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Latin has six main tenses: three non-perfect tenses and three perfect tenses. In technical language, the first three tenses are known as the īnfectum tenses, while the three perfect tenses are known as perfectum. The two sets of tenses are made using different stems. For example, from the verb faciō 'I do' the three non-perfect tenses are faciō, faciam, faciēbam 'I do, I will do, I was doing', made with the stem faci-, and the three perfect tenses are fēcī, fēcerō, fēceram 'I did, I will have done, I had done', made with the stem fēc-.
To these six main tenses can be added various periphrastic tenses, such as factūrus sum 'I am going to do'.
Latin tenses do not have exact English equivalents, so that often the same tense can be translated in different ways depending on its context: for example, faciō can be translated as 'I do', 'I am doing' or 'I did', and fēcī can be translated as 'I did' and 'I have done'. In some cases Latin makes a distinction which is not made in English: for example, imperfect eram and perfect fuī both mean 'I was' in English, but they differ in Latin.
In addition to these six tenses of the indicative mood, there are four tenses in the subjunctive mood: present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect. Participles in Latin have three tenses and the imperative mood has two tenses. The infinitive has two main tenses as well as a number of periphrastic tenses used in reported speech.