Master the Latin Participles

(cf. Wheelock 23)

If you are more interested in the idea than in the forms of Latin participles, click here.

To learn the different types and forms of Latin participles, remember:

Be sure that you correctly understand the basic meanings of the various participles. The clues that aid easy recognition are highlighted.

Notice how the endings seem to link

  

• present and future passive participial forms, -ns with -ndus: audiêns - audiendus

• past (or perfect) and future active participial forms, -tus (sometimes -sus) with -tûrus (sometimes -sûrus): audîtus - audîtûrus.

Why is it helpful to notice these connections?

Noticing these connections allows you to go from one form to another very quickly. Given a present participle like laudâns, for example, you can quickly produce the future passive participle, laudandus, because the forms suggest each other. Likewise, given the perfect participle laudâtus, you can quickly get to the future active participle, laudâtûrus.

Therefore, given the four principal parts, you have what you need to get the present participle, which suggests the future passive one; and you have the fourth principal part, which usually presents you with the perfect (also called the past) participle, which in turn suggests the future active participle.

How do I get the forms?

1. Go to the second part, the infinitive, make the present participle and then the future passive one by changing  -ns to  -ndus.

amâre amâns - amandus

2. Go to the fourth part, take the past participle, and make the future active one by changing  -us to  -ûrus.

amâtus amâtus - amâtûrus

Study the chart below and observe the patterns.

Show me the participles from deponent verbs.

Remember: not all verbs have all forms. A verb like esse, to be, can not be passive, and therefore can not have a "passive form." It can however form êns, entis and futûrus, a, um.

The endings of participles must change to agree with the gender, number, and case of the nouns or pronouns that they modify.

  

Rîdêns puella cantat. = A smiling girl is singing.

Rîdêns is feminine, singular, and nominative.
It agrees with puella.

  

Rîdentem puerum vidêmus. = We see a smiling boy.

Rîdentem is masculine, singular, and accusative.
It agrees with puerum.

  

Moritûrî tê salûtâmus. = We [gladiators] about to die salute you.

Moritûrî is masculine, plural, and nominative.
It agrees with [gladiators].

Declining the Participles

1. The participles other than the present one (the past, the future active, and the future passive) are declined according to the -us -a -um paradigm (like bonus, bona, bonum).

  

amâtus, amâta, amâtum

amâtûrus, amâtûra, amâtûrum

amandus, amanda, amandum

  

monitus, monita, monitum

monitûrus, monitûra, monitûrum

monendus, monenda, monendum

  

captus, capta, captum

captûrus, captûra, captûrum

capiendus, capienda, capiendum

2. The present participle is declined like a third-declension adjective (with genitive in -is), except that it may sometimes take an -e instead of an -î in the ablative singular. See the page on third-declension patterns.

The present participle can take -e rather than -î when it is felt to be less like an adjective and more like a verb.

  

Deo volente. = With God willing [something]. = If God wills [something].

  

The implied object makes volente more like a verb, which can take an object, rather than like an adjective that simply modifies a noun.

NOTA BENE:

The present participles will almost always have an -NT- element right before the ending, except for the nominative singulars and neuter accusative singulars.

Here are some examples of singular participial forms:

All of the plural forms have the -NT- element.

Explanation page on participles

Latin Teaching Materials at Saint Louis University:
Claude Pavur 1997 - 2002.   This material is made freely available for non-commercial educational use.