Latin/Participles Lesson 2
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Present Active Participle
[edit | edit source]In the previous lesson we looked at the Perfect Passive Participle, or PPP, as it is used both for the perfect passive verb tenses, and in the new-to-us form of adjectival modifier. This lesson we will examine the Present Active Participle. It is always active, and it is essentially identical to a 3rd declension adjective, with just a few quirks. The following sample verbs are shown as participles in nom. s. and gen. s.
Participles formed from sample verbs:
| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st amō – amāns, amantis | loving | |
| 2nd moneō – monēns, monentis | warning | |
| 3rd mittō – mittēns, mittentis | sending | |
| 3rd capiō – capiēns, capientis | taking | |
| 4th audiō – audiēns, audientis | hearing |
Deponent verbs can have present participles:
- sequor – sequēns (following)
- orior – oriēns (rising; perhaps you remember oriens and occidens as east and west from a previous lesson).
Some irregular verbs have this participle as well;
- volēns (willing),
- nolēns (unwilling),
- ferēns (bearing/bringing).
The irregular verb “eō” along with its compounds is particularly weird:
- iēns, euntis (going).
Declension of present active participles is similar to 3rd declension adjectives, always having the i-stem endings in nom. and acc pl. n., and gen pl; nom s. n. is the same as m. and f., and acc. s. n. is the same as nom. s. n. The biggest difference is the e ending for ablatives, instead of -i as it is in 3rd decl. adjectives.:
| Case | S (m-f/n) | P (m-f/n) | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | amāns | amantēs/amantia | loving |
| Genitive | amantis | amantium | of loving |
| Dative | amantī | amantibus | to / from loving |
| Accusative | amantem/amāns | amantes/amantia | loving |
| Ablative | amante | amantibus | by / with / from loving |
If you spend enough time studying Latin verbs, you will see the roots of many English nouns derived from them. For example, “president” is from the verb praesideō = sit in front of, preside over; literally praesidēns means “the person sitting in front of/presiding over”. In modern Latin usage praesidens and praeses are both used to mean someone holding the office of president. An “agent” is a person given authority for acting. A “docent” is a person with teaching responsibilities. Protestants are people who protest. Intermittent, magnificent, convenient, solvent, and evident also derive from participles.
We hope you will forgive us for only inventing a few sentences for this lesson. We hope that by giving you several examples of participles used in real Latin texts you will get a good sense of Latin idiom however. Some of them are appropriate for the Christmas season.
New Vocabulary
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Audio (Classical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| praeses, praesidis praesidēns, praesidentis |
president | ||
| praesideō, praesidēre, praesīdī, 2 | sit in front of, preside over, protect | ||
| reddō, reddere, reddidī, redditus, 3 | give back, restore, render | ||
| sapiō, sapere, sapīvī, 3 | taste of, have sense, understand |
New Sentences
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lūcia māter amāns est. | Lucia is a loving mother. | |
| Mārcus avem volantem super montēs vīdit. | Marcus saw the bird flying over the mountains. | |
| Hoc dicēns, Gāius gladium dēposuit. | Saying this, Gaius put down his sword. (Hoc is the object of dicens, which is in the nominative to agree with the subject, Gaius.) | |
| Mortuī sunt pugnantēs. | They died fighting. | |
| Mīlitēs hostēs fugientēs secutī sunt. | The soldiers followed the fleeing enemy. | |
| Eōs flūmen trānseuntēs vīdimus. | We saw them going across the river. | |
| Homō sapiēns | human being; man with understanding, wise man | |
| Modus ponēns, modus tollēns | Mode of affirming (putting in place), mode of denying (taking away). | |
| Et pastorēs erant in regiōne eādem vigilantēs, et custodientēs vigiliās noctis super gregem suum. (Luke 2:8) | And there were shepherds in the same region, staying awake and keeping watch over their flock by night. | |
| Et hoc vōbis signum: inveniētis īnfantem pannīs involūtum, et positum in præsepiō. Et subitō facta est cum angelō multitūdō mīlitiæ cælestis laudantium Deum, et dīcentium … | And this is a sign to you: you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying… | Luke 2:12-13 involutum and positum are both perfect passive participles, agreeing with īnfantem in the acc. s. m., laudantium and dīcentium are both present active participles, agreeing with militiae caelestis in the gen. pl. |
| Tunc Herodēs vidēns quonium illūsus esset ā magīs, irātus est valdē, et mittēns occīdit omnēs puerōs quī erant in Bēthlehem. (Matthew 2:16) | Then Herod, seeing that he had been tricked by the wise men, was very angry, and sending, he killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem. | |
| Caput aprī dēferō, reddēns laudēs Dominō. | I bring the boar’s head, rendering praises to the Lord. | from the Boar’s Head carol. |
| Volēns et potēns! | Willing and able! | |
| Amantēs sunt amentēs. (Terence) | Lovers are insane (out of their minds). | |
| Locum tenēns | a person/thing holding the place | |
| Deō volente | if God is willing | This is an example of the ablative absolute construction, which, d.v., we hope to explore further soon |
Practice
[edit | edit source]| Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson | |
|---|---|
| Step one | First learn the words using this lesson: |
| Step two | Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: |
| Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function) | |
Bonam fortūnam et laetitiam in novō annō vōbīs optō!