Infinitive forms

[AbigailJ]

OK, I learned Spanish many moons ago and when I learned conjugations I learned all the inifinitive forms and then the various tenses after that.

So ... are there infinitive forms in Latin in the same (or similar) way?


My apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere ...

[jeremiah213]

Yes there are. I seem to recall that the infinitive form of a spanish word is the dictionary form of that verb, it's very much like that in Latin. Here are the differences. Latin verbs usually have four principle parts, from which all the forms of that verb can be derived. The second of the four forms is the infinitive for that verb. Example:

voco, vocare, vocavi, vocatus. -to call

vocare (literally translated "to call") is the infinitive form.

This might be TMI (Too much Information) but the infinitive form is used to derive all the Present System forms in both the active and the passive voice. You remove the "-re" ending from the infinitive add the tense-marker and the personal ending. Example.

vocare -> voca.....re -> voca+ba -> vocaba+mus -> vocabamus - we were calling.

I hope this helps!