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Latin from scratch course › #17: Passive voice › #17.34: Passive morphosyntax

Latin from scratch #17.34: Morphosyntax of the passive voice

In the thirty-fourth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the morphosyntax of the passive voice: how to conjugate the verbs and how to express the complements of a passive verb.

Contents

  • Syntax of the passive voice
  • Passive morphology
    • Passive endings
    • Present-stem tenses
      • Present indicative
      • Future indicative
    • Perfect-stem tenses

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 14m 24s ⌛):

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Syntax of the passive voice

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A sentence in the passive voice is pretty much a transitive active sentence in which the point of view is changed. Transitive active sentences express the action from the point of view of the agent (subject), whereas a passive sentence expresses the action from the point of view of the patient (subject).

The main features of a passive sentence are:

  • the verb is in the passive voice
  • the subject is the patient, not the agent (of course, the patient-subject agrees with the passive verb)
  • the agent is expressed in the ablative case with the preposition a/ab when it is a person; things are expressed without preposition (and are better analyzed as cause rather than agent)

The rest of the complements are expressed in the same way as in the passive voice.

Passive morphology

There is a very important difference between present-stem tenses and perfect-stem tenses. Tenses such as the present, imperfect, etc., have their own endings, which we are about to learn, whereas tenses such as the perfect, pluperfect, etc., are more similar to the Enligh passive voice, which actually makes it confusing!

Passive endings

These endings are used only for the present-stem tenses:

  • 1st singular: ‑(o)r
  • 2nd singular: ‑ris / ‑re
  • 3rd singular: ‑tur
  • 1st plural: ‑mur 
  • 2nd plural: ‑mini
  • 3rd plural: ‑ntur

The most frequent ending for the 2nd person singular is ‑ris, but ‑re can be found in older texts or archaizing authors.

When using these endings, a phonetic change happen in the 2nd person singular in the present indicative, only in the 3rd and mixed conjugations; and in the 2nd person singular in the future indicative in the 1st and 2nd conjugations: the short i, followed by the r of the ending, becomes e: *ducĭris → ducĕris.

Present-stem tenses

The tenses which are formed on the present stem (indicative: present, imperfect and imperfect future; subjunctive: present and imperfect) are conjugated in the same way as the active voice, but using the passive endings.

Present indicative

1st conjugation2nd conjugation3rd conjugationmixed conjugation4th conjugation
amor
amaris
amatur
amamur
amamini
amantur
moneor
moneris
monetur
monemur
monemini
monentur
ducor
duceris
ducitur
ducimur
ducimini
ducuntur
capior
caperis
capitur
capimur
capimini
capiuntur
audior
audiris
auditur
audimur
audimini
audiuntur

The underlined letters have undergone the phonetic change ĭ → ĕ

Future indicative

1st conjugation2nd conjugation3rd conjugationmixed conjugation4th conjugation
amabor
amaberis
amabitur
amabimur
amabimini
amabuntur
monebor
moneberis
monebitur
monebimur
monebimini
monebuntur
ducar
duceris
ducetur
ducemur
ducemini
ducentur
capiar
capieris
capietur
capiemur
capiemini
capientur
audiar
audieris
audietur
audiemur
audiemini
audientur

The underlined letters have undergone the phonetic change ĭ → ĕ

Perfect-stem tenses

The tenses which are formed on the perfect stem (indicative: perfect, pluperfect, perfect future; subjunctive: perfect and pluperfect) have a different type of passive voice conjugation, called periphrastic and more similar to the English passive conjugation.

However, there are important differences to take into account!

The general conjugation is the following:

  1. perfect participle (supine stem + 2-1-2 endings)
  2. verb sum in the corresponding tense

While conjugating, we need to take into account not only the person and the number of the subject, but also the gender: we have to decline the participle according to the number and gender (singular ‑us, ‑a, ‑um, or plural ‑i, ‑ae, ‑a).

Since the participle agrees with the subject and the subject is in the nominative case, the participle will always be in the nominative case as well.

For the indicative we have:

perfectpluperfectperfect future
amatus, -a, -um sum (fui)
amatus, -a, -um es (fuisti)
amatus, -a, -um est (fuit)
amati, -ae, -a sumus (fuimus)
amati, -ae, -a estis (fuistis)
amati, -ae, -a sunt (fuerunt)
amatus, -a, -um eram (fueram)
amatus, -a, -um eras (fueras)
amatus, -a, -um erat (fuerat)
amati, -ae, -a eramus (fueramus)
amati, -ae, -a eratis (fueratis)
amati, -ae, -a erant (fuerant)
amatus, -a, -um ero (fuero)
amatus, -a, -um eris (fueris)
amatus, -a, -um erit (fuerit)
amati, -ae, -a erimus (fuerimus)
amati, -ae, -a eritis (fueritis)
amati, -ae, -a erunt (fuerunt)

For the subjunctive we have:

perfectpluperfect
amatus, -a, -um sim (fuerim)
amatus, -a, -um sis (fueris)
amatus, -a, -um sit (fuerit)
amati, -ae, -a simus (fuerimus)
amati, -ae, -a sitis (fueritis)
amati, -ae, -a sint (fuerint)
amatus, -a, -um essem (fuissem)
amatus, -a, -um esses (fuisses)
amatus, -a, -um esset (fuisset)
amati, -ae, -a essemus (fuissemus)
amati, -ae, -a essetis (fuissetis)
amati, -ae, -a essent (fuissent)

In both tables, the forms of sum between parentheses are not used in classical texts, but can be found in other types of texts.

Of course, you have to pay special attention to the possible confusion: amatus sum does not mean I am loved (which would be amor), but I was / have been loved.

After learning the passive voice, we can learn the deponent verbs. But first, some practice!

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Next: Morphosyntax of the passive voice →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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