Passive Verbs Explained
A Comprehensive Guide to Latin Passives
What on earth are passive verbs? Today I'm going to look at what passive verbs are in Latin and teach you how to identify them to make your Latin translations easier. By the end of this guide, you'll have a clear understanding of what passive verbs are and how to spot them in different tenses.
What is a Passive Verb?
A passive verb is used when the grammatical subject (nominative) of a sentence receives the action.
In most sentences, the subject (nominative) performs the action, and the object (accusative) receives it. However, in sentences with passive verbs, this relationship reverses. In other words, the grammatical subject receives the action.
The girl was attacked by the dog.
Here, although "the girl" is the subject (nominative), she is not performing the action; she is receiving it.
The passive verb is "was attacked,"
"The dog" is termed the ablative of agent - the one performing the action. You can find my article about these types of ablatives here.
Spotting Passive Verbs in Latin
There are two primary ways to form a passive verb in Latin, depending on the tense. Specifically, three tenses use the present stem, and three use the perfect stem.
Present Stem Passives
The present stem is employed in the following tenses:
Present Passive
Imperfect Passive
Future Passive
To form these tenses, we use: the present stem of the verb, add a tense signifier (for imperfect and future), and apply the passive endings (-r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -mini, -ntur).
Present Passive: portor, portaris, portatur, portamur, portamini, portantur (I am carried, you are carried, he/she/it is carried, we are carried, you all are carried, they are carried)
Imperfect Passive: portabar, portabaris, portabatur, portabamur, portabamini, portabantur (I was being carried, you were being carried, he/she/it was being carried, we were being carried, you all were being carried, they were being carried)
Future Passive: portabor, portaberis, portabitur, portabimur, portabimini, portabuntur (I will be carried, you will be carried, he/she/it will be carried, we will be carried, you all will be carried, they will be carried)
Here are some examples:
portor a militibus: I am carried by the soldiers.
portor is the 1st person present passive.
laudabaris a militibus: You were being praised by the soldiers.
laudabaris is not present, it is imperfect (with the -ba- signifier). It is a 2nd person singular.
necabitur a militibus: He or she will be killed by the soldiers.
necabitur is a third person singular future passive. neco means “to kill”, so necabitur means he or she “will be killed”.
Perfect Stem Passives
For the perfect tenses, the formula is slightly different. These tenses include:
Perfect Passive
Pluperfect Passive
Future Perfect Passive
Each tense requires the perfect passive participle of the verb combined with a conjugated form of the verb esse (to be). The tense of esse changes, depending on the tense of passive you have.
Perfect Passive: portatus sum (I have been carried). PPP + present esse
Pluperfect Passive: portatus eram (I had been carried). PPP + imperfect esse
Future Perfect Passive: portatus ero (I will have been carried). PPP + future esse
Here are some examples:
portatus sum a militibus: I have been carried by the soldiers.
portatus is the perfect passive participle of porto, and sum is the present tense of esse. It is first person, so I know the subject is “I”.
laudatae eratis a militibus: You (feminine plural) had been praised by the soldiers.
laudatae eratis is pluperfect passive. In this case I've used the perfect passive participle of laudo, and this one is a feminine plural. I'm talking about some women.
eratis is the imperfect of the verb “to be”, and is a second person plural.
necati erunt a militibus: They (masculine plural) will have been killed by the soldiers.
Again, the perfect passive participle necati has a plural ending, masculine this time.
erunt is future of the verb “to be”, 3rd person plural. “They will have been killed” - future perfect passive.
Passive verbs can be complex, but just remember: a passive verb switches the roles of the subject and object, so the subject receives the action. An easy one to spot is a verb with a perfect passive participle and a form of "to be," it's likely a passive verb.
I have posts on all these in more detail in my archive:
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