Allen & Greenough · Part First — Words and Forms › Forms of the Verb

§170. The Verb Sum

The verb sum, be, is both irregular and defective, having no gerund or supine, and no participle but the future.

Its conjugation is given at the outset, on account of its importance for the inflection of other verbs.

PRINCIPAL PARTS: Present Indicative sum, Present Infinitive esse, Perfect Indicative fuī, Future Participle futūrus.

	PRESENT STEM es-	PERFECT STEM fu-	SUPINE STEM fut-
	INDICATIVE		SUBJUNCTIVE
		PRESENT
SING.	1. sum, I am		sim ¹ ¹ All translations of the Subjunctive are misleading, and hence none is given; see § 157. b.
	2. ĕs, thou art (you are)		sīs
	3. es t, he (she, it) is		sit
PLUR.	1. sumus, we are		sīmus
	2. es tis, you are		sītis
	3. sunt, they are		sint
		IMPERFECT
SING.	1. er am, I was		essem
	2. er ās, you were		essēs
	3. er at, he (she, it) was		esset
PLUR.	1. er āmus, we were		essēmus
	2. er ātis, you were		essētis
	3. er ant, they were		essent
		FUTURE
SING.	1. er ō, I shall be
	2. er is, you will be
	3. er it, he will be
PLUR.	1. er imus, we shall be
	2. er itis, you will be
	3. er unt, they will be
		PERFECT
SING.	1. fuī, I was (have been)		fuerim
	2. fuistī, you were		fueris
	3. fuit, he was		fuerit
PLUR.	1. fuimus, we were		fuerimus
	2. fuistis, you were		fueritis
	3. fuērunt, fuēre, they were		fuerint
		PLUPERFECT
SING.	1. fueram, I had been		fuissem
	2. fuerās, you had been		fuissēs
	3. fuerat, he had been		fuisset

PLUR.	1. fuerāmus, we had been	fuissēmus
	2. fuerātis, you had been	fuissētis
	3. fuerant, they had been	fuissent

FUTURE PERFECT
SING.	1. fuerō, I shall have been	PLUR.	1. fuerimus, we shall have been
	2. fueris, you will have been		2. fueritis, you will have been
	3. fuerit, he will have been		3. fuerint, they will have been

IMPERATIVE
PRESENT	SING.	2. ĕs, be thou	PLUR.	2. este, be ye
FUTURE		2. es tō, thou shalt be		2. es tōte, ye shall be
		3. es tō, he shall be		3. suntō, they shall be

	INFINITIVE
PRESENT	esse, to be
PERFECT	fuisse, to have been
FUTURE	futūrus esse or fore, to be about to be
	PARTICIPLE
FUTURE	futūrus, -a, -um, about to be

a. For essem, essēs, etc., forem, forēs, foret, forent, are often used; so fore for futūrus esse.

b. The Present Participle, which would regularly be †sōns,² appears in the adjective īn-sōns, innocent, and in a modified form in ab-sēns, prae-sēns. The simple form ēns is sometimes found in late or philosophical Latin as a participle or abstract noun, in the forms ēns, being; entia, things which are.

Subjunctive: Present, siem, siēs, siet, sient; fuam, fuās, fuat, fuant; Perfect, fūvimus; Pluperfect, fūvisset.

The root of the verb sum is ES, which in the imperfect is changed to ER (see § 15. 4), and in many forms is shortened to S. Some of its modifications, as found in several languages more or less closely related to Latin, may be seen in the following table,— the Sanskrit syām corresponding to the Latin sim ( siem):—

	SANSKRIT	GREEK		LATIN	LITHUANIAN
as-mi	syām (optative)	ἔμμι (old form)	s-um	sim (siem)	es-mi
as-i	syās	ἐσσί (old form)	es	sīs (siēs)	es-i
as-ti	syāt	ἐστί	es-t	sit (siet)	es-ti
s-mas	syāma	ἐσμέν	s-umus	sīmus	es-me
s-tha	syāta	ἐστέ	es-tis	sītis	es-te
s-anti	syus	ἐντί (old form)	s-unt	sint (sient)	es-ti

The Perfect and Supine stems, fu-, fut-, are kindred with the Greek ἔφυ, and with Nhe English be.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.