agere, gerere, ducere, facere

[hmessing]

These all seem to overlap in meaning? Any clues for keeping them straight?

[thesaurus]

I'll try to think of some resources, but it can be helpful to study these tricky words in context. They have a lot of different meanings, and they are often used in conjunction with certain words.

For example, "bellum gerere" means to wage war. "rem publican gerere" is more like "to manage/administer the Republic".

ducere is often used in the sense of "to lead [someone]" e.g. into battle. Dux ducit et duces ducunt.

facere... lots of potential uses. I'll try to think of some examples.

And the truth is that there is a lot of overlap between these words, so you'll have to accept that they can be used in similar circumstances. Usually if you can remember the "basic" meaning of the word, such as "agere"="drive", you can often figure out the meaning in context.