fuisti

Fuisti is the second-person singular perfect indicative active form of the Latin verb esse, meaning to be. It translates principally as “you were” and, in appropriate contexts, can carry the sense of “you have been.” As a finite verb form, fuisti functions as the past tense of be for the subject you (tu) or for an understood you in narrative or dialogue.

Morphology and paradigm: fuisti is built from the perfect stem fu- plus the personal ending -isti. The full perfect indicative paradigm of esse in the singular and plural is: fuī (I was), fuistī (you were), fuit (he/she/it was); fuimus (we were), fuistis (you all were), fuerunt (they were). Thus fuisti is the standard 2nd person singular form in this tense.

Usage: fuisti is used to describe a completed state or event in the past associated with the second person singular. It appears in narrative, descriptive statements, or subordinate clauses where the subject is you. In translation, it is commonly rendered as “you were” and may be expressed as “you have been” depending on the aspect and surrounding context.

Related forms: fuisti is part of the same verb family as fuī, fuit, fuimus, fuistis, and fuerunt. The other person and number forms (e.g., fui, fuit, fuimus) are used for different subjects, while variations such as fueris or fuerit appear in subjunctive constructions rather than the indicative fuisti.

Example: Tu fuisti miles fortis. (You were a brave soldier.)

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