LEARN LATIN

LESSON 12

After the deep waters of the gerund and the gerundive, this month’s subject – the participle – is an utter breeze.

In English, the present participle is usually a word ending in ‘-ing’: ‘Loving chips, he got fat’.

This present participle is formed by adding - ns onto the stems of the four conjugations: amans – loving; monens – advising; regens – ruling; audiens – hearing.

Present participles go like ingens SINGULAR Masculine and feminine Nom ingens Voc ingens Acc ingentem Gen ingentis Dat ingenti Abl ingenti PLURAL Masculine and feminine Nom ingentes ingentia Voc ingentes ingentia Acc ingentes ingentia Gen ingentium ingentium Dat ingentibus ingentibus Abl ingentibus ingentibus There’s an easy formula for the future participle: add - urus on to the stems of the four conjugations. amaturus, - a, - um – about to love moniturus,-a,-um – about to advise recturus,-a,-um – about to rule auditurus,-a,-um – about to hear There’s a future participle in the words said by gladiators to the emperor before fighting. ‘ Ave,imperator,morituritesalutant.’ See if you can translate it. The past participle is formed by taking the supine of the verb, and then declining it like dominus, mensa and bellum: amatus,-a,-um – having been

monitus,-a,-um – having been advised; rectus,-a,-um – having been ruled; auditus,-a,-um – having been heard.

The past participle normally has a passive sense, as in ‘having been loved’. There is a group of verbs, called deponent verbs, that look passive, but are in fact active in meaning. One example is loquor (‘I speak’). In the perfect participle, deponent verbs have an active meaning. So locutus means ‘having spoken’.

That wriggle apart, participles are plain sailing. Answer on page

loved;

– huge.

Neuter

ingens ingens ingens ingentis ingenti ingenti

Neuter

HARRY MOUNT