Lesson 6 – ‘Hic, hec, hoc’, third and fourth conjugation verbs

hic, hec, hoc

Hic, hec, hoc has several meanings

  • ‘This’ when one of these words is an adjective – describing a noun
  • ‘He, she, it’ when it’s a pronoun – standing in for a noun

hic, hec, hoc agrees with the noun it relates to.

Singular
Case Masculine Feminine Neuter Adjective Pronoun
Nominative hic hec hoc this he, she, it
Accusative hunc hanc hoc this him, her, it
Genitive huius huius huius of this his, her, its
Dative huic huic huic to this to him/her/it
Ablative hoc hac hoc by this by him/her/it
Plural
Case Masculine Feminine Neuter Adjective Pronoun
Nominative hi he hec these they
Accusative hos has hec these them
Genitive horum harum horum of these their
Dative his or hiis his or hiis his or hiis to these to them
Ablative his or hiis his or hiis his or hiis by these by them
hec est concordia this is the agreement concordia, -e
(f.) agreement
confirmamus hac carta hec maneria domino we confirm by this charter these manors to the lord.
lego hoc testamento has predictas septem acras terre I bequeath by this will these aforesaid seven acres of land. acra, -e
(f.) acre
hi sunt plegii Edwardi Basset These are the pledges of Edward Basset plegius, -i
(m.) pledge

As always, don’t try to learn all of the endings at once! First look for patterns

  • Genitive singular is the same for all genders
  • Dative singular is the same for all genders
  • Nominative singular and accusative singular are the same for neuter
  • Dative and ablative plurals are the same

Third conjugation verbs

Verbs from the third conjugation end ‘–ere’.

When the ‘-ere’ is removed, the stem is either a consonant or ‘u’.

cognoscere to know, get to know
concedere to concede, grant, allow
dicere to say
mittere to send
ostendere to show
petere to require, seek, petition
reddere to give back, pay
solvere to pay

To conjugate these verbs

  1. Remove the ‘-ere’ to find the stem
  2. Add these endings
Latin English
-o I
-is you (singular)
-it he/she/it
-imus we
-itis you (plural)
-unt they

Look at our example of concedere – to concede

Latin English
concedo I concede
concedis you concede (singular)
concedit he/she/it concedes
concedimus we concede
conceditis you concede (plural)
concedunt they concede
regina totum manerium Westmonasterii magistro Stephano concedit The queen concedes the whole manor of Westminster to master Stephen
vidue predictas terras filiabus domini non reddunt The widows do not surrender the aforesaid lands to the daughters of the lord.
nos Edwardus et Johanna tres marcas domino novo solvimus We, Edward and Joanna, pay three marks to the new lord. Johanna, -e (f.) Joanna
predicta vidua reginam novam petit the aforesaid widow petitions the new queen
Maria dicit quod non habet cartam Mary says that she does not have the charter quod, because, that (after ‘to know’,‘to say’ etc.)

Some third conjugation verbs are called ‘io’ verbs because they have different endings

  • -io for the ‘I’ form (instead of –o)
  • -iunt for the ‘they’ form (instead of –unt)

You are most likely to come across facere – to make, do

novum testamentum facio I make a new will

Fourth conjugation verbs; obire

Verbs from the fourth conjugation end ‘-ire’.

audire to hear
scire to know
venire to come

To conjugate these verbs, remove the ‘-ire’ and add these endings.

Latin English
-io I
-is you (singular)
-it he/she/it
-imus we
-itis you (plural)
-iunt they

Look at our example of venire – to come

Latin English
venio I come
venis you come (singular)
venit he/she/it comes
venimus we come
venitis you come (plural)
veniunt they come
agricole ad curiam veniunt the farmers come to the court ad curiam, -e (f.) to the court
non scio I do not know

Handy hints – third and fourth conjugation verbs

Did you notice the similarities between the endings of regular third and fourth declension verbs? Look back at the lesson and check.

The difference is that in the fourth declension, the ‘I’ and ‘they’ forms have an ‘i’.

Noticing patterns like this makes learning Latin much easier.

Obire to die

This is an irregular verb, which although similar to a fourth conjugation verb, is a compound of ‘eo, ire, ivi, itum – to go’. It conjugates in the following way:

obeo I die
obis you die
obit he/she dies
obimus we die
obitis you (pl) die
obeunt they die

Checklist

Are you confident with:

  • The meanings of ‘hic, hec, hoc’?
  • How to decline a third conjugation verb like concedere?
  • How to decline a fourth conjugation verb like venire?
  • The difference between the endings of regular third and fourth conjugation verbs?

What next?