Both Uses of
conjugate
in
The Poisonwood Bible
- In the mornings she teaches arithmetic to his younger pupils, and afterward spends many hours at his bright-white shirtsleeve conjugating the self-same reflexive verbs—l'homme se noie—which a year ago she declared pointless.†
Chpt 3 *conjugating = grammatically changing verb forms to match context
- If I never learned my French conjugations from Anatole, at least I would try to learn patience.†
Chpt 3conjugations = grammatical changes of verb forms to match context
Definitions:
-
(1)
(conjugate as in: conjugate the verb) grammatical changes of verb forms to agree with other words in a sentence for tense, number, person, and other things
English tense example:
She writes.
She is writing.
She will write tomorrow.
She has written in the past.
English number example:
Jane is...
Jane and Susan are...Most verbs are conjugated by changing their suffix and sometimes adding a helping verb. Most verbs follow the same pattern in English. Those that follow a different pattern are called irregular verbs.
Here is an example of English conjugation of the present and past tenses for a regular, irregular, and the most irregular verb:Present tense regular irregular most irregular 1st person singular I talk drink am 2nd person singular you talk drink are 3rd person singular he, she, it talks drinks is plural 1st-3rd person we, you, they talk drink are Past tense 1st person singular I talked drank was 2nd person singular you talked drank were 3rd person singular he, she, it talked drank was plural 1st-3rd person we, you, they talked drank were -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Conjugate also has specialized meanings in chemistry and medicine. It can also refer to the joining of things--especially pairs.