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SUMMARY OF GRAMMAR 3: VERBS
Verbs will be found to be the most complicated part of most languages; this is certainly so of Latin. It is quite beyond the scope of these notes to deal all the intricacies
of Latin verbs. Basically, we summarizes the forms we have met in the various texts of the Mass, but there is slightly more information given to help understand verbs for those wish to
find out more.
[SOME DEFINITIONS]
|
[PRINCIPAL PARTS] | [SOME DERIVED TENSES] | [PASSIVE & DEPONENT VERBS] | [NON-FINITE VERBS] |
SOME DEFINITIONS
A verb may be
- finite
may be the principal verb of a sentence or clause and are marked for mood, tense and, in Latin and many other languages, subject; - non-finite
cannot serve as the principle verb of a sentence or clause; they include (in English, Latin and many other languages) infinitives, participles and, in Latin, supines, gerunds and gerundives
- Mood
- Mood is a grammatical category that, in theory, expresses the degree or kind of reality of a proposition as expressed by the speaker or writer. Latin distinguishes three such moods:
- indicative is the most common and is used for all statements the speaker or writer believes or assumes to be true;
- subjunctive is a traditional label for forms that occur in certain languages, especially European ones, that express such ideas as remoteness, possibility, desire, wish
and so on. It is way beyond the scope of these notes to deal with the Latin subjunctive in full.
In the texts of the Mass we met it most with the 'let' meaning, e.g. veniat "let it come", fiat "let it happen, let it be done", agnoscámus "let us acknowledge." We found it also after ut in: Dómine, non sum dignus ut intres … "Lord, I am not worthy that you may enter …". - imperative is used for uttering (or writing) commands, e.g. dona nobis "give us!"; ite "go!"
- Tense
- In linguistics, tense correlates with distinctions of time; but in historic and common use, tense refers to particular forms exhibited by a verb in a particular language which
exhibit both time and aspectual differences.
For example: although in the strict linguistic sense English distinguishes only between past (Louise lived in France) and non-past (Louise lives in France), traditionally grammar books exhibit a whole array of tenses, e.g. 'simple past' (Louise lived), 'past continuous' (Louise was living), 'past perfect' (Louise had lived), 'future continuous' (Louise will be living) etc., etc. On this page, we use 'tense' in this second, traditional way.So Latin is traditionally said to have six indicative tenses and four subjunctive tenses:
Present Indicative
mitto
I send, I am sendingImperfect Indicative
mittébam
I was sending, I sent (nabitually)Future Indicative
mittam
I shall send, I shall be sendingPerfect Indicative
misi
I sent, I have sentPluperfect Indicative
míseram
I had sentFuture Perfect Indicative
mísero
I shall have sentPresent Subjunctive
mittam
Let me send; I may sendImperfect Subjunctive
mítterem
I might send(Note: Translations with 'may' and 'might' are given for illustrative purposes only; there are several other meanings the Latin Subjunctive may have.) Perfect Subjunctive
míserim
I may have sentPluperfect Indicative
misíssem
I might have sent- The future indicative and the present subjunctive appear to be the same, but this is so only for the "I" meaning; cf.
future indicative: mittes, mittet "you will send, he (she, it) will send"
present subjunctive: mittas, mittat "you may send, he (she, it) may send" - We will not give full forms of all these ten tenses below. The only ones we met in the texts of the Mass (except sanábitur "will be healed") are the present indicative, perfect indicative and present subjunctive. We shall set out only those tenses in full.
- The future indicative and the present subjunctive appear to be the same, but this is so only for the "I" meaning; cf.
- Subject
- Some languages, like English and French, must always express a subject by a separate word; other languages, e.g. Spanish or Italian, often do not need to do this, because the verb endings are
distinct enough to make this unnecessary. Latin behaves like Spanish and Portuguese in this regard, cf.
English French Spanish Italian Latin I see je vois veo vedo vídeo you see tu vois ves vedi vides he/ she sees il/ elle voit ve vede videt the child sees l'enfant voit il niño ve il bambino vede infans videt In all languages, if the subject is a noun it must, of course, be expressed separately as in the last example above. But in languages like Spanish, Italian and Latin the subject is generally omitted if it is "I, (thou) you, he, she, it we, they", i.e. a personal pronoun. In Latin subject pronouns are used only for emphasis or contrast. the endings for the ten tenses of verbs are shown below; thus:
Perfect Indicative only The other nine tenses Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st person -i
"I"-imus
"we"-o, -m
"I"-mus
"we"2nd person -ísti
"thou, you"-ístis
"ye, you"-s
"thou, you"-tis
"ye, you"2nd person -it
"he, she, it"-érunt
"they"-t
"he, she, it"-nt
"they"- Strictly we should say these are the endings for all tenses of active verbs. But we will worry about that when we come to the Section PASSIVE & DEPONENT VERBS below.
- The 2nd person endings, which we translate as "you" in modern English, are strictly singular and plural as shown. The plural is not used as a polite term as "vous" as, for example, in modern French.
- Non-finite Parts
- Once again it is beyond the scope of this page to give detailed description of these forms. We note the various forms in sections below.
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PRINCIPAL PARTS
Dictionaries show verbs by giving their principal parts. From these principal parts, all the forms of regular verbs can be derived.
- Regular Verbs
-
Regular verbs are grouped into conjugations in a similar way that we saw nouns grouped into declensions. The first two principal parts show what conjugation a verb
belongs to, thus:
Present
IndicativePresent
InfinitivePefect
IndicativeSupine
(no English equivalent)1st conjugation laudo
I praise, I am praisinglaudáre
to praiselaudávi
I praised, I have praisedlaudátum
2nd conjugation vídeo
I see, I am seeingvidére
to seevidi
I saw, I have seenvisum
3rd conjugation mitto
I send, I am sendingmíttere
to sendmisi
I sent, I have sentmissum
3rd conjugation
capio verbscápio
I take, I am takingcápere
to takecepi
I took, I have takencaptum
4th conjugation áudio
I hear, I am hearingaudíre
to hearaudívi
I heard, I have heardaudítum
- Most 1st conjugation verbs form their perfect indicative and their supine the same way as laudáre. But examples of other
formations are:
ádjuvo, adjuváre, adjúvi, adjútum "to help"
do, dare, dedi, datum "to give"
lavo, laváre, lavi, lautum "to wash"
sto, stare, steti, statum "to stand"
veto, vetáre, vétui, vétitum "to forbid" - Similarly, 4th conjugation verbs tend to form their perfect indicative and supine the same way as audíre. But there are other formations such as:
apério, aperíre, apérui, apértum "to open"
sálio, salíre, salui, saltum "to leap"
séntio, sentíre, sensi, sensum "to feel, to perceive"
vénio, veníre, veni, ventum "to come" - You will notice that the stress falls on the infinitive ending in the 1st, 2nd and 4th conjugations; but with the 3rd conjugation it remains on the verb stem. We shall find a similar pattern when we set out the present tense of these verbs in the next section.
- Most 1st conjugation verbs form their perfect indicative and their supine the same way as laudáre. But examples of other
formations are:
- Irregular Verbs
- Fortunately Latin has very few of these. They are always identifiable as irregular by their principal parts since the first two principle parts never fit one of the
patterns shown above for regular verbs. Also the first two principle parts will indicate how irregular the verb will be; if they are very irregular, then so will the verb
prove to be; if, however, they are similar to, but not quite the same as, the regular patterns then the verb is likely not to be very irregular (you will find it usually only
the Present Indicative tense that is a bit irregular).
Examples of verbs we have met are:Present
IndicativePresent
InfinitivePefect
IndicativeSupine
(no English equivalent)sum
I amesse
to befui
I was, I have been-
eo
I go, I am goingire
to goivi or ii
I went, I have goneitum
fero
I bring, I am bringingferre
to bringtuli
I brought, I have broughtlatum
- We actually met ferre in the compound form offérre (← ob + ferre) "to offer", its principle parts being: óffero, offérre, óbtuli, oblátum.
- We also met the irregular verb fio, fíeri, factus sum "to become, to be made, to be done." We shall consider it further in the Section PASSIVE & DEPONENT VERBS below.
- Deriving Verb Forms from Principal Parts
- If you consider the table of tenses above and the principal parts of mittere, it will be apparent that the tenses form two parallel sets; these are traditionally known as
'present stem' tenses and 'perfect stem' tenses, thus:
- Present stem tenses
The present, imperfect and future indicative tenses and the present and imperfect subjunctive tenses are derived from the first two principal parts (e.g. mitt- ← mitto, mittere). - Perfect stem tenses
The perfect, pluperfect and future perfect indicative tenses and the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive tenses are derived from the third principal part (e.g. mis- ← misi).
For example, from missum are derived:- the future active participle missúrus "about to send, going to send";
- the perfect passive participle missus "(having been) sent".
- Present stem tenses
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SOME DERIVED TENSES
- Present stem tenses
- It is with these tenses that we find differences between the four conjugations and where irregular verbs may have irregular forms. We show below the two tenses we met in the texts
of the Mass, i.e. present indicative and present subjunctive, together with the imperatives, as these also are derived from the present stem.
Regular Verbs Irregular Verbs Infinitive laudáre
to praisevidére
to seemíttere
to sendcápere
to takeaudíre
to hearesse
to beire
to goferre
to bringP
R
E
˙
I
N
DI
you (s)
he/she/it
we
you (pl)
theylaudo
laudas
laudat
laudámus
laudátis
laudantvídeo
vides
videt
vidémus
vidétis
videntmitto
mittis
mittit
míttimus
míttitis
mittuntcápio
capis
capit
cápimus
cápitis
cápiuntáudio
audis
audit
audímus
audítis
áudiuntsum
es
est
sumus
estis
sunteo
is
it
imus
itis
euntfero
fers
fert
férimus
fertis
feruntP
R
E
˙
S
U
BI
you (s)
he/she/it
we
you (pl)
theylaudem
laudes
laudet
laudémus
laudétis
laudentvídeam
vídeas
vídeat
videámus
videátis
vídeantmittam
mittas
mittat
mittámus
mittátis
mittantcápiam
cápias
cápiat
capiámus
capiátis
cápiantáudiam
áudias
áudiat
audiámus
audiátis
áudiantsim
sis
sit
simus
sitis
sinteam
eas
eat
eámus
eátis
eantferam
feras
ferat
ferámus
ferátis
ferantI
M
P
E
R
˙singular
plurallauda
laudátevide
vidétemitte
míttitecape
cápiteaudi
audítees
estei
itefer
ferte
It will be seen that the singular imperative of ferre is just the bare stem fer with no ending. There are three 3rd conjugation verbs that do this also but, unlike ferre they form the plural imperative regularly. they are:Singular imperative Plural imperative dico, dícere = to say dic dícite duco, dúcere = to lead duc dúcite fácio, fácere = to make, to do fac fácite
- Perfect stem tenses
- All these tenses are formed in exactly the same way for all active verbs - there are no exceptions; even the verb "to be" behaves itself here. So if you
look at the table of tenses in Section SOME DEFINITIONS above, you will be able to work out that, e.g.:
Perfect Indicative
fui
I was, I have beenPluperfect Indicative
fúeram
I had beenFuture Perfect Indicative
fúero
I shall have beenPerfect Subjunctive
fúerim
I may have beenPluperfect Indicative
fúíssem
I might have been
Also, towards the end of Section SOME DEFINITIONS you saw the personal endings of the perfect indicative tense. It follows, therefore, that, e.g.laudávi = I praised, I have praised
laudavísti = you (s) praised, you (s) have praised
laudávit = he/she/it praised, he/she/it has praised
laudávimus = we praised, we have praised
laudavístis = you (pl) praised, you (pl) have praised
laudavérunt = they praised, they have praisedfui = I was, I have been
fuísti = you (s) were, you (s) have been
fuit = he/she/it was, he/she/it has been
fúimus = we were, we have been
fuístis = you (pl) were, you (pl) have been
fuérunt = they were, they have been
It remains to add that 2nd person forms ending in VOWEL+vísti(s) are frequently contracted thus:
laudavísti or laudásti = you (s) praised, you (s) have praised
laudavístis or laudástis = you (pl) praised, you (pl) have praised
audivísti or audísti = you (s) heard, you (s) have heard
audivístis or audístis = you (pl) heard, you (pl) have heard
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PASSIVE & DEPONENT VERBS
All the verbs we have considered above have been active verbs. A verb is said to be passive if its underlying object appears as its subject, e.g.active: | Paul is writing the letter | - | Paulus epístulam scribit |
---|---|---|---|
passive: | The letter is being written by Paul | - | Epístula a Paulo scríbitur |
The phrase by Paul (a Paulo) is said to be the agent of the passive verb and represents the underlying subject of the active form. In Latin, English and many other languages, however, the passive is particularly common if we either do not care or do not know who or what the underlying active subject is, e.g.
The letter has been sent - Epístula missa est.
Deponent verbs are peculiarly Latin and we shall consider them later in this Section.
- Synopsis of Passive Tenses
- Latin has the same ten tenses in the passive as it has in the active, e.g.
Present Indicative
mittor
I am sent, I am being sentImperfect Indicative
mittébar
I was being sent,
I was sent (nabitually)Future Indicative
mittar
I shall be sentPerfect Indicative
missus sum
I was sent, I have been sentPluperfect Indicative
míssus eram
I had been sentFuture Perfect Indicative
míssus ero
I shall have been sentPresent Subjunctive
mittar
Let me be sent; I may be sentImperfect Subjunctive
mítterer
I might be sent(Note: Translations with 'may' and 'might' are given for illustrative purposes only; there are several other meanings the Latin Subjunctive may have.) Perfect Subjunctive
míssus sim
I may have been sentPluperfect Indicative
missus essem
I might have been sent
Note: just as in the active, so in the passive the Future Indicative and the Present Subjunctive are the same only in the "I" form; cf:
future indicative: mittéris, mittétur "you will be sent, he (she, it) will be sent"
present subjunctive: mittáris, mittátur "you may be sent, he (she, it) may be sent."It will be apparent from the above table that the five 'present stem' tenses of the active are formed from the 'present stem' in a similar way in the passive. However the five passive perfect tenses are clearly not formed from the 'perfect stem'; they are compounds of the perfect passive participle and the verb "to be." Let us consider these two system in more detail below.
- Present Stem Passive Tenses
- These are all formed in the way way as their active counterparts, except for the subject endings; in the passive these endings are:
Singular Plural 1st person -or (where active has -o),
-r (where active has -m)
"I"-mur
"we"2nd person -ris
"thou, you"-mini
"ye, you"2nd person -tur
"he, she, it"-ntur
"they"
We give below the present indicative passive and the present subjunctive passive for all regular verbs together with the irregular verb ferre "to bring" (the verbs "to be" and "to go" cannot have a passive form as they cannot have a direct object in the active - but see below).
We include also the passive infinitive and the passive imperatives since, like their active counterparts, they are derived from the present stem.Regular Verbs Irregular Verb Infinitive laudári
to be praisedvidéri
to be seenmitti
to be sentcapi
to be takenaudíri
to be heardferri
to be broughtP
R
E
˙
I
N
DI
you (s)
he/she/it
we
you (pl)
theylaudor
laudáris
laudátur
laudámur
laudámini
laudánturvídeor
vidéris
vidétur
vidémur
vidémini
vidénturmittor
mítteris
míttitur
míttimur
mittímini
mittúnturcápior
cáperis
cápitur
cápimur
capímini
cápiúnturáudior
audíris
audítur
audímur
audímini
áudiúnturferor
ferris
fertur
férimur
ferímini
ferúnturP
R
E
˙
S
U
BI
you (s)
he/she/it
we
you (pl)
theylauder
laudéris
laudétur
laudémur
laudémini
laudénturßvídear
videáris
videátur
videámur
videámini
videánturmittar
mittáris
mittátur
mittámur
mittámini
mittánturcápiar
capiáris
capiátur
capiámur
capiámini
capiánturáudiar
audiáris
audiátur
audiámur
audiámini
audiánturferar
feráris
ferátur
ferámur
ferámini
feránturI
M
P
E
R
˙singular
plurallaudáre
laudáminividére
vidéminimittere
mittíminicapere
capíminiaudíre
audíminiferre
ferímini
Note:- The singular passive imperative is identical to the active infinitive. This, however, is a pure coincidence; the two forms had quite different origins.
- Although verbs, such as the verb "to go" cannot ever have a passive form in English, they can be used impersonally with 3rd person sinular
passive endings in Latin. So from ire we may the passive forms:
present indic. itur = one goes, they are going, people are going (cf. French on va)
present subj. eátur = let people go, let them go etc.
- Perfect Passive Tenses
- We have seen that these are composed of the perfect passive participle and the verb "to be." A participle is a verbal adjective and, like all adjectives in Latin,
it changes to agree in number, gender and case, i.e. it declines. the Latin perfect passive participles is formed simply by:
- Removing the final -um from the supine (4th principle part) to obtain the supine stem;
- adding the endings of an adjective like bonus [masc.], bona [fem.], bonum [neut.] (click here, if you have forgotten) to the supine stem.
There is little point in displaying the perfect indicative passive at for all verbs, we set it out just for laudáre.Masculine Feminine Neuter I was praised, I have been praised laudátus sum laudáta sum (laudátum sum) you (s) were praised, you (s) have been praised laudátus es laudáta es (laudátum es) he/she/it was praised, he/she/it has been praised laudátus est laudáta est laudátum est we were praised, we have been praised laudáti sumus laudátæ sumus (laudáta sumus) you (pl) were praised, you (pl) have been praised laudáti estis laudátæ estis (laudáta estis) they were praised, they have been praised laudáti sunt laudátæ sunt laudáta sunt
Since things did not speak, except in stories, and only in modern times have robots spoken, the first person neuter forms ("I, we") are not likely to occur; and, as people do not normally speak to things, the 2nd person neuter forms ("you") will also not normally occur.
- Deponent & Semi-Deponent Verbs
- These are verbs which in Latin have only passive endings but function as active verbs. Below are examples given with their principal parts:
Present
IndicativePresent
InfinitivePefect
Indicative1st conjugation lætor
I rejoice, I am rejoicinglætári
to rejoicelætátus sum
I rejoiced, I have rejoiced2nd conjugation confíteor
I confess, I am confessingconfitéri
to confessconféssus sum
I confessed, I have confessed3rd conjugation loquor
I speak, I am speakingloqui
to speaklocútus sum
I spoke, I have spoken3rd conjugation
capio verbspátior
I suffer, I am sufferingpáti
to sufferpassus sum
I suffered, I have suffered4th conjugation lárgior
I bestow, I am bestowinglargíri
to bestowlargítus sum
I bestowed, I have bestowed
The deponent verbs confitéri, loqui and patior came in the text of the Mass. We also came across several times the verb: miséreor, miseréri, miséritus sum "to have mercy [on]".
The verb lætári is familiar from the opening line of the Marian antiphon: Regína cæli, lætáre, allelúja ("Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia").
As well as deponent verbs, there are a few verbs whose present stem tenses are ordinary active ones, but their perfect tenses are formed like deponent verbs; these are known as semi-deponent for obvious reasons. Examples are:
áudeo (I dare) audére (to dare) ausus sum (I dared, I have dared) gáudeo (I am glad) gaudére (to be glad) gavísus sum (I was glad, I have have been glad) fido (I trust) fídere (to trust) fisus sum (I trusted, I have trusted) Fídere is more common in the compounds:
cónfido, confídere, confísus sum "to trust"
díffido, diffídere, diffísus sum "to distrust"
- The Verb: fio, fíeri, factus sum
- This verb may look at first sight as though it is a semi-deponent. But if you look carefully you will see that:
- while fio has an active ending, the infinitive fíeri has the final -i of a passive infinitive; yet no passive infinitive actually ends in -eri with the e being unstressed;
- the perfect factus sum is the regular perfect passive of the verb: fácio, fácere, feci, factum "to make, to do."
- The verb fio, fíeri has present stem forms that are have the endings of a 4th conjugation (áudio, audíre) active verb, except for the present infinitive fíeri and the imperfect subjunctive fíerem (which does not concern us here). It means "to become, to come to pass, to happen."
- Fio, fíeri came to be used also to mean "to be done, to be made" and came to be used instead of the present passive forms of fácio, fácere which, thus, has only active present stem forms.
- The verb fácere did, however, retain its perfect passive forms; but these came to be used as the perfect forms of fíeri also, so that, e.g., factum est may mean: "it was made, it has been made", "it was done, it has been done", "it became, it has become", "it came to pass, it has come to pass" etc.
- … ut meum ac tuum sacrifícium acceptábile fiat … "[pray] that my and your sacrifice may become acceptable …" i.e. "{Pray] … that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable …" in the priest's preparatory prayer before the Prefacre and Eucharistic Prayer;
- fiat volúntas tua "let your will be done" i.e. "thy will be done" in the Lord's Prayer.
- … fiet panis vitæ. "it will become the bread of life."
- … fiet potus spiritális. "it will become [our] spiritual drink."
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NON-FINITE VERBS
As it was written above: "non-finite [verbs] cannot serve as the principle verb of a sentence or clause; they include (in English, Latin and many other languages) infinitives, participles and, in Latin, supines, gerunds and gerundives."It is beyond the scope of this page to deal with all these forms in detail. We will just mention each briefly below.
- Infinitive
- We have seen examples of infinitives in many of the tables above. It remains merely to say that Latin, like English, has four infinitives, e.g.
Active Passive Present míttere
to sendmitti
to be sentPerfect misísse
to have sentmissus esse
to be have been sent- The present infinitives are formed from the present stem and examples have been given above of all regular verbs snd of some irregular verbs.
- The perfect active infinitive, like the perfect active tenses is formed the same way for all verbs; we add -ísse to the perfect stem. The only thing to add is that perfect
active infinitives ending in s ending in VOWEL+vísti(s) are frequently contracted thus:
laudavísse or laudástse = to have praised
audivísse or audístse = to have heard - The perfect passive infinitive is formed in the same way as the perfect passive tenses, i.e. by using the perfect passive participle with the verb esse "to be."
Text books also usually give so-called future infinitives. English has none, and there is only one construction in Latin in which such infinitives might be needed. The so-called 'future active infinitive' is merely the future participle with esse "to be" (see below); and the so-called 'future passive infinitive' is not strictly passive and is rarely used in Latin.
- Participle
- Participles in English and Latin retain certain verbal features, e.g. they have direct objects (if active) and they may be modified by adverbs; but they function as adjectives. Latin
participles, therefore, have the endings of adjectives. A Latin
verb may have three such participles:
- 1. Present Participle
- This is always active and is declined similar to a 3rd declension adjective like felix,
e.g. "praising" = laudans [nominative], laudántis [genitive]; but participles usually form ablative singular in -e rather than -i. They
are formed from the present stem thus:
laudo, laudáre → laudans "praising" video, vidére → videns "seeing" mitto, míttere → mittens "sending" cápio, cápere → cápiens "taking" áudio, audíre → audiens "hearing" sum, esse has no present participle eo, ire → iens, [gen.] euntis "going" fero, ferre → ferens "bringing" - Deponent verbs form their present participles in exactly the same way, e.g. loquor, loqui → loquens "speaking."
- In medieval Latin, the verb sum, esse is given a present participle ens "being" by some and essens by others (cf. the English words 'entity' and 'essence.')
ad te suspirámus, geméntes et flentes in hac lacrimárum valle.
to thee we sigh, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.
- 2. Perfect Participle
- This is usually passive and is formed from the supine (4th principle part) by using the endings
of a 1st & 2nd declension like bonus. We have seen it used above with the verb "to be" to form perfect passive tenses.
Perfect participles occurred several times in the text of the Mass; one fairly frequent one is:
benedíctus "(having been) blessed" ← benedíco, benedícere, benedíxi, benedíctum "to bless."
Several perfect participles occur in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed; here is an example of two in the accusative singular case:
[credo] in unum Dóminum Jesum Christum … génitum non factum …
"[I believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ … begotten not made …"The participle génitus is from gigno, gígnere, génui, génitum "to beget, to bear, to bring forth"; the participle factus has occurred several times above on this page.
The perfect participle of deponent verbs is active. It is given as the 3rd principle part with sum "I am". In the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed we find passus "having suffered" (for principal parts, see the Section PASSIVE & DEPONENT VERBS above).
- 3. Future Participle
- This is always active and is formed by adding -úrus to the stem of the supine or perfect participle, e.g.
laudátum → laudatúrus "about to praise, going to praise"
missum → missúrus "about to send, going to send"
itum → itúrus "about to go, going to go"
locútus (est) → locutúrus "about to speak, going to speak"
The future participle of esse "to be" is: futúrus "about to be, going to be."These participles are declined like adjectives of the 1st & 2nd declension like bonus. It is commonly used with the verb "to be" to form a sort of future tense; we saw an example of this in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed:
… ventúrus est cum gloria … "… he is going to come with glory …"
Also at the end of the Creed we found an example of the future participle in the genitive singular, agreeing with the noun sǽculi "of the age (epoch, era)", thus:
exspécto … vitam ventúri sǽculi. "I look forward to … the life of the age [which is] going to come."
- Supine
- The main use of the supine is as the 4th principal part of non-deponent verbs!
Its use is otherwise restricted; it shows purpose and occurs only in association with verbs denoting motion. It is usually translated just like a present active infinitive in English, e.g.
captívos liberátum venit "he came to free the prisoners."
It is, however, not common, other means of showing purpose being preferred.
- Gerund & Gerundive
- The Gerundive is a verbal adjective declined as a the 1st & 2nd declension like bonus. The Gerund is
simply the neuter of this adjective used as a noun. It is very doubtful that the Romans formally distinguished the two things. But text books do distinguish between Gerunds and
Gerundive so you will meet the two terms. The distinction, however, is in usage, not in form.
- Formation of Gerund and Gerundive
- They are formed from the present stem, thus:
1st two principal parts Gerundive Gerund masc. fem. neuter 1st conj. laudo, laudáre
lætor, lætárilaudándus
lætánduslaudánda
lætándalaudándum
lætándum2nd conj. vídeo, vidére
confíteor, confitérividéndus
confiténdusvidénda
confiténdavidéndus
confiténdum3rd conj. mitto, míttere
loquor, loquimitténdus
loquéndusmitténda
loquéndamitténdum
loquéndum3rd conj.
capio verbscápio, cápere
pátior, páticapiédus
patiénduscapiéda
patiéndacapiédum
patiéndum4th conj. áudio, audíre
lárgior, largíriaudíéndus
largiéndusaudíénda
largiéndaaudíéndum
largiéndumirreg.
verbssum, esse (not possible) esséndum eo, ire (not possible) eúndum fero, ferre feréndus ferénda feréndum - We shall see below that the gerundive is a passive verbal adjective. We know that a verb which cannot have a a direct object cannot ever have a passive in English, although it may have an impersonal passive in Latin. Therefore such verbs, e.g. "to go" and "to be" will not a a gerundive except for the neuter in impersonal expressions.
- All verbs, however, may have a gerund since, in this use, it is an active noun and thus all verbs may have a gerund.
- In Classical Latin no gerund(ive) of esse "to be" is ever found; the form esséndum is used in Medieval Latin.
- Gerund
- As we said above, this is an active verbal noun. It is used in the various noun cases thus:
- It is never used in the nominative case
- It used in the accusative case only after a preposition. The most preposition used with a gerund (and, as we will see below, a gerundive) is ad,
denoting purpose, e.g.
ad cantándum stetit "he stood (in order) to sing" - It may be used in the genitive and dative cases, e.g.
ars cantándi "the art of singing"
óperam cantándo dat "he is giving his attention to [his] singing" - Its most common uses, however, are after ad as explained above, and in the ablative case. This is sometimes preceeded by a preposition, but more often
comes by itself, e.g.
cantándo voluptátem cepit "he took pleasure from singing"
- It is not used in the nominative case nor in the accusative, unless preceded by a preposition, because, unlike its English counterpart, it is never used as the subject
or direct object of a verb. In these instances English may use the infinitive as an alternative and Latin must use the infinitive; thus, e.g.:
Singing makes me happy ~ To sing makes me happy = cantáre me felícem facit (subject)
I love singing ~ I love to sing = cantáre amo. (direct object).
- Gerundive: Obligation or Necessity
- In the nominative case (and occasionally the accusative) the gerundive expresses obligation or necessity. It is reputed that the Roman Senator, Cato the Elder, always prefaced his
speeches with: "Carthago delénda est" ("Carthage must be destroyed"). Other examples are:
epístulæ mitténdæ sunt "the letters must be sent"
evangélium annuntiándum est "the Gospel must be announced"
eúndum est "we must go, they must go, people should go, etc" (impersonal).The person on whom the obligation or necessity falls is expressed in the dative case, e.g.
epístulæ mihi mitténdæ sunt "I must send the letters"
evangélium nobis annuntiándum est "we must announce the Gospel"
Petro eúndum est "Peter must go"Finally you may note that some Latin gerundives have made their way into English, e.g.
- agenda [neut. pl.] "things that should done" ← ago, ágere, egi, actum "to do, to act"
- addendum [neut. s.] "something that should added" ← addo, áddere, áddidi, ádditum "to add"
- memorandum [neut. s.] (often abbreviated to memo) "something that should be called to mind"
← mémoro, memoráre, memorávi, memorátum "to mention, to call to mind" - corrigenda [neut. pl.] "things that should corrected" ← córrigi, corrígere, corréxi, corréctum "to correct"
- Gerundive: Used instead of a Gerund
- The use of a gerund with a direct object is generally avoided; in its place a gerundive is preferred. So, e.g. rather than ad captívos liberándum venit, Latin prefers
ad captívos liberándos venit "he came to free the prisoners."
We had an example of this use of the gerundive in the Mass:
- ad Evangélium Dómini annuntiándum "(in order) to announce the Gospel of the Lord."
- the genitive, e.g. gáudium Evangélii annuntiándi "the joy of announcing the Gospel"
- the dative, e.g. óperam Evangélio annuntiándo dat "he is giving his attention to announcing the Gospel"
- the dative, e.g. Evangélio annuntiándo spem tulit "by announcing the Gospel he brought hope"
Ite in pace, glorificándo vita vestra Dóminum. "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life."
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