IS: Lesson - Translation: Future Active Participles

Image: a statue of a man holding a book which he is about to read.

Translation: Future Active Participles

The statue in the image depicts a vir lecturus, clutching his book while taking a seat. The word lecturus is a future active participle describing the noun vir, so this statue shows an about to read man. While this construction is not used frequently in English, the phrase about to read is acting as an adjective for man, making it an example of the future active participle.

The future active participle has two basic translations:

  1. about to + verb
  2. going to + verb

Examples:

  • amaturus, amatura, amaturum - going/about to love
  • visurus, visura, visurum - going/about to see
  • ducturus, ductura, ducturum - going/about to lead
  • capturus, captura, capturum - going/about to take
  • auditurus, auditura, auditurum - going/about to hear

Future Active Participles can be used just like any other adjective, by placing the translated form directly in front of the noun. However, this translation is exceedingly rare:

  1. femina dictura - the about to speak woman
  2. vir lecturus - the about to read man

It is much more common to see the future active participle translated using one of several possible options that can be employed. The options are similar to both present active and perfect passive participles. Let's look at femina dictura as an example: 

Possible Translations of femina dictura
Type of Translation Translation Example
Adjective the about to speak woman
Apposition the woman, about to speak
Relative Pronoun - who, which the woman, who is about to speak
Temporal (time) - when, before, after the woman, when she is about to speak
Causal - because, since the woman, because she is about to speak
Concessive - although the woman, although she is about to speak
Conditional - if the woman, if she is about to speak

Translation in Context

Let's look at a single Latin sentence containing a future active participle to see all the ways we could translate it.

Maecenas feminae dicturae signum dabit.

  • Adjective
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the about to speak woman.*
  • Apposition
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, about to speak.*
  • Relative Pronoun (who, which)
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, who is about to speak.
  • Temporal (time) - before, when, after
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, when she is about to speak.
  • Causal - because, since
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, because she is about to speak.
  • Concessive - although, though, even though
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, even though she is about to speak.
  • Conditional - if
    • Maecenas will give a signal to the woman, if she is about to speak.

Nota bene

  • It is the woman who will speak - she is the one performing the action of the verb. This is called active voice and is why we call these future active participles.
  • The tense of the translated participle indicates time after the independent verb - the woman has not spoken yet.
  • *Not every type of translation works with every participle. Those sentences marked with an asterisk (*) would need a very specific context to make sense. With other participle/noun combinations, though, those translations might fit. Notice in particular with future active participles that the plain adjective and appositive uses are the most awkward.