AM: Lesson - Deponent Verbs
Deponent Verbs
In the image, feminae congrediuntur (women are gathering) to offer sacrifices at the altar of Asclepius, god of medicine. This was a common practice during many Roman festivals. The verb congrediuntur looks passive but is active in translation because it is a deponent verb in Latin.
A deponent verb is a special type of verb that is used in Latin but cannot exist in English. The name deponent comes from the Latin verb deponere - to put aside. A deponent verb uses what appears to be passive forms, but in actuality, they are translated in the active voice. So, keep this in mind:
- a deponent verb looks passive but translates in the active voice.
This can occur in Latin because the passive voice in Latin is constructed using endings. English relies entirely on helping verbs to create passive constructions, so cannot produce such a form. It is very important to recognize these forms when you are working in Latin, since they have this unique feature.
Deponent Verbs - Vocabulary
Before we continue, please download the Deponent Verb Vocabulary and Derivatives Links to an external site. handout, if you did not earlier. These special forms were not included in the main vocabulary list, but be sure to add these forms to your vocabulary notes! We will be seeing deponent verbs quite a lot from here on out.
Dictionary Entry (Principal Parts) for Deponent Verbs
Because deponent verbs do not have any active forms, the principal parts are, by nature, different from those of a regular verb. To begin with, deponent verbs only have three principal parts, but the three principal parts are identical in their underlying characteristics to a regular verb. In other words, the 1st PP has the same characteristics as a deponent verb, just a different appearance. Review those characteristics below:
- First Principal Part: 1st person singular, present active indicative
- Remember, even though these forms look passive, they are actually active voice forms
- Second Principal Part: Present active infinitive
- Third Principal Part: 1st person singular, perfect active indicative
Just looking at that list of characteristics, you wouldn't be able to tell whether we were talking about a regular verb, or one of these new deponent verbs. Once you see the principal parts, though, you will immediately notice the changes:
- conor, conari, conatus sum - to try
Nota Bene
- The 1st PP ends in -r, the passive looking 1st person singular present ending
- The 2nd PP is a new form: the passive-looking form of the present infinitive. We will learn this form later - so this is a sort of preview for a future lesson.
- The 3rd PP looks like the 1st person singular form of the perfect passive, so it is the perfect participle (always listed with the masculine singular form) and the verb sum.
Conjugation Number - Deponent Verbs
Deponent verbs belong to the same set of conjugations as regular verbs (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd-io and 4th). Each conjugation has similar features to the regular counterpart, such as the present stem ending in -a for the 1st conjugation verbs. Conjugation number is determined by the 2nd Principal Part for deponent verbs:
- 1st Conjugation:
- hortor, hortari, hortatus sum - to encourage
- ari = 1st conjugation
- 2nd Conjugation
- veneor, veneri, venitus sum - to fear
- eri = 2nd conjugation
- 3rd Conjugation
- loquor, loqui, locutus sum - to speak
- -or, i = 3rd conjugation
- 3rd-io Conjugation
- patior, pati, passus sum - to suffer
- -ior, -i = 3rd-io conjugation
- 4th Conjugation
- orior, oriri, oritus/ortus sum - to rise
- iri = 4th conjugation
- N.B. there are two possible perfect participles for this verb: both ortus and oritus were used interchangeably.
Stems
The point of principal parts is to provide us with the necessary stems to create all the other verb forms in Latin. The deponent principal parts still fulfill this role, but in a different way from a regular verb:
| Stem |
Formation Rules |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
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Present Stem 1st/2nd/4th Conjugation |
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Present Stem 3rd Conjugation |
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Perfect Stem |
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NONE |
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Participle Stem |
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Vocabulary Note - videri
In looking at the vocabulary for this module, please note the deponent verb videor, videri, visus sum - to seem. This deponent verb is identical to the passive voice forms of the regular verb video, videre, vidi, visus - to see. While the regular verb can form the passive voice, for instance, the phrase I am seen is perfectly reasonable, the passive forms will far more frequently be the deponent form. Use the context of the line to help determine whether you have the passive (be seen) or the deponent (seem). One clue is that the deponent verb videri will be followed by an infinitive form: seem to be... so check for an infinitive when you see passive looking forms of this verb. One final note: this course separates videre and videri as two separate verbs (regular and deponent), but other sources refer to it as a single verb, with a deponent passive form. Whichever way you think of it, be on the look out for this unique formation!
Conjugating and Translating Deponent Verbs
Because deponent verbs are formed only in the passive voice, we will not list out the conjugated forms here (we just covered these passive forms on the previous pages!). However, please download the Passive Voice Verb Examples Links to an external site. handout for fully conjugated deponent verb examples. The handout includes both the Latin forms and an English translation for each form.
Final reminder: Every form of the deponent verb will appear passive but will be translated in the active voice.
Practice Activity