Latin Participles Test

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Latin Participles: Forms and Main Uses

A participle is an adjective made from a verb. Because it is an adjective, it agrees with a noun in gender, number, and case. Because it comes from a verb, it keeps some verbal force.

Participles differ from ordinary adjectives in three important ways:

  • They describe actions rather than simple qualities. An ordinary adjective such as bonus describes what something is like. A participle such as portāns describes what someone is doing.
  • They can take objects, because they still behave partly like verbs. For example, in epistulam portāns, the participle portāns has the object epistulam.
  • They have tenses. Here, “tense” does not mean exactly the same thing as with an ordinary finite verb. It tells you the time of the participle’s action relative to the main verb.

For school purposes, the three main participles to learn are: portāns (present active), portātus (perfect passive participle, usually called the PPP), and portātūrus (future active participle).

The model verb here is portō, portāre, portāvī, portātus.

1. Present Active Participle of portō

The present active participle usually means “carrying” or “while carrying”. It usually shows action happening at the same time as the main verb.

In the first conjugation, the present participle goes -āns, -antis. In the other conjugations, it usually goes -ēns, -entis. So: portāns, monēns, regēns, audiēns.

Case Masculine / Feminine Singular Neuter Singular Masculine / Feminine Plural Neuter Plural
Nominative portāns portāns portantēs portantia
Accusative portantem portāns portantēs portantia
Genitive portantis portantis portantium portantium
Dative portantī portantī portantibus portantibus
Ablative portante portante portantībus portantībus
puer librum portāns ambulat “The boy, carrying a book, is walking.” / “The boy is walking while carrying a book.”

2. Perfect Passive Participle (PPP) of portō

The perfect passive participle, usually called the PPP, usually means “having been carried” or simply “carried”. It usually shows action already completed before the main verb, or a state resulting from that completed action.

This participle behaves like an ordinary first-and-second-declension adjective.

Case Masculine Singular Feminine Singular Neuter Singular Masculine Plural Feminine Plural Neuter Plural
Nominative portātus portāta portātum portātī portātae portāta
Accusative portātum portātam portātum portātōs portātās portāta
Genitive portātī portātae portātī portātōrum portātārum portātōrum
Dative portātō portātae portātō portātīs portātīs portātīs
Ablative portātō portātā portātō portātīs portātīs portātīs
epistula portāta perdita est “The letter, having been carried, was lost.” More naturally: “The letter, once it had been carried, was lost.”
urbs capta “the captured city”

3. Future Active Participle of portō

The future active participle usually means “about to carry” or “going to carry”. Very often it shows intention.

It is built from the same base as the PPP: portātus → portātūrus. This is why it is helpful to learn the PPP and the future participle together.

Case Masculine Singular Feminine Singular Neuter Singular Masculine Plural Feminine Plural Neuter Plural
Nominative portātūrus portātūra portātūrum portātūrī portātūrae portātūra
Accusative portātūrum portātūram portātūrum portātūrōs portātūrās portātūra
Genitive portātūrī portātūrae portātūrī portātūrōrum portātūrārum portātūrōrum
Dative portātūrō portātūrae portātūrō portātūrīs portātūrīs portātūrīs
Ablative portātūrō portātūrā portātūrō portātūrīs portātūrīs portātūrīs
mīlitēs signum portātūrī advēnērunt “The soldiers arrived about to carry the standard.” More naturally: “The soldiers arrived intending to carry the standard.”

4. The Main Difference Between the Three Participles

Present active participle = action happening at the same time

portāns = carrying / while carrying

Perfect passive participle = action already completed, or the state after it

portātus = having been carried / carried

Future active participle = action still to come, often with intention

portātūrus = about to carry / intending to carry

5. The Main Uses of Latin Participles

Pupils often meet two important technical terms here: attributive and circumstantial. These sound difficult, but the ideas are simple.

  • Attributive participle means that the participle directly describes a noun, like an ordinary adjective.
    puer currēns = “the running boy” / “the boy who is running”
  • Circumstantial participle means that the participle gives background information about the action of the main verb. It often tells you when, why, or in what situation something happened.
    epistulam scrībēns cantābat = “he was singing while writing the letter”
  • Ablative absolute is a noun and participle in the ablative, grammatically a little separate from the rest of the sentence.
    urbe captā cīvēs fugērunt = “after the city had been captured, the citizens fled”

6. A Very Simple Way to Read Latin Participles

  • First ask: what noun does the participle agree with?
  • Then ask: is it present, perfect passive, or future?
  • Then ask: is it directly describing the noun, or giving background to the action?
  • Finally ask: does it mean while, having been, or about to?

A useful working rule is:

present = while / -ing perfect passive = having been / already done future = about to / intending to