Lesson XXV Guided Notes
Review:
1. When referring to verbs, what is “voice”? ___________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
2. What distinguishes active voice from passive voice in Latin and English?
Active: _________________________________________________________________
Passive: ________________________________________________________________
3. Besides voice, what other qualities does a verb have?
________________________________________________________________________
4. How do we usually get the present stem for a Latin verb? _______________________
5. Which tenses use this stem when we conjugate? _______________________________
6. What are the stem vowels that each conjugation uses in the present tense?
1st Conjugation: _____________
2nd Conjugation: ____________
3rd Conjugation: _____________
3rd –io Conjugation: ___________
4th Conjugation: _____________
I. Passive Voice Verbs of the Present Tenses in Latin
In Latin I, we encountered the six basic endings of the active voice – ō/m, s, t, mus, tis,
nt. Each of these endings has an English subject pronoun attached to it, and by using
these endings on verbs we can change the person and number of the verb to fit the
sentence and what we are trying to say.
For the passive voice, we have six new basic endings that do the same thing as the active
ones, but by putting these on the end of the verb, we indicate the verb is passive voice,
not active. The six endings are as follows:
Singular Plural
or, r*
mur
1st Person
nd
ris
mini
2 Person
rd
tur
ntur
3 Person
*If a verb ends in o in the active voice, it ends in or in the passive voice. If it ends in m
in the active voice, it just ends in r in the passive.
For the most part, we conjugate with these endings just like we do in active voice – get
the stem, include a tense sign if necessary, and then add the ending.
Exception: In 2nd singular, if following the normal conjugation rule would put a short i
next to ris, the i changes to an e before the ending.
Example: Discō, discere – to learn, 3rd conjugation verb. Normally, we would use
i as the stem vowel in present tense before adding the endings (discitur,
discimini). But this i is short. Therefore, for 2nd singular, we would not
have disciris, but disceris.
Example: Dubitō, dubitāre – to doubt, 1st conjugation. For the future tense, we
would use b, bi, or bu before the ending (dubitabitur, dubitabimini). But
this i is short. Therefore, for 2nd singular, we would not have dubitabiris,
but dubitaberis.
Present
1st Conjugation: Laudo, Laudāre (Praise)
S
P
2nd Conjugation: Teneō, Tenēre (Hold)
S
P
1st
_________
___________
1st ___________ ____________
2nd
_________
___________
2nd ___________ ____________
3rd
_________
___________
3rd ___________ ____________
3rd Conjugation: Mitto, Mittere (Send)
S
P
3rd –io Conjugation: Capio, Capere (Take)
S
P
1st
__________
___________
1st ____________ ____________
2nd
__________
___________
2nd ____________ ____________
3rd
__________
___________
3rd ____________ ____________
4th Conjugation: Audio, Audīre (Hear)
(NB: 4th conjugation uses a long i for the stem vowel, so it won’t change anywhere)
S
P
1st
__________
___________
2nd
__________
___________
3rd
__________
___________
Imperfect
As before, but the tense sign/personal ending combination looks like the following
S
P
1st
__________
___________
2nd
__________
___________
3rd
__________
___________
Examples
Paro, Parāre (Prepare)
Arripio, Arripere (Snatch)
S
P
S
P
1st
__________
___________
1st ______________
___________________
2nd
__________
___________
2nd ______________
___________________
3rd
__________
___________
3rd ______________
__________________
Future
As before, but the tense/personal ending combinations look like the following:
3rd/3rd –io/4th Conjugations
1st/2nd Conjugations
S
P
S
P
1st
___________ ___________
1st _________ __________
2nd
___________ ___________
2nd _________ __________
3rd
___________ ___________
3rd _________ __________
Examples
Moneo, Monēre (Warn)
S
Scio, Scīre (Know)
P
S
P
1st
____________ ______________
1st __________
___________
2nd
____________ ______________
2nd __________
___________
3rd
____________ ______________
3rd __________
___________
III. Translating Passive Voice Verbs into English
One of the key things to remember about passive voice is that it indicates the subject is
receiving the action. Therefore, the English translation has to show the same thing. The
four things you have to have for a correct translation of a passive voice verb from Latin
to English are these:
1. The subject (noun or pronoun)
2. A helping verb to indicate tense (am, is, are, was, were, will/shall, has, had, will/shall
have)
3. When necessary, the word be, being or been
4. The verb itself in its past tense form
So here are some examples of verbs from the previous charts translated into English.
Example: Laudor = I am (being) praised.
Example: Arripiebatur = It was (being) snatched, it used to be snatched
Example: Moneberis = You will be warned
In each example, the subject is being acted upon; it is not doing anything.
Practice Translate these verb forms from Latin to English.
1. Tenemur _______________________
2. Mitteris __________________________
3. Capiuntur ______________________
4. Audimini _________________________
5. Parabar ________________________
6. Scietur ___________________________
IV. Ablative of Means/Instrument
Many times in passive voice sentences, the doer of the action is shown through an
ablative construction. One that is used often that we already know is the ablative of
means or instrument. This is a construction to show when something is being done by an
object. Unlike other ablatives, this one does not use a prepositional phrase in Latin,
though in English we will make one using the prepositions with or by. These words are
assumed, however, from the lonely ablative noun.
Example: Consul soleā feriēbatur – The consul was struck by a sandal.
This construction is only used with things. We will learn what to do with people later.
Practice Translate the underlined ablative word into English.
1. Caelum periculō completur. ________________________
2. Navēs caelō et ventō delebantur. __________________________
3. Urbs antiqua naturā superabitur. ___________________________
4. Captivi praesidiīs spectabantur. ___________________________
So What Did We Learn?
1. The six basic endings for passive verbs in the present tenses are as follows:
Singular Plural
st
1 Person
2nd Person
3rd Person
2. When a verb ends in o in the active voice, it ends in __________ in the passive; when
a verb ends in m in the active voice, it ends in ____________ in the passive.
3. If conjugating a verb would put short i next to ris, we change the i to an __________.
4. The four things we need when we translate a passive voice verb into English are:
a. ___________________
b. ___________________________
c. ___________________
d. ___________________________
5. When we want to express the doer of the action in a passive voice sentence, we use a
noun or phrase of the ______________ case.
6. When the doer of the action is a thing, we call this construction the ______________
of _____________ or __________________. Unlike other types of constructions in this
case, this one does not use a _____________________ in Latin. In English, we
understand to add the words ______________ or ____________ to the noun.