laudavi

Laudavi is the first-person singular form of the Latin verb meaning “I praised” or “I have praised,” derived from the verb laudare, “to praise.” It represents the perfect active indicative tense used to express a completed action in the past. As a typical member of the first conjugation, laudavi is formed from the stem laud- plus the perfective marker -av- and the personal ending -i.

In Latin grammar, laudavi is contrasted with the imperfect laudābam (I was praising), the pluperfect laudaveram (I had praised), and the future laudabo (I will praise). The form accommodates a direct object in the accusative, such as laudavi amicum (“I praised a friend”). Word order in Latin is flexible, so the object may appear before or after the verb, depending on emphasis or meter in prose and poetry.

Phonologically, the ending -avi is typically realized with a long -ā-vī sequence in classical pronunciation, though some modern transcriptions render it as laudavi with a short i. Scholarly editions often indicate the long vowel with a macron, written as laudavī in fully annotated texts.

Origin and usage notes: laudavi illustrates how the Latin perfect is constructed in the first conjugation and provides a clear example of vowel and consonant patterns common to Latin verb forms. It appears frequently in Latin literature, from inscriptions to prose and poetry, where it conveys completed actions in the past. For learners, laudavi serves as a foundational paradigm for understanding the perfect tense and the broader system of Latin verb conjugation.