Latin tenses (semantics)

From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.

In indicative clauses, Latin has three primary tenses and three series of secondary tenses. The primary tenses are the future agam ('I will do'), the present agō ('I am doing'), and the past ēgī ('I did'). The series of secondary tenses are: 1) the secondary future series āctūrus erō ('I will be about to do'), āctūrus sum ('I am about to do'), and āctūrus eram ('I was about to do'); 2) the secondary present series agam ('I will be doing'), agō ('I am doing'), and agēbam ('I was doing'); and 3) the secondary past series ēgerō ('I will have done'), ēgī ('I have done'), and ēgeram ('I had done').

This article covers only free indicative clauses for what took place, is taking place, or will take place. For bound indicative clauses, visit Latin tenses in relative clauses and Latin tenses in dependent clauses. For indications of frequency, possibility, volition and obligation, visit the article on Latin tenses with modality. For commands, see Latin tenses in commands.

Primary tenses
In Latin, a process may have one of three primary tenses: future, present and past. Each primary tense is described in a separate section below.

Future
The primary future is the future relative to the time of the speech act. For most verbs, the future is realised usually by a 'future indicative' verb as in faciam ('I will do'), seldom by a 'present indicative' verb as in faciō (also translated as 'I will do'). In Early Latin, there was the 'sigmatic future indicative' faxō (also 'I will do').

For verbs of recalling such as meminī ('I remember'), ōdī ('I hate'), nōvī ('I know') and verbs of resulting states such as mortuus est ('is dead') and dīvīsa est ('is divided'), tense inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-future as in fēcerō ('I will have made') have their meanings reduced to a primary future as in meminerō ('I will remember', evolved from 'I will have memorized').

Present
The primary present is the present relative to the time of the speech act. Most often the present tense is construed by a 'present indicative' verb. For verbs of recalling such as meminī ('I remember'), ōdī ('I hate'), nōvī ('I know') and verbs of resulting states such as mortuus est ('is dead') and dīvīsum est ('is divided'), tense inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-present as in fēcī ('I have made') have their meanings reduced to a primary present as in meminī ('I remember', evolved from 'I have memorized').

In particular, the 'present indicative' auxiliary in "sum" perfect periphrasis as in mortuus est may represent either a past event ('he died') or a present state ('he is dead'). Similarly, the 'present indicative' auxiliary in "habeō" perfect periphrasis as in habeō subōrnātum may represent either a present ownership of placed objects ('I own that clock placed over there') or the placement of owned objects with focus on the placement ('my clock is placed over there'). In contrast, the 'present indicative' in "teneō" perfect periphrasis ('hold' or 'keep') represents the process of actively keeping an obeject in a given state while one speaks.

Past
The primary past is the past relative to the time of the speech act. In biographies, past events are usually represented by 'perfect indicative' verbs. In contrast, in narrative prose and poetry, past events are most often represented by 'present indicative' verbs as if these events were taking place at the time of narration. In particular, past speech acts are often represented by 'present indicative' verbs when the one saying something is not the speaker/writer: e.g. fidem dant 'they gave a pledge' or ōrant 'they begged'. More than half the 'present indicative' verbs for past events in Caesar's books are of this kind. However, in recounts of events long past at the time of narration, the 'imperfect indicative' is used instead of 'perfect indicative' or 'present indicative' as if these events were being vividly remembered by a story-internal observer in distress. As for word order, in Caesar's books, when a verb for a past event is placed initially in the sentence, as in the example below (videt imminēre hostēs), it is very frequently 'present indicative'.

For verbs of recalling such as meminī ('I remember'), ōdī ('I hate'), nōvī ('I know') and verbs of resulting states such as mortuus est ('is dead') and dīvīsa est ('is divided'), tense inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-past as in fēceram ('I had made') have their meanings reduced to a primary past as in meminī ('I remembered', evolved from 'I had memorized').

In some contexts, the '"habeō" perfect periphrasis with present indicative auxiliary' is often interchangeable with 'perfect indicative' verbs. In later Latin the compound past with habeō became progressively more common, though still less common than the simple past with a 'perfect indicative' verb.

Secondary tenses
In Latin, represented events and states may be related to the time of another event in discourse, which in turn has a primary tense. Such events are said to have a secondary tense, of which there are three in Latin: namely, secondary future, secondary present and secondary past, each of which is described in a separate section below.

Secondary future
The secondary future is the future relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present, or past. Most often, the secondary future is realized by the periphrasis facturus + erō, sum, eram, fuī.

If applied to actions, the compound 'future in present' (e.g. factūrus sum, ‘am [going] to do’) represents a person's action that is future at an ongoing process other than the speech act such as tē absente ("while you are absent"). Similarly, the compound 'future in future' (e.g. factūrus erō, 'I will do') represents a person's action that will happen after a given future event. In contrast, the future periphrasis with an ‘imperfect indicative’ auxiliary (e.g. factūrus eram, ‘was about to do’) represents a person’s past plan of action. Although less common than the future periphrases with eram, future periphrases with a ‘perfect indicative’ auxiliary such as fuī are also found.

Secondary present
The secondary present is the present relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present or past. From these, 'present in present' is the rarest one. Theare are two secondary presents in Latin: the simple secondary present is realised by verbs with īnfectum aspect such as faciam, faciō, faciēbam and the compound secondary present is realised by the periphrasis facere + coeperō, coepī, coeperam. The verb group is often accompanied by spatial and temporal adjuncts such as ibī 'there', tum 'then', and eō tempore 'at that moment'.

Secondary past
The secondary past is the past relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present or past. There are three secondary pasts in Latin: 1. the simple secondary past is realised by verbs with perfectum aspect such as fēcerō, fēcī, fēceram; 2. the compound secondary past with "sum" is realised by the periphrasis factus + ero, sum, eram or fuī; and 3. the compound secondary past with "habeō" is realised by the periphrasis factum + habēbō, habeō, habēbam or habuī. In the secondary past, imperfect indicative auxiliaries such as eram and habēbam are more frequent than their perfect indicative counterparts such as fuī and habuī.

Tertiary past
If the secondary past applies to an event that had happened prior to a past point in time, the tertiary past applies to a third event that had happened earlier than that. The tertiary past is realised by a 'pluperfect indicative' auxiliary in either the "sum" perfect periphrasis or the "habeō" perfect periphrasis. Both the compound tertiary past with fueram and the compound tertiary past with habueram are uncommon tenses.

Formal descriptions

 * De Melo, Wolfgang David Cirilo (2007a), The Sigmatic Future in Archaic Latin. in De Melo, Wolfgang David Cirilo, The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.171–190


 * De Melo, Wolfgang David Cirilo (2007b), Simple Future and Future Perfect in Archaic Latin. in De Melo, Wolfgang David Cirilo, The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.21–50


 * Devine, Andrew M. & Laurence D. Stephens (2006), Latin Word Order. Structured Meaning and Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


 * Galdi, Giovanbattista (2016). On 'coepi'/'incipio' + infinitive: some new remarks. Chapter in Adams, James Noel and Vincent, Nigel. Early and late Latin: continuity or change? Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, p.246-264


 * Haverling, Gerd V.M. (2002). "On the semantic functions of the Latin perfect". Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology, Volume 10.


 * Pinkster, Harm (1987). "The Strategy and Chronology of the Development of Future and Perfect Tense Auxiliaries in Latin". In Martin Harris and Paolo Ramat (eds.) Historical Development of Auxiliaries (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, 35). De Gruyter Mouton.


 * Rosén, Hannah (2012). "The late Latin coepī + infinitive construction: evidences from translated texts". in Classica et Mediaevalia, vol. 63, pp. 189-215


 * Viti, Carlotta (2010). "The non-literal use of tenses in Latin, with particular reference to the praesens historicum". Revue de linguistique latine du Centre Alfred Ernout. (Posted at Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich).

Functional descriptions

 * Aerts, Simon (2018). "Tense, Aspect and Aktionsart in Classical Latin: Towards a New Approach". Symbolae Osloenses 92(1):107–149.


 * Haverling, Gerd V.M. (2012). "Actionality, tense, and viewpoint". In Baldi, Philip; Cuzzolin, Pierluigi (eds.) (2012). Constituent Syntax: Adverbial Phrases, Adverbs, Mood, Tense. ISBN 978-3110205633, pp. 277–524.


 * Schlicher, J. J. (1931). "The Historical Tenses and Their Functions in Latin". Classical Philology Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1931), pp. 46–59.

Grammar books

 * Touratier, Christian (2013). "Lateinische Grammatik - linguistische Einführung in die lateinische Sprache". WBG: Darmstadt


 * Gildersleeve, B. L. & Gonzalez Lodge (1895). Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar. 3rd Edition. (Macmillan)


 * Guerreira, Augustín Ramos (2021), “Tiempo y Aspecto” in José Miguel Baños Baños, “Sintaxis Latina”, Vol. I, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid. ISBN 978-8400108250


 * Pinkster, Harm (1990), Latin Syntax and Semantics. Chapter 11: The Latin tense system.


 * Rubenbauer, Hans & Hofmann, J.B. (2018) Lateinische Grammatik. Oldenburg Schulbuchverlag GmbH, Munich. ISBN 978-3-63706940-4