Everything about Principal Parts totally explained
» This article is about the grammar term. For the mathematical meaning, see Principal part.
In
language learning, the
principal parts of a
verb are those forms that a student must memorize in order to be able to
conjugate the verb through all its forms.
By language
English
In
English, the verb
love derives all its forms systematically (
love, loves, loved, loving), and since these can all be deduced from the basic form (the citation, dictionary, or lexicographic form, which in English is the bare
infinitive), no other principal parts have to be learned. With the verb
sing, on the other hand, the forms
sang and
sung can't be deduced, so the learner of English must memorise three principal parts,
sing – sang – sung. From these, all other forms (like
sings or
singing) can be deduced.
(See also English verbs, English irregular verbs, English as an additional language.)
Latin
In
Latin, most verbs have four principal parts. The verb for "to carry" has the parts
porto – portare – portavi – portatus.
porto is the first person singular form of the present ("I carry"), but the infinitive
portare ("to carry") is also needed to deduce all the forms of the present stem. The perfect stem
portavi ("I carried") and the supine stem
portatus (required for the perfect passive participle). Another example, the verb "to praise" has the parts
laudo - laudare - laudavi - laudatus.
Laudo and
laudare, the present active indicative first person singular and the present active infinitive are needed to deduce the present stem.
Laudavi is needed for the perfect stem, while
laudatus is required for the perfect passive participle.
Spanish
In
Spanish, verbs are traditionally held to have only one principal part, the infinitive, by which one can classify the verb into one of three conjugation paradigms (according to the ending of the infinitive, which may be
-ar,
-er or
-ir). However, some scholars believe that the conjugation could be regularized by adding another principal part to
vowel-alternating verbs, which shows the alternation. For example,
herir "to hurt" is usually considered irregular because its conjugation contains forms like
hiero "I hurt",
hieres "you hurt", where the vowel in the
root changes into a diphthong. However, by including the first person singular, present tense, indicative mood form (
hiero) as a principal part, and noting that the
diphthong appears only when that syllable is stressed, the conjugation of
herir becomes completely predictable.
(See also Spanish verbs, Spanish conjugation.)
Scottish Gaelic
In
Scottish Gaelic there are two principal parts for the regular verb:
pog – pogadh. All finite forms can be deduced from the imperative
pog ('kiss!'), all non-finite forms from the verbal noun
pogadh ('kissing'). The ten irregular verbs can, with only two or three small aberrations (unexpected lenition), be deduced from four principal parts.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Principal Parts'.
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