17
votes
Accepted
How does forem compare to essem?
For my answer, I will use material from a 1931 article written to address this very issue: "The Use of Forem and Essem" by Winnie D. Lawrence, available on JSTOR.
Abstract:
While essem was always ...
- 38.5k
16
votes
Accepted
Present participles of the verb esse
Good question!
In the beginning, way back in the far-flung times of Proto-Indo-European, the word for "it is" was something like *h₁ésti, and it had a fairly regular present participle, *h₁sónts. In ...
- 64.6k
15
votes
Accepted
'fuam' and 'forem' not available in first and second person plural?
Why no fuamus?
There is an enormous difference in the frequencies of different forms of any word.
It is instructive to compare the more common versions first:
The form sit gives 6985 hits, while simus ...
- 110k
13
votes
Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
To expand a little on Joonas's answer, the nominative singular ending in Latin was originally /os/ for all masculine nouns of the second declension, which developed to /us/ as part of a more general ...
- 26.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Confusion regarding 'esse' + accusative
It's not that esse takes the accusative—it's that cupiō takes the accusative, and esse links two things in the same case. In other words, regem is accusative because mē is accusative, and mē is ...
- 64.6k
12
votes
Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
It is servŏs in both instances, not servōs.
The old form of the nominative has the ending -os instead of the later -us.
What you see is indeed the singular nominative, but not in the form ...
- 110k
11
votes
Accepted
Why is there no predicate in "in vino veritas"?
Pinkster 2015 mentions the following observable trends regarding the omission of esse.
it is more frequent with the 3rd person than in the 1st or 2nd;
it is more frequent with present indicative ...
- 11.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Translation of "...quae parvas aves capit et est."
Indeed, it means [he] eats; it is a contracted form. It's not very common, nor extremely rare. Lewis & Short even call it "very frequent", which I think is an exaggeration:
The contr. forms es, ...
- 19.8k
10
votes
Can esse be used with a present participle?
My first instinct was that this is, at the very least, not common in classical Latin, and should only happen with participles that are basically adjectives and have lost some of their verbal semantics,...
- 1,470
9
votes
Why do translators translate Newton's 2nd law as though it referred to "force" when it does not mention force?
As you mention, the phrase corresponding to "force" here is vī mōtrici, the ablative of vīs mōtrix. Vīs is a fairly standard word for "power" or "strength", while mōtrix ...
- 64.6k
7
votes
Why is there no predicate in "in vino veritas"?
Yes to the first, usually no to the second.
In Latin, esse can almost always be dropped if the meaning is clear. This is even true when it's connected to another verb form, like in a perfect passive ...
- 64.6k
6
votes
Confusion regarding 'esse' + accusative
Cupere is a special kind of verb. You can use it to talk about something the subject of the sentence wishes to do himself. In that case you use an infinitive as the object and predicate nouns or ...
- 31.7k
6
votes
Active perfect stem conjugation and forms of esse
It's probably a coincidence.
Preface: My main source for this entire answer is The Origin of the Italic Imperfect Subjunctive by J. H. Jasanoff (Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 1991). If this is contradicted ...
- 64.6k
6
votes
Imperative of sum - es or esto?
Es and este are the present imperative, esto and estote are the future imperative.
As far as I know, the difference between present and future imperatives is the same for all verbs, and esse is not ...
- 110k
6
votes
Present participles of the verb esse
In medieval Latin there were neologisms such as ens. The link also says that the original form was sons with the classical meaning "guilty".
- 1,013
5
votes
Latin usage & perfect passive finite verb forms
Yes, it does happen.
The esse and the perfect participle need not be anywhere near each other.
For example, Cicero (in Verrem 2.1.16) writes:
In Siciliam sum inquirendi causa profectus.
The verb ...
- 110k
4
votes
Can I write 'Ecce Esse!'?
Yes, you can.
In Latin you can always write ecce and a noun, as in ecce homo.
The infinitive of a verb (such as esse) can be used as a noun.
For oblique cases you would have to consider the gerund, ...
- 110k
4
votes
Accepted
Can esse be used with a present participle?
I think that the four examples from Ovid given by blagae are not quite relevant to the question raised by the OP: all of them can be argued to show a clearly adjectival behavior and are not infrequent ...
- 7,511
3
votes
Accepted
Dominus vobiscum / omitted `esse' in subjunctive mood (sit)?
In Greek and Latin (and other languages) verbs of being (e.g. esse) are often omitted if they are not needed for the context.
Take Ephesians 1:2 as an example:
“χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη” (Ephesians 1:2 ...
- 348
3
votes
Reflexive Pronouns & Indirect Statements
Omitting esse in future infinitives like facturum esse is very common and perfectly acceptable.
In fact, if something doesn't seem to quite make sense syntactically, it is often a good idea to check ...
- 110k
2
votes
Can esse be used with a present participle?
Esse could indeed be paired with a present participle, at least in Medieval Latin. Like Greek, this forms a periphrastic tense, which is pretty much the same as the English progressive, as far as I ...
- 2,024
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