THE PRESENT TENSE

by Bob Kennedy  

    In any language, the number of possible tenses is enormous.  An action can be considered to be occurring, to have been completed, or just beginning, to name just a few.  However, most languages, in their development, do not have the need to have 30 or more tenses.  Rather, a small number of tenses evolve (in Latin's case, six), with each tense flexible enough to fit any one of the 30 or so possibilities of temporal action.

    Latin's present tense is a perfect example of a tense elastic enough to fit any of several categories of action.  For the most part, the present tense tends to indicate an action as now taking place or existing, and so as incomplete in present time, or as indefinite, referring to no particular time, but denoting a general truth.   However, Latin's present tense can also refer to many other things, including both future action, especially in poetry and colloquial language, and past action, in place of the historical perfect.  It can be used when quoting author's works, in the Conative Present, and in the Annalistic Present, too.  The following table lists these and other uses of the Present Tense, each with an example (taken from Allen & Greenough and Gildersleeve & Lodge).
 
USES OF THE PRESENT TENSE
  • Action that is now taking place (Incomplete Action, also known as the Specific Present):
 senatus haec intellegit, cônsul videt, hic tamen vivit (Cic. Catil. 1.2),
"The senate knows this, the consul sees it, yet this man lives."
  • General truth (the Gnomic or Universal Present):
 minôra di neglegunt (Cic. N. D. 3.86),
"The gods disregard trifles."
  • When citing author's works
      •  
      Epicurus verô ea dicit (Cic. Tusc. 2.17)
      "But Epicurus says such things."
       
  • When used with words describing a specific period of time [especially iam (now), iam diu (now for a long time), iam dudum (now long since)], action taking place now but started in the past:
iam diu ignôrô quid agas (Cic. Fam. 7.9),
"For a long time I have not known what you were doing."

This is often translated into English as the Progressive Perfect.
With the present imperative and iam dudum, it is indicated that the action ought to have been done or was wished for long ago
  • Action attempted or begun but never completed (Conative Present)
iam iamque manu tenet (Verg. A. 2.530)
"And now, even now, he attempts to grasp him."
  • Action in the future (especially in everyday language and poetry)
      •  
      imusne sessum (Cic. De Or. 3.17)
      "Shall we take a seat? (are we going to sit?)"
       
    Verbs like possum and volo (verbs of necessity and wanting) often refer to the future, too.
    The words antequam, priusquam, and dum can sometimes cause a present tense verb to refer to the future
       
  • Anticipation of the future
      •  
      si vincimus, omnia tuta erunt
      "If we conquer, everything will be safe."
       
  • In place of the historical perfect
      •  
      affertur nuntius Syracusas; curritur ad praetôrium; Cleomenes in publico esse nôn audet; includit se domi; (Cic. Ver. 5.92)
      "The news is brought to Syracuse; they run to headquarters; Cleomenes does not venture to be abroad; he shuts himself up at home."
       
    This is common in most languages, when imagining past events occurring in the present
    Dum (while) also often takes the present indicative to denote action in past time
  • Annalistic Present (present used in place of the perfect to summarize past events)
      •  
      Rôma interim crescit Albae ruinis: duplicatur civium numerus; Caelius additur urbi môns (Liv.1.30) 
      "Rome meanwhile grows as a result of the fall of Alba: the number of citizens is doubled; the Coelian hill is added to the town"
       
  • In the case of a present infinitive, action going on without distinct reference to time
      •  
      Putavi eum venire
      "I thought that he was coming."
       
    With verbs like debui, oportuit, potuit, Latin uses the present tense while the English translation is in the perfect
    pecunia, quam his oportuit civitatibus prô frumentô dari (Cic. Ver. 3.174)
    "Money which ought to have been paid to these states for grain."
Some other special cases of the present tense include:
  • In the Optative Subjunctive, present tense denotes the wish as possible
  • There is no Present Participle Passive (a dum or cum usually fills in in this case)
  • In the case of a present particple, the action is going on at the same time as the leading verb

    A s you can see, Latin's present tense is perhaps the most flexible of all the tenses.  While in English, the present tense is generally only translated in one of three ways {the simple present (I see), the present progressive (I am seeing), and the present emphatic (I do see)}1, Latin's present tense can go beyond the boundaries of  present time, referring to both action in the future and in the past.   Often certain words (like iam diu, iam dudum, and dum) can clue the reader in as to when the action is taking place, but, often, the only way that this can be deciphered is by looking at the context of the passage.

1Study Guide to Wheelock Latin, Dale Grote.   gopher://wiretap.spies.com/00/Library/Article/Language/latin.stu

Bob Kennedy   Revised  September 27, 1999