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Questions tagged [participle]

For questions about participles, such as "amans", "amatus" and "amaturus" from the verb "amare".

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Are the present infinitive of the active periphrastic and the future active infinitive of the verb the same concept?

On p270 of Keller's Learn to Read Latin The present infinitive of the active periphrastic is also used as the future active infinitive of the verb. Thus, for example, rectirus, -a, -um esse may be ...
Tim's user avatar
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Is an infinitive as a noun neuter in gender?

On p37 in Keller's Learn to Read Latin: The infinitive is an abstract verbal noun in the neuter singular. It is indeclinable; that is, although it is a noun, it does not have case endings, and it ...
Tim's user avatar
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What is the fourth principal part of an intransitive verb in this sentence?

On p25 in Keller's Learn to Read Latin: As is explained in Section 7, the fourth principal part of a verb is usually the perfect passive participle ofthat verb. in this book, two different endings of ...
Tim's user avatar
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Which inflections of these participles are these, and why?

I'm following an ancient Teach Yourself Ancient Greek course. This is from a (presumably highly simplified) version of Xenophon's account of Spartan education: βελτιον γαρ ἐστιν, ὡς φασιν, ὀλιγον ...
mike rodent's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
190 views

Prolepsis with Participle

Plato, Ion, 531c: οὐ [Ὅμηρος] περὶ πολέμου τε τὰ πολλὰ διελήλυθεν καὶ περὶ ὁμιλιῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀνθρώπων ἀγαθῶν τε καὶ κακῶν καὶ ἰδιωτῶν καὶ δημιουργῶν, καὶ περὶ θεῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ πρὸς ...
Ali Nikzad's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is the perfect passive always formed like so: verb + sum/es/est?

I'm using Wheelock's Latin and in the chapter which introduces the perfect passive system I came across this sentence: "Ubi haec tragoedia recitāta est, senex sententiīs iūdicum est līberātus.&...
William's user avatar
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2 answers
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Present Active Participles

I am translating the following from Cicero, De Amicitia VI.22: Nam et secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia et adversas partiens communicansque leviores. The participles are first-person, singular ...
Stephen Perencevich's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
150 views

Are there generalizations about when relative clauses are used instead of participles?

I'm working through Wheelock's with my sons. In the chapter on participles (Ch. 23, pg. 151 in the 6th revised edition), there is this practice sentence: Illum oratorem in medio senatu iterum ...
adam.baker's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
205 views

How to translate this active participle?

I'm in Latin III and my teacher recently provided us with this example sentence to translate: Poetā ad mensam vocante, versus scribentur. Because the participle "vocante" is active the ...
covalent47's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
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What is the syntax of ‘quamquam omnis secrētī capācissima’?

In Pliny’s letter 1.12, when he describes his meeting with his Domitian-hating friend, he mentions how all servants would leave when close friends came by, and even his wife ‘who was fully capable of ...
Canned Man's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
842 views

Dictionaries always list the Neuter Participle in principal forms, why?

I noticed that the principal forms of verbs always only include the neuter participle form, e.g. vocare - voco, vocavi, vocatum Is there a reason I've never seen the following? vocare - voco, ...
Cyb3rKo's user avatar
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Does the PPA occur in a periphrastic form? [duplicate]

Can you put a PPA in a periphrastic construction, with a form of esse? I was working on the periphrastic declension of the future active parts and the future passive parts. Now it occurred to me: ...
Johannes Kwadraat's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
170 views

"Casus": an active perfect participle from a non-deponent verb?

Having noticed here that excidere, "to fall out", lacks a perfect participle, a reasonable deficiency given that it's intransitive and has no corresponding passive meaning, I checked ...
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
101 views

On the syntactic distribution of ablative gerund and nominative present participle

I've always taken it for granted that in Classical Latin nominative present participles cannot be replaced by ablative gerunds without a meaning change. For example, in the following case the ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
359 views

What is the correct vowel quantity for the participle of legō?

In the following, vowel quantities which I am uncertain of, will be marked with both a breve and a macron, so they should not be considered the answer; that is what I am searching for. This whole ...
Canned Man's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
560 views

Do vocative forms of participles exist?

I wondered if the vocative forms of participles really exist. E.g. the vocative of vocatus would be vocate, same with vocaturus and vocature. Both forms can be found on pages like Wiktionary (vocate, ...
Cyb3rKo's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
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Why is nominative instead of ablative absolute used in 'Ibi egressi Trojani'?

In LLPSI 2 'Roma Æterna', Chapter XLI 'Origines', it is written: Ibi [Siciliâ] egressi Trojani, quibus ab immenso prope errore nihil præter arma et naves supererat, cum prædam ex agris agerent, ...
Marius Vivanconus Speluncus's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
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Future participle that wasn't fulfilled

This is a follow-up question of this question on difference between future participle and simple future Apparently from the very question and the answers it seems my previous understanding of future ...
d_e's user avatar
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Difference between future participle and simple future

They say taking a walk over a cemetery inspires you to ponder the big questions. I have definitely found that to be true, as I recently came across this inscription on a local graveyard: According to ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
313 views

Are future active participles of deponent verbs used in place of future passive participles? Why?

In form, nātūrus is a future active participle of the (deponent) verb nāscor – which otherwise only appears in passive forms – and is used to mean about to rise and, taken literally, about to be born, ...
k.stm's user avatar
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Inveniturne participium futuri activi in ablativo absoluto?

Constructio ablativi absoluti, quae vocatur, frequenter affirmatur constare ex nomine in casu ablativo et participio, quod cum nomine congruere debeat. Tria autem genera participiorum habet lingua ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
443 views

The difference between ablative absolute and a participle coniunctum

(old misleading title: The difference between ablative absolute and present participle) On participles A&G notes: The present and perfect participles are often used as a predicate, where in ...
d_e's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
341 views

On the syntax of 'Cogitate quantis laboribus fundatum imperium (...) una nox paene delerit' (Cic. Cat. 4, 19)

Picking up the thread of analyzing beautiful structures involving participles in Cicero's works (e.g. see this link), I'd like to raise a question about the syntax of the following complex sentence. ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
124 views

Deponent verb participle gender

If we consider a deponent verb such as arbitrārī in the perfect tense, hence arbitrātus sum/es/est, is the participle arbitrātus supposed to be declined like a regular adjective? For example if one ...
user35319's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
453 views

participium coniunctum vs. ablative absolute of transitive deponent verbs

I was wondering why the "active meaning" and the transitivity of deponent perfect participles like cohortatus in (1) are not naturally preserved in the Ablative Absolute in (2). Why is it ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
101 views

Active verb with future passive and perfect participle?

How does the active verb "veniunt" work with the word "consideranda"? Almost like a periphrastic? As I have translated below: "Ac initio quidem duo principalia decreta ante omnia consideranda ...
MichaelJYoo's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
101 views

Is an Ablative Absolute construction like "portā clausā" ambiguous in Early Latin?

As a follow-up question of two previous posts (cf. here and here), I was wondering if an Ablative Absolute construction like portā clausā is ambiguous in Early Latin as it is in Classical Latin. For ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
185 views

Using Participles in Latin Tenses

In English, we can communicate progressiveness of an action by combining a form of "to be" with a participle. For instance, "I am acting" is progressive, whereas "I act" is not. I am wondering about ...
Cayley-Hamilton's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
207 views

Why plural "laudantium" with singular "militiae"?

In the Latin Vulgate, Luke 2:13 is translated: Et subito facta est cum angelo multitudo militiæ cælestis laudantium Deum, et dicentium ... "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of ...
LarsH's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
614 views

Can Gerundives be predicates of Ablative Absolutes?

I was wondering if Gerundives, the verbal adjectives referred to as "future passive participles" by Latin grammarians, can appear as predicates of Ablative Absolute constructions. As is well-known, ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
933 views

Present participles of the verb esse

Inspired by the answers to this question, I want to ask about the different present participles of esse over time and their fate. I am aware that esse is a defective verb that classically does not ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
34 views

More verbs like "mensuro", active verb derived from deponent?

I just read on Wiktionary that the Late/Vulgar verb mensuro (I measure) comes from Classical mensura (a measure or measurement), which comes from mensus, the perfect participle of the deponent verb ...
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
144 views

"Renegatus": an active perfect participle from a non-deponent verb?

Several dictionaries' etymologies of English "renegade" trace it to Medieval Latin renegatus, an apostate, one who has denied his religion and gone back to another. Renegatus in turn is the ...
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
137 views

Using perfect participle as perfect active participle

Is perfect participle, in spite of the general notion, used both as perfect passive participle and perfect active participle? Spinoza, Ethics, De Dei, Propositio 15, Scholium: nam omnes qui ...
Ali Nikzad's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
379 views

What is the difference in meaning/usage between "nasciturus" and "nascendus"?

Both nasciturus and nascendus seem to exist. Words ending in -turus are often described as future active participles, and words ending in -ndus as future passive participles (they are also called ...
Asteroides's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
156 views

Is the U long or short in the forms ussi and ustus of the verb ūro?

I'm uncertain about the length of the u in the perfect and perfect passive participle stems of the verb uro /uːroː/. My research Lewis (1890) gives "ūrō ūssī, ūstus" but doesn't explain why....
Asteroides's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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Present Participles: can "respicienti" be part of an ablative absolute in this sentence?

Suetonius, Caius (Caligula) 58: ...alii Sabinum summota per conscios centuriones turba signum more militiae petisse et Caio "lovem" dante Chaeream exclamasse: "accipe ratum" respicientique maxillam ...
tony's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Switches between Direct & Indirect Speech in Suetonius

Suetonius, Caius (Caligula) 58: alii [tradunt] Sabinum summota per conscios centuriones turba signum more militiae petisse et Gaio 'Iouem' dante Chaeream exclamasse: 'accipe ratum!' ...
tony's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
280 views

How obligatory is the predicate in a dominant participle construction?

Typically, so-called "dominant" participle constructions (aka Ab urbe condita constructions; AUC for short) are defined by saying that the predicative participle is compulsory, whereby it cannot be ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
223 views

When are -ns words used with accusative direct objects?

In English, one common generalization is that "-ing" words only take direct objects when they are verb forms, not when they are true adjectives or true nouns. (There are only a few possible exceptions,...
Asteroides's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
126 views

Does the agent noun always come from the perfect participle stem?

When answering this question, I wrote that an agent noun is always derived from the perfect participle stem. As the (singular masculine form of the) perfect participle is listed in many dictionaries, ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
491 views

Subject-verb agreement when the subject is a dominant participle construction

My question is whether constructions similar to the following English one, which is drawn from Jespersen (1909-1949, vol. V: 138), can exist in Latin, i.e., constructions where (i) the subject is ...
Mitomino's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
325 views

Quo mortuo nuntiato (Cicero) // Ab urbe condita nuntiata (?)

Given my description below on nested/double predicative participle constructions (e.g., quo mortuo nuntiato) and given the well-known parallelism between so-called “dominant” participle constructions (...
Mitomino's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
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What would this pun mean?

In a conversation with a fellow Ancient Greek enthusiast, the name "Medusa" (Μέδουσα, "ruling") came up. I made a rather tortured pun by switching the epsilon to an eta, creating μὴ δοῦσα. Now, μή is ...
Draconis's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
237 views

The use of participle in "Ceres a generendo"

I'm trying to read this sentence, where Cicero finds Roman Gods in relevance to the Latin verbs: Saturnus quia se saturat annis, Mavors quia magna vertit, Minerva quia minuit aut quia minatur, ...
kore's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
151 views

What is the difference between ingenitus and innatus?

When discussing things "running in the blood", I suggested the word ingenitus for "innate", while Tom Cotton preferred innatus. Is there a difference in meaning between these two words? The second ...
Draconis's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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What's the deal with the extra U in 'mortuus'?

The verb mori ("to die") has the unusual past participle mortuus ("dead"). The stem of the participle is mortu-, the only example of a past participle stem ending in a vowel I can think of. (If my ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
357 views

How can participles (inflected forms) be distinguished from deverbal adjectives (derived forms) in Latin?

Many modern linguistic analyses of languages like English draw a sharp theoretical distinction between participles, which are analyzed as inflected forms belonging to the paradigm of some verb, and ...
Asteroides's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
319 views

Do other verbs use different stems for their perfect passive and future active participles?

In his answer to another question, Cerberus remarked that many verbs with perfect participles in -ūtus had future active participles in -uitūrus. This struck me as odd, as I had been taught that those ...
Draconis's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
141 views

The Ultimate Lifeform

The title of the character Shadow the Hedgehog is The Ultimate Lifeform. As for a translation of this, I ultimately decided upon "Ens Ultimatus." But, should "ens" be masculine or neuter? It seems to ...
Middle School Historian's user avatar