Romance verbs

Romance verbs refers to the verbs of the Romance languages. In the transition from Latin to the Romance languages, verbs went through many phonological, syntactic, and semantic changes. Most of the distinctions present in classical Latin continued to be made, but synthetic forms were often replaced with analytic ones. Other verb forms changed meaning, and new forms also appeared.

Morphological changes

Comparison of conjugations

The following tables present a comparison of the conjugation of the regular verb amare "to love" in Classical Latin, and Vulgar Latin (reconstructed, with stress marked), and five modern Romance languages.

Form		Classical Latin	Vulgar Latin	Spanish	Portuguese	Italian	French	Sardinian (Logudorese)
Infinitive		amāre	*amáre	amar	amar	amare	aimer	amare
Indicative	Present	amō amās amat amāmus amātis amant	ámo ámas ámat amámos amátes ámant	amo amas ama amamos amáis aman	amo amas ama amamos amais amam	amo ami ama amiamo amate amano	aime aimes aime aimons aimez aiment	amo amas amat amamus amades amant
	Preterite	amāvī amāvistī amāvit amāvimus amāvistis amāvērunt	amái amásti amáut amámmos amástes amáront	amé amaste amó amamos amasteis amaron	amei amaste amou amámos amastes amaram	amai amasti amò amammo amaste amarono	aimai aimas aima aimâmes aimâtes aimèrent[lower-alpha 1]	amesi amesti amesit amemus amezis ameint
	Imperfect	amābam amābās amābat amābāmus amābātis amābant	amába amábas amábat amábamos amábates amábant	amaba amabas amaba amábamos amabais amaban	amava amavas amava amávamos amáveis amavam	amavo amavi amava amavamo amavate amavano	aimais aimais aimait aimions aimiez aimaient	amaia amaias amaiat amaiamus amaiades amaiant
	Pluperfect	amāveram amāveras amāverat amāverāmus amāverātis amāverant	amára amáras amárat amáramos amárates amárant	amara amaras amara amáramos amarais amaran[lower-alpha 2]	amara amaras amara amáramos amáreis amaram[lower-alpha 3]	–	–	–
	Future[lower-alpha 4]	amābō amābis amābit amābimus amābitis amābunt	–	amaré amarás amará amaremos amaréis amarán	amarei amarás amará amaremos amareis amarão	amerò amerai amerà ameremo amerete ameranno	aimerai aimeras aimera aimerons aimerez aimeront	–
	Future perfect	amāverō amāveris amāverit amāverimus amāveritis amāverint	amáre amáres amáret amáremos amáretes amárent	amare amares amare amáremos amareis amaren[lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6]	amar amares amar amarmos amardes amarem[lower-alpha 5]	–	–	–
Subjunctive	Present	amem amēs amet amēmus amētis ament	áme ámes ámet amémos amétes áment	ame ames ame amemos améis amen	ame ames ame amemos ameis amem	ami ami ami amiamo amiate amino	aime aimes aime aimions aimiez aiment	ame ames amet amemus amedes ament
	Perfect	amāverim amāveris amaverit amāverimus amāveritis amāverint	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Imperfect	amārem amārēs amāret amārēmus amārētis amārent	amáre amáres amáret amáremos amáretes amárent	–	amar amares amar amarmos amardes amarem[lower-alpha 7]	–	–	amere ameres ameret ameremus amerezes amerent
	Pluperfect	amāvissem amāvissēs amāvisset amāvissēmus amāvissētis amāvissent	amásse amásses amásset amássemos amássetes amássent	amase amases amase amásemos amáseis amasen[lower-alpha 8]	amasse amasses amasse amássemos amásseis amassem[lower-alpha 8]	amassi amassi amasse amassimo amaste amassero[lower-alpha 8]	aimasse aimasses aimât aimassions aimassiez aimassent[lower-alpha 8][lower-alpha 6]	–

Literary.
Its meaning has mostly shifted to that of an imperfect subjunctive in modern Spanish. It is now usually interchangeable with amase, amases, amase, etc. Nevertheless, a few rare uses as a pluperfect subsist.
Fell into disuse in modern Portuguese, now found only in literary texts. Nowadays largely replaced by the compound forms tinha amado" or havia amado (had loved).
The future indicative tense of the modern languages does not derive from the Latin form (which tended to be confounded with the preterite due to sound changes in Vulgar Latin), but rather from an infinitive + habeō periphrasis, later reanalysed as a simple tense. The conditional tense was formed similarly from the imperfect of habeō.
Its meaning has shifted to that of a future subjunctive in Spanish and Portuguese.
Disused.
Reanalysed as a personal infinitive. See below.
Its meaning has shifted to that of an imperfect subjunctive in most Romance languages. But note the normal use, in modern south-eastern Umbrian of amassimo instead of standard Italian amammo to express an indicative past perfect.

Note that the Vulgar Latin reconstructions are believed to have regularized word stress within each tense (except the present). Word-final ⟨e⟩ probably converged on /ə/.

Copula

While the passive voice became completely periphrastic in Romance, the active voice has been morphologically preserved to a greater or lesser extent. The tables below compare the conjugation of the Latin verbs sum and sto in the active voice with that of the Romance copulae, their descendants. For simplicity, only the first person singular is listed for finite forms. Note that certain forms in romance languages come from the suppletive verb sedeo (to be seated) instead of sum, e.g. subjunctive present: sedea > sia, sea, seja... (medieval Galician-Portuguese, for instance, had double forms in the whole conjugation: sou/sejo, era/sia, fui/sevi, fora/severa, fosse/sevesse...)

Indicative
Form	Latin		Italian		French	Spanish		Portuguese		Logudorese
Present	sum	sto	sono	sto	suis	soy	estoy	sou	estou	so	isto
Perfect/Preterite	fui	steti	fui	stetti	fus	fui	estuve	fui	estive	essesi	istesi
Imperfect	eram	stabam	ero	stavo	étais	era	estaba	era	estava	essia	istaia
Pluperfect	fueram	steteram	–	–	–	fuera	estuviera	fora	estivera	aia essidu	aia istadu
Future¹	ero	stabo	sarò	starò	serai	seré	estaré	serei	estarei	appo a essere	appo a istare
Subjunctive
Present	sim	stem	sia	stia	sois	sea	esté	seja	esteja	sia	iste
Perfect/Preterite²	fuerim	steterim	–	–	–	fuera	estuviera	for	estiver	appe essidu	appe istadu
Imperfect	essem	starem	–	–	–	–	–	ser	estar	essere	istere
Pluperfect	fuissem	stetissem	fossi	stessi	fusse	fuese	estuviese	fosse	estivesse	aere essidu	aere istadu
Non-finite
Infinitive	esse	stare	essere	stare	être	ser	estar	ser	estar	essere	istare
Supine	–	statum	-	stato	été	sido	estado	sido	estado	essidu	istadu
Gerund	esendum	standum	essendo	stando	étant	siendo	estando	sendo	estando	essende	istande

Indicative
Form	Latin		Catalan		Sicilian		Romansh	Romanian
Present	sum	sto	sóc	estic	sugnu	staiu	sun	sunt
Perfect/Preterite	fui	steti	fui	estiguí	fui	stesi	–	fui, fusei
Imperfect	eram	stabam	era	estava	era	stava	era	eram
Pluperfect	fueram	steteram	fóra	estigués	fora	–	–	fusesem
Future¹	ero	stabo	seré	estaré	–	–	–	–
Subjunctive
Present	sim	stem	sigui, siga	estigui, estiga	–	–	saja	să fiu
Pluperfect	fuissem	stetissem	fos	estigués	fussi	stassi	fiss	–
Non-finite
Infinitive	esse	stare	ser, ésser	estar	siri	stari	esser	fire, a fi
Supine	–	statum	estat, sigut, sét	estat	statu	statu	stà	fost
Gerund	esendum	standum	sent, essent	estant	sennu	stannu	essend, siond	fiind

The future indicative tense does not derive from the Latin form (which tended to be confounded with the preterite due to sound changes in Vulgar Latin), but rather from an infinitive + HABEO periphrasis, later reanalysed as a simple tense.
Formally identical to the future perfect indicative, the two paradigms merged in Vulgar Latin.

Semantic changes

In spite of the remarkable continuity of form, several Latin tenses have changed meaning, especially subjunctives.

The supine became a past participle in all Romance languages.
The pluperfect indicative became a conditional in Sicilian, and an imperfect subjunctive in Spanish.
The pluperfect subjunctive developed into an imperfect subjunctive in all languages except Romansh, where it became a conditional, and Romanian, where it became a pluperfect indicative.
The future perfect indicative became a future subjunctive in Old Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician.

The Latin imperfect subjunctive underwent a change in syntactic status, becoming a personal infinitive in Portuguese and Galician.[1] An alternative hypothesis traces the personal infinitive back to the Latin infinitive, not to a conjugated verb form.[2]

Periphrases

In many cases, the empty cells in the tables above exist as distinct compound verbs in the modern languages. Thus, the main tense and mood distinctions in classical Latin are still made in most modern Romance languages, though some are now expressed through compound rather than simple verbs. Some examples, from Romanian:

Perfect indicative: am fost, ai fost, a fost, am fost, ați fost, au fost;
Future indicative: voi fi, vei fi, va fi, vom fi, veți fi, vor fi;
Future perfect indicative: voi fi fost, vei fi fost, va fi fost, vom fi fost, veți fi fost, vor fi fost.

New forms also developed, such as the conditional, which in most Romance languages started out as a periphrasis, but later became a simple tense. In Romanian, the conditional is still periphrastic: aș fi, ai fi, ar fi, am fi, ați fi, ar fi.

Notes

Williams (1962); Wireback (1994)
Maurer (1968); Osborne (1982)

References

Maurer, Theodoro H. (1968). O infinitivo flexionado português: estudo histórico-descritivo (in Portuguese). São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional.
Paola Monachesi, The Verbal Complex in Romance: A Case Study in Grammatical Interfaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Osborne, Bruce (1982). "On the origin of the Portuguese inflected infinitive". In Anders Ahlqvist (ed.). Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Galway, April 6–10 1981. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 243–48. ISBN 978-90-272-3514-5.
Williams, Edwin Bucher (1962). From Latin to Portuguese: Historical phonology and morphology of the Portuguese language (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Wireback, Kenneth J. (1994). "The Origin of the Portuguese Inflected Infinitive". Hispania. 77 (3): 544–554. doi:10.2307/344992.

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[one-1] Literary.

[two-2] Its meaning has mostly shifted to that of an imperfect subjunctive in modern Spanish. It is now usually interchangeable with amase, amases, amase, etc. Nevertheless, a few rare uses as a pluperfect subsist.

[eight-3] Fell into disuse in modern Portuguese, now found only in literary texts. Nowadays largely replaced by the compound forms tinha amado" or havia amado (had loved).

[seven-4] The future indicative tense of the modern languages does not derive from the Latin form (which tended to be confounded with the preterite due to sound changes in Vulgar Latin), but rather from an infinitive + habeō periphrasis, later reanalysed as a simple tense. The conditional tense was formed similarly from the imperfect of habeō.

[three-5] Its meaning has shifted to that of a future subjunctive in Spanish and Portuguese.

[six-6] Disused.

[four-7] Reanalysed as a personal infinitive. See below.

[five-8] Its meaning has shifted to that of an imperfect subjunctive in most Romance languages. But note the normal use, in modern south-eastern Umbrian of amassimo instead of standard Italian amammo to express an indicative past perfect.

[will-9] Williams (1962); Wireback (1994)

[10] Maurer (1968); Osborne (1982)