Latin has Six Tenses

If you're like me -- and you're probably not, but we can ignore that for a moment -- then you already knew that Latin had a weirdiculous amount of tenses in its language. "Like, nine or something," I believe was the exact amount I specified when asked.

Well, cats and kittens, I was mistaken!

For those of you who can't speak English or have little to no interest in 'the Lat', as it is called on the streets, let me quickly explain what a tense in. Then you will understand, and therefore care!

In English, we have three tenses: Courage, Wisdom, and Power. Each one of them roughly

corresponds to the three ACTUAL tenses of the English language, that being past, present and future. Which one you decide aligns with which one is entirely at your discretion, but know that you CAN be wrong about this, and your neighbours WILL judge you for it.

In Latin, however, they have six tenses! Three are 'simple' and three are 'perfect'. All of the 'perfect' tenses are in the past. The Lat is all about the past!

That's why they're dead and no one speaks their language any more!

The first of the simple tenses is the present tense, which functions much the same as the English present tense.

e.g.
I run from velociraptors.

The second is the imperfect tense, which is one of the past tenses that conveys an actual this is or was incomplete.

e.g.

I was running from velociraptors.

The third and last of the simple tenses is the future tense, which again is roughly synonymous with the English future tense.

e.g.

I will run from velociraptors.

The fourth and first of the perfected tenses is the perfect tense, which is used for completed ('perfected') actions.

e.g.

I ran from velociraptors.

The fifth tense is the pluperfect tense, which is used to indicate that the action was completed before something else.

e.g.

I had run from velociraptors.

The sixth and last of the tenses is the future perfect tense, which is used to indicate that something will be completed in the future.

e.g.

I will have run from velociraptors.

And now you can speak the Lat! Impress your friends with your incredible vocabulary of the Lat terms. You can even tell jokes in the Lat and be the life of the party! "I was running from velociraptors I ran from velociraptors!" See who laughs and gets it and who isn't cool enough to speak dead languages!

Their neighbours will surely judge them if they don't.

Other interesting things I learnt today:

• Your big toe is called your hallux
• Tapirs are arguably the cutest creatures on Earth
• Crouchmas is sometimes also called 'Roodmas' by people who are, y'know, wrong