Latin Lesson #60: The 4th Conjugation

The focus for today's lesson is the 4th conjugation, although you may be surprised by this: for the she/he/it verb form (3rd person singular), the 3rd and 4th conjugations look exactly the same: the ending is -it.

So, for example, here are the 4th-conjugation verbs you will see today:

1. audit: she/he/it hears, listens
2. dormit: she/he/it sleeps
3. venit: she/he/it comes, arrives
4. invenit: she/he/it finds, discovers

And you will also see some 3rd-conjugation verbs today:

1. ruit: rushes, moves fast
2. quaerit: seeks, looks for

In other verb forms, however, the 3rd and 4th conjugations have different endings. In the infinitive, the 3rd-conjugation verbs have -ere as the ending (ruere, quaerere), but the 4th-conjugation verbs have -ire as the ending (audire, dormire, venire, invenire). You'll learn about that later; for now, just focus on the fact that the 3rd and 4th conjugations BOTH have -it as the ending for she/he/it verbs, as you will see in today's lesson.

And here is a little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

So, here are today's proverbs:

1. Canities festina venit.
Old-age comes quick(ly).
Ca-NI-ties fes-TI-na venit.

The feminine noun canities literally means "white hair," and thus comes to mean "old age." 

The feminine adjective festina, "fast, quick," agrees with the feminine noun canities. In Latin, the adjective that modifies the subject is often equivalent to an English adverb, so that's why I translated this as "quick(ly)." Grammatically speaking, festina is an adjective in Latin, "quick," but it functions like an adverb in English, "quickly."

The 4th-conjugation verb venit means "comes, arrives." You can see this Latin root in many English words like "convention" (coming together), "circumvention" (going around), etc.

2. Hora ruit; venit mors.
Time moves-fast; death is-coming.
Hora ruit; venit mors.

The 3rd conjugation verb ruit means "rushes, moves fast, falls down." You can see this root in English "ruin," in the sense of something collapsing, falling down, etc. 

And remember that hora literally means "hour," but also can mean "time" in general.

The idea is that time is flying by really quickly, and that in turn means that death is on its way (along with old age, as the previous saying explains). 


3. Qui quaerit, invenit.
(He) who seeks finds.
Qui quaerit, IN-ve-nit.

The 3rd-conjugation verb quaerit means "seeks, looks for," and gives us English "query" and "require."

The 4th-conjugation verb invenit, means "find, discover," as you can see in English "invention." It is a compound: in-venit, "on come, come upon," i.e. "find."

You can find these words in the Gospel of Matthew.


4. Audit vocatus Apollo.
Apollo listens (when) invoked.
Audit vo-CA-tus A-POL-lo.

The 4th-conjugation verb audit, "hears, listens," gives us all the audi- words in English like "audit," "audio," etc.

The name of the god Apollo is a 3rd-declension noun in Latin, and it is the subject of the verb here. (Remember, subjects can easily come after verbs in Latin because of the very free word order.)

I've added "when" to the translation here because vocatus is a participle, i.e. a verbal adjective, and participles often function in Latin as something equivalent to a dependent clause: when he is invoked, if he is invoked, because he is invoked, etc. Just which dependent clause you use depends on the context; where "when" makes the most sense.

You can find this saying in Barry Cornwall's "Proverbial Philosophy."


5. Non dormit diabolus.
(The) devil doesn't sleep.
Non dormit di-A-bolus.

The 4th-conjugation verb dormit, "sleeps," gives us English "dormitory" and "dormant."

The idea is that you always have to be on your guard against the devil at every single moment... because the devil never sleeps.


Here's a recap:

1. Canities festina venit.
2. Hora ruit; venit mors.
3. Qui quaerit, invenit.
4. Audit vocatus Apollo.
5. Non dormit diabolus.

And here is today's audio:



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