Vocavi

Vocavi is the first person singular perfect active indicative form of the Latin verb vocare, meaning “to call.” It is a regular form of the first conjugation, whose principal parts are voco, vocare, vocavi, vocatum. The perfect stem is vocav-, and vocavi is built with the -avi ending for the 1st person singular. The standard endings for the perfect active indicative are -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt; thus vocavi translates to “I called” or, in contexts emphasizing completed past action, “I have called.”

Usage: Vocavi appears frequently in classical Latin narratives and instructional grammars as the exemplar of a regular -āre verb in the perfect tense. It takes a direct object in the accusative when naming what was called, for example amicum vocavi (“I called a friend”), or te vocavi (“I called you”). It can also appear in dependent clauses describing past actions.

Related forms and derivatives: Other persons and tenses of vocare include vocavit (he called), vocaverunt (they called), and vocabit (he will call). The root voc- also yields related words such as vocatio (a call or vocation) and advocatus (an advocate). In English, words like vocation and advocate trace back to this Latin root.

See also: vocare, vocatio, advocatus.