The Ultimate Guide to Latin Person and Number

Person and number are two important properties of Latin verbs. Read this quick post to learn a) what person and number are and b) how to identify the person and number of any Latin verb.

First we will go through each person and number, and then we will examine Latin verb personal endings. These personal endings are crucial for identifying person and number and consequently for understanding Latin texts.

If you feel comfortable with the principles of verb conjugation and are already familiar with the concepts of person and number, then you can scroll straight down to the verb personal endings section.

If person and number are new to you, then I recommend that you read the entire post!

What are person and number in Latin?

Latin Person

A verb’s person is a way of describing its subject (the person or thing performing the action). Latin – just like English – has three persons: first, second, and third.

If the subject of the verb is the speaker, then the verb is in the first person. In English, our first person pronouns are “I” and “we”. Here are some examples of verbs in the first person (i.e. verbs with first person subjects):

• I sit.
• We were talking.
• We had been dismissed.
• I will not go.

If the subject of the verb is the person spoken to, then the verb is in the second person. The English second person pronouns are “you” and “y’all” (“you” in the plural). Here are some examples of second person verbs:

• You should stay.
• You all are laughing.

If the subject of the verb is the person or thing spoken about, then the verb in the third person. Some English third person pronouns are “he”, “she”, “it”, and “they”. Verbs are also third person if they have nouns as their subjects. Here are some examples:

• She did not eat.
• The trees were cut down.
• He will come.
• They were having a party.

Now that you know what the three Latin persons are, let’s move on to number.

Latin Number

Latin has two numbers: singular and plural. Number is extremely straightforward. Just as with person, a verb’s number is related to its subject.

If the subject of the verb is one person or thing, then the verb is singular. Examples:

• The house is red.
• I am going.
• She saw me.
• The woman sings a song.

If the subject of the verb is two or more people or things, then the verb is plural. Examples:

• The houses are red.
• We are going.
• They saw me.
• The women sing a song.

Now let’s look at person and number together.

Person and Number Together

Every finite (conjugated) verb has both person and number. When we combine person and number, we end up with six possibilities.

• 1st person singular
• 2nd person singular
• 3rd person singular
• 1st person plural
• 2nd person plural
• 3rd person plural

Here are the pronouns that correlate to the three persons, singular and plural, in Latin:

	Singular	Plural
First Person	ego	nōs
Second Person	tū	vōs
Third Person	is, ea, id	eī, eae, ea

Now here’s the thing. In English, we always have to have an explicit noun or pronoun that acts as the subject of a verb. This is because our verbs themselves do not change much based on their subject.

Let’s have an example. If I say “were singing” in English, that is not a complete statement. Who was singing?

I might be saying “you” were singing, or that “we” were singing, or that “they” were singing. There’s no way to tell from the verb alone. That’s why an explicit subject is necessary.

Latin, on the other hand, is a highly inflected language, and verb endings contain a lot of information about the subject. For this reason, pronouns can be omitted without confusion.

Compare cantābāmus “we were singing” and cantābant “they were singing”. There is a clear distinction between the two words; we don’t need to add the pronouns nōs and eī to specify who was singing.

So how do you tell the person and number of a Latin verb, if a pronoun is not given?

How to identify a Latin verb’s person and number

Fortunately for Latin students everywhere, it is actually quite simple to find a verb’s person and number. You just need to look at the very end of the verb and see what personal ending it has.

Every finite (that is, conjugated) Latin verb has a personal ending. Personal endings tell us what person and number a verb is.

The personal endings are the same regardless of verb tense or mood. Even irregular verbs like the verb “to be” and the verb “to be able” have regular personal endings. Awesome, right?

(I should specify, however, that these personal endings do not apply to imperatives.)

There are two sets of personal endings: active personal endings and passive personal endings. If you are a beginning student, you probably have not learned passive voice yet, so we will focus on the active personal endings.

Note that some textbooks will call these personal endings final personal signs.

If you memorize these endings, then you can look at any Latin verb and instantly know what person and number it is. It doesn’t matter whether you know the meaning of the verb or not, or whether the verb is regular or irregular. It doesn’t matter what tense or mood the verb is in.

Only one tense has exceptions, which I will discuss below. But first, let me show you what I mean. Time to put your new knowledge into practice.

Practice Exercises

In the following exercise, I give you a random assortment of Latin verbs. Your job is to look at the ending and determine a) the verb’s person and b) its number. For the sake of simplicity, all the verbs are in the active voice.

Example: cantās

Answer: 2nd person singular

When you look at the ending of cantās, you see an s. If you reference the chart above, you see that s is the 2nd person singular ending.

Simple, right? Now you try!

PRO TIP: Don’t confuse s and tis. Always check to see if the final S is preceded by T and I.

How are you feeling? A bit more comfortable? Now let’s take it a step further.

In the following exercise, all the verbs are in the present tense. I supply the basic meaning, so your job is to inspect the ending and say who is performing the action. Then translate the verb into English.

Example: cantās (sing)

Answer: you (singular) sing

As we saw up above, the s personal ending indicates that cantās is 2nd person singular. Therefore, the subject is “you” and the proper translation is “you sing”.

See? You’re translating mini-sentences already!

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Exceptions to the Latin Personal Endings

I told you that there were a few exceptions to these reliable personal endings. The exceptions are all found within the perfect indicative active.

If you are a beginning student, you may not have reached the perfect tense yet. In that case, feel free to ignore this section.

Here are the full endings of the perfect indicative active. Endings that do not include the normal final personal signs are in bold.

	Singular	Plural
1st	ī	imus
2nd	istī	istis
3rd	it	ērunt / ēre

As you can see, the 3rd person singular has the expected personal ending (t), as do the 1st and 2nd person plural (mus and tis, respectively). Things get weird in the 1st and 2nd person singular and in the 3rd person plural.

Instead of ō or m, the 1st person singular form ends in ī. And instead of s, the 2nd person singular form ends in istī.

As far as the 3rd person plural goes, there are actually two common forms. The first, ērunt, ends in nt as we expect. The second, ēre, does not.

And there you go. Now you know the exceptions to the regular personal endings. You are ready to take on the world of Latin!

A Note on Active vs. Passive Personal Endings

Up above, I explained that there are two separate sets of personal endings: active and passive. So you might think that personal endings will also tell you whether a verb is active or passive.

And you would be right – most of the time. If a verb has active endings, it is active. If it has passive endings, it is passive.

But the passive of three Latin tenses (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect) is formed by combining a form of the verb sum (to be) with the perfect participle passive. For example, laudātus est means “he has been praised / he was praised”.

Laudātus is a participle, so it does not have a personal ending. The personal ending, t, is on est. Est has an active personal ending, but the verb as a whole is passive.

So if you see a compound verb form like this, be careful. There will be an active final personal sign, but the verb itself is actually passive.

Final Thoughts on Latin Person and Number

Now you know what the ending of a Latin verb can tell you. You have learned how Latin verb personal endings help you identify person, number, and voice.

Memorize those personal endings, and your Latin journey will be SO much easier. You will always know who is performing or receiving an action.

Speaking of making things easier: do you know what verb principal parts are? Principal parts are another helpful tool for Latin learners. So go check out my post on the topic!

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