What is the conjugation of these verbs,“Veni, Vidi, Vici” I understand that the quote was,
“I came, I saw, I conquered.” but “I came” is, Veniebam, is it not. what forms are they in? Aug33
“I came” is, Veniebam, is it not.
Veniebam is the imperfect tense. It means something like “I used to come” or “I was coming”.
Veni is the perfect tense. Means “I have come” or “I came”. You’ll learn about it later in your textbook.
veniebam - eh? ‘I was coming’?!
another great Tuesday at Life, then?
Both tenses can of course be translated as a simple past “I came”. The imperfect represents continuous action, whereas the perfect represents concluded action (often as it affects the present). These respective ideas are emphasized by more verbose translations such as those which Turpissimus offers, which are usually recommended translations over the simple past for beginners until they truly understand the sense difference.
veni “I came” is from the 4th conjugation verb venio, venire, veni, ventvm
vidi “I saw” is from the 2nd conjugation verb video, videre, vidi, visvm
vici “I conquered” is from the 3rd conjugation verb vinco, vincere, vici, victvm
All these forms are the 1st person singular perfect active indicative forms of those verbs, derived from the third principal part (they actually are the third principal parts in this case).
I’m part of an amateur car racing team, and we thought of a “slogan” recently. I took Latin in high school but promptly forgot much of it as soon as I graduated. (Whoops.) Anyway, would someone mind translating “we came (venibamus?), we broke (as in, broke down = infractus?), we drank (as in, to drink a beer = imbibo?)” into Latin for me? I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance,
Christine
Ooh! tumne ‘v’ pro ‘u’ uteris? David te non conuicit? 
It could be: uenimus, fregimus, potauimus (or bibimus, I don’t know which is more Classical).
you can’t say “we broke” in Latin with the sense of “our vehicle broke down”.
This is a fairly old thread and since then I convinced myself (without whiteoctave’s influence) that u is better for lower case and v for upper case. However, I don’t care much for which is used - as long as people are not writing in Latin cursive or engraving style uncials they can never claim to be writing in an entirely authentic way. Regardless, since the u of Latin cursive is a softening of v, it suggests that at some point before its softening, v may have been used in the casual style.
[quote=“benissimus”]you can’t say “we broke” in Latin with the sense of “our vehicle broke down”.
Well of course, but what about “we broke the dish” or “we broke the wagon”? Along those lines?
Anyway, many thanks!
Christine 
Pick your favourite EQVESOMI
nonne david did he not … ?
num … he didn’t … did he?
poeta - OMFG LOL
Hehe, certe, amice; solum iocabar. Indeed, I enjoy the use of ‘V’ for the majuscule myself (I have yet to alter my signature quote, in fact, for that very reason).
nonne david did he not … ?
num … he didn’t … did he?
I found both those connotations too strong for my liking, even though I did consider them; instead I opted for the simplest form of interrogative (that which is understood simply from tone of voice, or in this case, from the question mark), not requiring an interrogative particle.