Questions tagged [contraction]

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7 votes
1 answer
286 views

When did unsyncopated forms become archaic?

I'd always learned that the regular way to say "you loved" was amāvisti, with the "syncopated" version amāsti being poetic and uncommon. However, Unbrutal_Russian says differently (with good ...
Draconis's user avatar
  • 67k
12 votes
1 answer
617 views

When to use -ris vs. -re as a passive verbal ending

Anyone who has read Cicero's famous line, Quo usque tandem, Catalina, abutere patientia nostra? ...knows that the 2nd person singular passive personal ending "-ris" is often changed to "-re": ...
brianpck's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
108 views

Why does the contraction rule ε+εν -> ειν apply to the formation of λύειν?

In their discussions of the formation of the infinitive, both Pharr and White remark on the contraction of -εεν to -ειν, but I don't understand why this would apply to most of the examples that come ...
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9 votes
3 answers
812 views

How can I tell if -ere is getting substituted for -erunt?

There's an alternate form of the third person plural perfect active indicative. Instead of, say, habuerunt, a poet might write habuere, to make the word fit with the meter, but that looks like the ...
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