In Latin as in English there are passive verb forms and passive sentence types, in which the subject is recipient of the action (rather than performing the action, as in the active voice). The rule for forming the passive of first and second conjugation present system passives (i.e., passives of the present, future, and imperfect tenses) is an easy one: simply substitute the new passive endings (-r, -ris, -tur; -mur, -minī, -ntur, for the active ones learned in Ch. 1 (-ō/-m, -s, -t; -mus, -tis, -nt). The few exceptions to this rule are highlighted in bold in the following paradigms.
| I was (being) praised, used to be praised, etc. | I was (being) warned, used to be warned, etc. |
1. laud -ba-r |
mon bar |
| 2. laudā-b-ris |
monēbris |
| 3. laudā-b-tur |
monēbtur |
| 1. laudā-b-mur |
monēbmur |
| 2. laudā-b-minī |
monēbminī |
| 3. laudā-bá-ntur | monēbántur |
| I shall be praised | I shall be warned |
| 1. laud-b-or |
monbor |
| 2. laud-be-ris |
monberis |
| 3. laud-bi-tur |
monbitur |
| 1. laud-bi-mur |
monbimur |
| 2. laudā-bí-minī | monēbíminī |
| 3. laudā-bú-ntur | monēbúntur |
The exceptional forms, highlighted in bold above, are few: in the first person singular, present and future, the -r is added directly to the full active form (with the -o- shortened before final -r); -bi- is changed to -be- in the future second person singular. Notice, too, that the stem vowel remains short in laudantur/monentur but is long in laudātur/monētur (review the rule in Ch. 1: vowels are generally shortened before nt in any position but only before a final -m, -r, or -t, hence laudat but laudātur). You should note the existence of an alternate second person singular passive ending in -re (e.g., laudābere for laudāberis); this ending is not employed in this book, but you will certainly encounter it in your later readings.
The present passive infinitive of the first and the second conjugations is formed simply by changing the final -e of the active to -ī.
| laudr-ī, to be praised |
monr-ī, to be warned |
When the verb is in the active voice (from agō, agere, ēgī, āctum, to act), the subject performs the action of the verb. When the verb is in the passive voice (from patior, patī, passus sum, to undergo, experience) the subject is acted upon: it suffers or passively permits the action of the verb. As a rule, only transitive verbs can be used in the passive; and what had been the object of the transitive verb (receiving the action of the verb) now becomes the subject of the passive verb (still receiving the action of the verb).
Caesarem admonet, he is warning Caesar.
Caesar admonetur, Caesar is being warned.
Urbem dēlēbānt, they were destroying the city.
Urbs dēlēbātur, the city was being destroyed.
Patriam cōnservābit, he will save the country.
Patria cōnservābitur, the country will be saved.
The personal agent by whom the action of a passive verb is performed is indicated by ab and the “ablative of agent”; the means by which the action is accomplished is indicated by the “ablative of means” without a preposition, as you have already learned in Ch. 14.
Dī Caesarem admonent, the gods are warning Caesar.
Caesar ā dīs admonētur, Caesar is warned by the gods. (Agent)
Caesar hīs prōdigiīs admonētur, Caesar is warned by these omens. (Means); prōdigium, -iī, omen.
Malī virī urbem dēlēbant, evil men were destroying the city.
Urbs ab malīs virīs dēlēbātur, the city was being destroyed by evil men. (Agent)
Urbs flammīs dēlēbátur, the city was being destroyed by flames. (Means); flamma, -ae.
Hī cīvēs patriam cōnservābunt, these citizens will save the country.
Patria ab hīs cīvibus cōnservābitur, the country will be saved by these citizens. (Agent)
Patria armīs et vēritāte cōnservābitur, the country will be saved by arms and truth. (Means)
In summary, and as seen in the preceding examples, an active sentence construction can generally be transformed to a passive construction as follows: what was the direct object becomes the subject, the recipient of the action; what was the subject becomes an ablative of agent (remember to add this to your list of ablative uses), if a person, or an ablative of means, if a thing; and the appropriate passive verb form is substituted for the active.
fl
men, flminis, n., river (flume; cp. fluō, below)
génus, géneris, n., origin; kind, type, sort, class (genus, generic, genitive, gender, general, generous, genuine, degenerate, genre, congenial; cp. gēns, Ch. 21, ingenium, Ch. 29)
hóstis, hóstis, m., an enemy (of the state); hóstēs, -ium, the enemy (hostile, hostility, host)
ldus, -ī, m., game, sport; school (ludicrous, delude, elude, elusive, allude, allusion, illusion, collusion, interlude, prelude, postlude)
probitās, probitātis, f., uprightness, honesty (probity; cp. probāre, Ch. 27)
sciéntia, -ae, f., knowledge (science, scientific; cp. sciō, Ch. 21) clrus, -a, -um, clear, bright; renowned, famous, illustrious (clarify, clarity, claret, clarinet, clarion, declare, Clara, Clarissa, Claribel)
mortlis, mortle, mortal (mortality, immortality; cp. mors) cūr, adv., why
deínde, adv., thereupon, next, then
flúō, flúere, flxī, flxum, to flow (fluid, fluent, flux, influx, affluence, effluence, influence, confluence, influenza, flu, mellifluous, superfluous)
légō, légere, lī, lctum, to pick out, choose; read (elect, elegant, eligible, lecture, legend, legible, intellect; cp. intellegō, neglegō)
mísceō, miscre, míscuī, míxtum, to mix, stir up, disturb (miscellanea, miscellaneous, miscellany, miscible, meddle, meddlesome, medley, melee, admixture, intermixture, promiscuous)
móveō, movre, m
vī, mtum, to move; arouse, affect (mobile, motion, motive, motor, commotion, emotion, remote, locomotive, mutiny)
vídeor, vidrī, v
sus sum, pass. of videō, to be seen, seem, appear
Multí morte etiam facilī nimis terrentur.
Beāta memoria amīcitiārum dulcium numquam dēlēbitur.
Illa fēmina caeca omnia genera artium quoque intellēxit et ab amīcīs iūcundīs semper laudābātur.
Pater senex vester, ā quō saepe iuvābāmur, multa dē celeribus perīculīs ingentis maris herī dīcere coepit.
Mentēs nostrae memoriā potentī illōrum duōrum factōrum cito moventur.
Cōnsilia rēgīnae illō tertiō bellō longō et difficilī dēlēbantur.
Itaque māter mortem quartī fīliī exspectābat, quī nōn valēbat et cuius aetās erat brevis.
Bella difficilia sine cōnsiliō et clēmentiā numquam gerēbāmus.
Tē cum novem ex aliīs miserīs ad Caesarem crās trahent.
Rēgem ācrem, quī officia neglēxerat, ex urbe suā ēiēcērunt.
Ille poēta in tertiō libellō saturārum scrīpsit dē hominibus avārīs quī ad centum terrās aliās nāvigāre cupiunt quod pecūniam nimis dēsīderant.
Mercy will be given by them even to the citizens of other cities.
Many are moved too often by money but not by truth.
The state will be destroyed by the powerful king, whom they are beginning to fear.
Those ten women were not frightened by plans of that trivial sort.
Possunt quia posse videntur. (*Virgil.—quia, conj., because.)
Etiam fortēs virī subitīs perīculīs saepe terrentur. (Tacitus.—subitus, -a, -um, sudden.)
Tua cōnsilia sunt clāra nōbīs; tenēris scientiā hōrum cīvium omnium. (Cicero.)
Malum est cōnsilium quod mūtārī nōn potest. (*Publilius Syrus.)
Fās est ab hoste docērī. (Ovid.—fās est, it is right.)
Eō tempore erant circēnsēs lūdī, quō genere levī spectāculī numquam teneor. (Pliny.—circēnsēs lūdī, contests in the Circus. —As here with genere, the antecedent is often attracted into the rel. clause.— spectāculum, -ī.)
Haec est nunc vīta mea: admittō et salūtō bonōs virōs quī ad mé veniunt; deinde aut scrībō aut legō; post haec omne tempus corporī datur. (Cicero.—salutāre, to greet at the early morning reception.)
Nihil igitur mors est, quoniam nātūra animī habētur mortālis. (Lu cretius.)
Numquam enim temeritās cum sapientiā commiscētur. (*Cicero.— temeritās, -tātis, rashness.)
Dīligēmus eum quī pecūniā nōn movētur. (Cicero.)
Laudātur ab hīs; culpātur ab illīs. (*Horace.)
Probitās laudātur—et alget. (*Juvenal.—algēre, to be cold, be neglected.)
Ō genus hūmānum, quod mortem nimium timet! Cūr perīcula mortis timētis? Omnia mūtantur, omnia fluunt, nihil ad vēram mortem venit. Animus errat et in alia corpora miscētur; nec manet, nec eāsdem fōrmās servat, sed in fōrmās novās mūtātur. Vīta est flūmen; tempora nostra fugiunt et nova sunt semper. Nostra corpora semper mūtantur; id quod fuimus aut sumus, nōn crās erimus.
(Ovid, Metamorphōsēs 15.153-216; prose adaptation.—The ancients had some imaginative views on the transmigration of souls.)
Hostis meant originally stranger and then enemy, since any stranger in early times was a possible enemy. From hostis, enemy, stems our “host” in the sense of “army.” Hospes, hospitis, which is an ancient compound of hostis, stranger, and potis, having power over, lord of (cf. Russ. gospodin, lord, gentleman), means host (one who receives strangers or guests) and also guest; cp. “hospital,” “hospitality,” “hostel,” “hotel” (Fr. hôtel), and Eng. cognate “guest.”
6. circus.—spectator, spectacle, specter, spectacular. 10. temerity (contrast “timidity”).
Salvēte! Wondering how the same verb, legere, can mean both to pick out and to read? Because the process of reading was likened to gathering and collecting the words of a text. What a splendid metaphor: we are all of us (especially Latin students) “word collectors”! “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” … and also the delights of language.
Remember the special pass. meaning of videor introduced in this Vocab.; here it is in the pres. pass. inf. form, also newly introduced in this chapter: esse quam vidērī, to be rather than to seem, the state motto of North Carolina. Scientia also turns up in several mottoes: scientia est potentia, knowledge is power, is one favorite, and another is scientia sōl mentis est, knowledge is the sun of the mind (motto of the University of Delaware). Valēte, discipulae discipulīque!
