From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.

In indicative clauses, Latin has three primary tenses and three series of secondary tenses. The primary tenses are the future ('I will do'), the present ('I am doing'), and the past ('I did'). The series of secondary tenses are: 1) the secondary future series ('I will be about to do'), ('I am about to do'), and ('I was about to do'); 2) the secondary present series ('I will be doing'), ('I am doing'), and ('I was doing'); and 3) the secondary past series ('I will have done'), ('I have done'), and ('I had done').

This article covers only free indicative clauses for what took place, is taking place, or will take place. For bound indicative clauses, visit Latin tenses in relative clauses and Latin tenses in dependent clauses. For indications of frequency, possibility, volition and obligation, visit the article on Latin tenses with modality. For commands, see Latin tenses in commands.

Primary tenses

In Latin, a process may have one of three primary tenses: future, present and past. Each primary tense is described in a separate section below.

Future

The primary future is the future relative to the time of speech. For most verbs, the future is usually construed by a "future indicative" verb as in ('I will do'). In Early Latin, there was the "sigmatic future indicative" (also 'I will do').

For verbs of recalling such as ('I remember'), ('I hate'), ('I know') and some verbs of states such as ('is dead') and ('is divided'), inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-future as in ('I will have done') have their meanings reduced to a primary future: there is ('I will remember') evolved from ('I will have memorized') and there is for a future state ('he will be dead'), which evolved from the past-in-future event ('he will have died').

+ Simple and compound future Paradigm Latin Example English translation Comment "future indicative" (Vitruvius)Vitruvius, dē Architēctūra 3.5.15.14 'I will explain this in the next book' will do, do in English "sigmatic future indicative" (Plautus)Plautus, Menaechmī 521 'I will make sure you haven't eaten that lunch unpunished' "future perfect indicative" (Plautus)Plautus, Curculio 491 'I shall remember, don't worry about that'

Present

The primary present is the present relative to the time of speech. Most often the present tense is construed by a "present indicative" verb. For verbs of recalling such as ('I remember'), ('I hate'), ('I know') and verbs of resulting states such as ('is dead') and ('is divided'), inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-present as in ('I have done') have their meanings reduced to a primary present: there is ('I remember') evolved from ('I have memorized') and there is for either a present state ('he is dead') or a past-in-present event ('he has died').

Similarly, the "present indicative" auxiliary in "habeō" perfect periphrasis as in may represent either a present ownership of placed objects ("I own that clock placed over there") or the placement of owned objects with focus on the placement ("my clock is placed over there"). In contrast, the "present indicative" in "teneō" perfect periphrasis ('hold' or 'keep') represents the process of actively keeping an object in a given state while one speaks.

+ Simple and compound present Paradigm Latin Example English translation Comment "present indicative" (Cicero)Cicero, in Catilīnam 1.2 'the Senate understands this; the Consul sees it; yet this man is alive' do, are doing, have done, have been doing in English "perfect indicative" (Cicero)Cicero, dē Fīnibus 2.55 'I remember being present' "present indicative auxiliary in 'sum' perfect periphrasis" (Catullus)Catullus, Flētus passeris Lēsbiae 3.3 'my girlfriend's pet sparrow is dead "present indicative auxiliary in 'habeō' perfect periphrasis" (Petronius)Petronius, Satyricon 26.9.2 'He has a clock and a horn set up in the triclinium to remember from time to time how much of his life he spent thus far' have... placed in English "present indicative auxiliary in 'teneō' perfect periphrasis" (Cicero)Cicero, ad Atticum 9.12.3 'an army of the Roman people is besieging Gnaeus Pompey, and is keeping him fenced in with a ditch and wall, and preventing him from fleeing' is keeping... in English

Past

The primary past is the past relative to the time of speech. In biographies, past events are usually represented by "perfect indicative" verbs. In contrast, in narrative prose and poetry, past events are most often represented by "present indicative" verbs as if these events were taking place at the time of narration. In particular, past speech events are often represented by "present indicative" verbs when reporting what other people said: e.g. ('they gave a pledge') or ('they begged'). More than half the "present indicative" verbs for past events in Caesar's books are of this kind.

However, in recounts of events long past at the time of narration, the "imperfect indicative" is used instead of "perfect indicative" or "present indicative" as if these events were being vividly remembered by a story-internal observer in distress. As for word order, in Caesar's books, when a verb for a past event is placed initially in the sentence, as in the example below (), it is very frequently "present indicative".

For verbs of recalling such as ('I remember'), ('I hate'), ('I know') and verbs of resulting states such as ('is dead') and ('is divided'), inflections and periphrases that usually construe a past-in-past as in ('I had done') have their meanings reduced to a primary past: there is ('I remembered') evolved from ('I had memorized') and there is for the past state ('he was dead') and the past-in-past event ('he had died').

In some contexts, the "'habeō' perfect periphrasis with present indicative auxiliary" is often interchangeable with "perfect indicative" verbs. In later Latin the compound past with became progressively more common, though still less common than the simple past with a "perfect indicative" verb.

+ Simple and compound past Paradigm Latin Example English translation Comment "perfect indicative" (Suetonius)Suetonius, dē vītā Dīvī Juliī 37 'I came, I saw, I conquered' did in English "present indicative" (Caesar)Caesar, dē Bellō Civīlī 6.38 'he saw the enemy coming ... he seized weapons from those nearby ...' "imperfect indicative" (Cicero)Cicero, in Verrem, 2.5.162 'A Roman citizen was beaten by rods in the center of Messana's main square...' "pluperfect indicative" (Caesar)Caesar, dē Bellō Civīlī 3.47.5 'they remembered how they had put up with a great shortage at Alesia' "present indicative auxiliary in 'sum' perfect periphrasis" (Cicero)Cicero, prō Sextō Rosciō Amerīnō 92 'where was Sextus Roscius murdered? – in Rome'

Secondary tenses

In Latin, represented events and states may be related to the time of another event in discourse, which in turn has a primary tense. Such events are said to have a secondary tense, of which there are three in Latin: namely, secondary future, secondary present and secondary past, each of which is described in a separate section below.

Secondary future

The secondary future is the future relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present, or past. Most often, the secondary future is realized by the periphrasis facturus + erō, sum, eram, fuī.

If applied to actions, the compound "future in present" (e.g. , 'am [going] to do') represents a person's action that is future at an ongoing process other than the speech event such as tē absente ("while you are absent"). Similarly, the compound "future in future" (e.g. , 'I will do') represents a person's action that will happen after a given future event. In contrast, the future periphrasis with an "imperfect indicative" auxiliary (e.g. , 'was about to do') represents a person's past plan of action. Although less common than the future periphrases with , future periphrases with a "perfect indicative" auxiliary such as are also found.

+ Compound secondary future Meaning Paradigm Latin Example English translation Comment future in future "future indicative auxiliary in future periphrasis" (Cicero)Cicero, ad Atticum 12.34.2 'but if you come to any arrangement with Silius, even if it is on the very day I am on my way to Sicca's house, please let me know' is planning / about to do in English future in present "present indicative auxiliary in future periphrasis" (Cicero)Cicero, ad Familiārēs 8.7.2 [while you are away] 'Paulla Valeria... is planning to marry Decimus Brutus' future in past "imperfect indicative auxiliary in future periphrasis" (Servius to Cicero)Cicero, ad Familiārēs 4.12.1 'on the next day, when I left him..., he was going to sail... to Italy' was going / about to do in English "perfect indicative auxiliary in future periphrasis" (Seneca)Seneca, epistulae mōrālēs ad Lūcilium 71.11 'on the day Cato was defeated in the election, he played; on the night he was about to die, he read'

Secondary present

The secondary present is the present relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present or past. From these, "present in present" is the rarest one. Theare are two secondary presents in Latin: the simple secondary present is realised by verbs with īnfectum aspect such as faciam, faciō, faciēbam and the compound secondary present is realised by the periphrasis facere + coeperō, coepī, coeperam. The verb group is often accompanied by spatial and temporal adjuncts such as 'there', 'then', and 'at that moment'.

+ Simple and compound secondary present Meaning Paradigm Latin Example English translation Comment present in future "future indicative" (Cicero)Cicero, ad Atticum 15.28.1.2 'There, I shall be waiting for your letters every day' will/shall be doing in English "future perfect indicative auxiliary in 'coepī' present periphrasis" (Apuleius)Apuleius, metamorphōsēs 11.15.29 'For it is when you are serving the goddess that you will feel the fruit of your freedom.' am doing in English present in present "present indicative" am doing in English (Juvenal)Juvenal, Saturae 3.23 'resources are scarcer today than they used to be yesterday' "perfect indicative auxiliary in 'coepī' present periphrasis" (Tacitus)Tacitus, Historiae 1.16.1 'Under Tiberius, Gaius and Claudius we were like the property of a single family: [in the new regime] it should work as a substitute for freedom that we are now being selected.' present in past "imperfect indicative" (Livy)Livy, ab urbe conditā 1.12.9.2 'at that time (the time of his death) Mettius was fighting on horseback' was doing in English "pluperfect indicative auxiliary in 'coepī' present periphrasis" (Petronius)Petronius, Satyricon 62.8.1 'But, as I was saying, once he turned into a wolf, he began to howl and ran away into the woods.'

Secondary past

The secondary past is the past relative to a primary tense, which can be future, present or past. There are three secondary pasts in Latin: 1. the simple secondary past is realised by verbs with perfectum aspect such as fēcerō, fēcī, fēceram; 2. the compound secondary past with "sum" is realised by the periphrasis factus + ero, sum, eram or fuī; and 3. the compound secondary past with "habeō" is realised by the periphrasis factum + habēbō, habeō, habēbam or habuī. In the secondary past, imperfect indicative auxiliaries such as eram and habēbam are more frequent than their perfect indicative counterparts such as fuī and habuī.