“Latin Compounds”

Latin Verbs

     The present, perfect, and stems of verbs are very rarely used in Stem Compounds.  A Latin present, perfect, or supine stem may be used as the first part of a Stem Compound by becoming a combining form in the following ways:

• If the stem ends in a vowel, excluding the -u of a perfect stem, that final vowel becomes the Connecting Vowel i when the second part of the Stem Compound beings with a consonant.

• If the stem ends in a consonant or if the stem is a perfect stem ending in -u, the Connecting Vowel i appears immediately after the stem when the second part of the Stem Compound beings with a consonant.  (The stem must be in the form it takes before vowels.)

• The Connecting Vowel i disappears in polysyllabic combining forms, but retained in monosyllabic combining forms, when the second part of the Stem Compound begins with a vowel, or when an i appears immediately before the Connecting Vowel i.

     Examples of the forms of the combining forms of verbs appear below:

*the i of capie- disappears when the e becomes the Connecting Vowel i, so the combining forms are capi- and cap-.

** the stem es- regularly takes the form s- before i (e.g. in sim, simus).

***when a vowel follows the i of ai-, the stem is monosyllabic, so the i does not disappear.

     The three stems of amāre and monēre are provided in the chart above for the sake of demonstration.  Only the present stems of the other verbs are shown.

1. Two Groups of Compound Words in Latin
   1. Stem Compounds
      1. Three Types of Stem Compounds
      2. Two Main Parts of a Stem Compound
      3. Combining the Parts of a Stem Compound
         1. First Part of a Stem Compound
            1. Latin Substantives
            2. Latin Adjectives
            3. Latin Verbs ← You Are Here
            4. Special Combining Forms
         2. Second Part
            1. Nominative Form or Principal Part
            2. Inseparable Second Parts
               1. In Compounded Substantives
               2. In Compounded Adjectives
               3. In Compounded Verbs
            3. Special Terminations
   2. Syntactic Compounds
      1. Cases Forms
      2. Particles
      3. Inseparable Parts
2. Vocabulary
3. Bibliography

Latin Compounds | Pāginae Latīnitātis | DIĒS GAUDIĪ

© 2006-2008 Ian Andreas Miller.  All rights reserved.  Those statements refer to all of the original content on this page.