Latin takers out there?

Question

i seriously hate Latin. It's really really really hard.i go after school and stuff but i still dont understand alot of stuff. its really hard. all of those case endings and you have to change the endings of everything in Latin. I have this question.....why is there 4 ways to write a word?
for example: amo, amare, amavi, amatus
doceo, docere, doceui, docetus
audio, audire, audivi, auditus

Answer 1

What you have there are the principal parts of verbs. They show the ways the verbs are used to give the different tenses.

The order is:

1) First person singular, present tense - amo = I love; doceo = I teach; audio = I hear.

2) Infinitive - amare = to love, etc.

3) First person sigular past tense - amavi = I loved, etc.

4) Past participle - amatus = loved, docetus = taught, auditus = heard.

Prcatice for years has been to give these four parts of a verb when listing the verb. It gives you what you need to know to help put the proper ending on the verb to get the tense you want.

English has different endings for verbs, too - but it is true that Latin has a lot more and different ones. It's just another way to structure a language. It may seem odd at first, but after a while it becomes logical. Learning the basics of Latin will help you understand English better, and is a great preparation for learning a modern foreign language, especially European ones.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Tibi auxilio venio - I will (try to) help you. You're mixing up different things:
Conjugations of the verb (amo, first person), the verb itself (amare), tense of the verb (amavi -one of the past tenses), etc. This kind of grammar you also have in modern Roman languages like Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. English is much easier in this respect (I go, you go, we go, etc.), although its orthography is more difficult.
Verbs are the easiest part; when you're dealing with cases it get "nasty".
It was never my favorite subject either. Dura lex, sed lex - the law is unforgiving, but it's the law (laws of grammar in this case).
Good luck!