
we made / did |
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2nd |
laudāvistis |
y'all praised |
fēcistis |
y'all made / did |
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3rd |
laudāvērunt |
they praised |
fēcērunt |
they made / did |
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