Latin Deponent Verbs: What You Need To Know

Do Latin deponent verbs confuse you? Read this post to find out what they are, how to identify them, how to translate them, and more.

Deponent verbs are an important topic in Latin, since many common verbs are deponent. The terminology may sound scary, but don’t worry. In this post, I offer beginner-friendly explanations of everything you need to know about Latin deponents (and semi-deponents).

Let’s get started!

What are deponent verbs in Latin?

QUICK DEFINITION: A deponent verb has A) a passive ending and B) an active meaning. Don’t worry if this definition doesn’t clear anything up. We will go over everything in more detail below.

Active vs. Passive Endings

First of all, are you familiar with the concept of verb conjugation? If not, then start by reading my post about what a conjugation is. That post also contains a discussion of active vs. passive voice.

Here I will just remind you that a verb is active if the subject performs the action. A verb is passive, on the other hand, if the subject receives the action.

In Latin, there are special active and passive personal endings for verbs (called final personal signs). In the present tense, for instance, the first person singular active personal ending is -ō. The first person singular passive personal ending is -or.

Let’s look at an example. We will use the first conjugation verb amō ‘love’.

amō = I love (ACTIVE ending and meaning)

amor = I am loved (PASSIVE ending and meaning)

Most verbs can be active or passive, depending on the context. Active endings lead to active meanings, and passive endings lead to passive meanings. Logical, right?

Deponent verbs complicate this tidy picture.

Examples of Deponent Verbs

Deponents express active meanings: the subject is always performing the action. But, strangely enough, deponents have passive endings.

Take, for example, the verb proficīscor ‘set out, depart’. The first person singular present indicative form is proficīscor, and it means ‘I set out, I depart’. This is an active meaning – I am performing the action of departing.

But proficīscor ends in -or, which is the first person singular passive ending. In the case of deponents, passive endings lead to active meanings.

proficīscor = I set out / depart (ACTIVE meaning, PASSIVE ending)

This seems super weird at first, but I promise you get used to it with time.

Here is another example. The third person singular active personal ending is -t, while the third person singular passive personal ending is -tur.

amat = s/he loves (ACTIVE ending and meaning)

amātur = s/he is loved (PASSIVE ending and meaning)

proficīscitur = s/he sets out, departs (Deponent: PASSIVE ending but ACTIVE meaning)

Exceptions

If you are a relatively new Latin student, then feel free to skip this rather technical section. It’s super confusing and not necessary to know right away. (Seriously, skip it! Jump down to How To Identify Deponent Verbs.)

But if you’re more advanced, keep reading.

There are three exceptions to the “no active endings on deponents” rule. All of these exceptions relate to participles. It’s always the participles causing trouble, isn’t it?

1. In Latin, there is a present active participle, but NOT a present passive participle. So deponents use the present active participle ending to express an active meaning.
2. Deponents also have a future active participle. This participle is formed off the perfect passive participle stem (just like in regular non-deponent verbs) and it has an active meaning.
3. Lastly, deponents have a future active infinitive with an active meaning. This is not surprising, since future active infinitives are built off future active participles.

There is also one case in which deponents have a passive meaning. Deponents have future passive participles (aka gerundives) that express a passive sense. But you won’t see these too often, so most of the time you can be sure that you should translate any given deponent in the active voice.

Okay, that was confusing, right? Don’t say I didn’t warn you. To summarize, here is the deponent participle situation:

Present active participle: ACTIVE ending, ACTIVE meaning

Future active participle: ACTIVE ending, ACTIVE meaning

Future passive participle: PASSIVE ending, PASSIVE meaning

Perfect passive participle: PASSIVE ending, ACTIVE meaning

How To Identify Deponent Verbs

Now that you know what deponent verbs are, let’s move on to the next step. How do you tell if a verb is deponent?

Fortunately this is very easy. Simply look it up in the dictionary or in your textbook and see if the first principal part ends in –ō or -or.

Regular, non-deponent verbs have active principal parts by default. So their first principal part ends in -ō.

Example: amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus ‘love’

Deponent verbs only have passive endings, so their first principal part ends in -or.

Example: proficīscor, proficīscī, profectus sum ‘set out, depart’

Notice as well that deponent verbs only have three principal parts, instead of the standard four. A verb with three principal parts is often a deponent – but it can also be a semi-deponent, or simply an irregular verb.

So the most reliable way to decide if a verb is deponent is to look at the ending on its first principal part. If it’s -or, you have a deponent.

Time to practice! I have given the principal parts of 8 verbs below. Determine whether each verb is deponent or not.

So now you know how to identify deponent verbs in Latin. Yay!

How To Translate Deponent Verbs

Translating deponent verbs is simple, as long as you remember that they can never be passive in meaning. (Except for future passive participles/gerundives – but you don’t need to worry about those until you are very advanced.)

So when you look up a verb and see that it is deponent, don’t panic. Take a deep breath, look at the tense, and then translate it in the active voice.

What are semi-deponent verbs in Latin?

Semi-deponent verbs are verbs that are regular in the present system and deponent in the perfect system. So, half of the time they behave regularly: active endings = active meanings and passive endings = passive meanings. But half of the time they act like deponents: passive endings = active meanings.

I said up above that semi-deponent verbs are regular in the present system. This refers to the tenses built off the present stem – the present, imperfect, and future tenses.

But semi-deponent verbs are deponent in the perfect system. This includes the tenses built off the perfect stem – the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect.

How do you tell if a verb is semi-deponent? Look at the principal parts. The first two principal parts will be normal, active forms, but the third principal part will consist of two words: a perfect passive participle and sum.

Example: audeō, audēre, ausus sum

Note that the first principal part ends in -ō, just like in regular verbs. But the third principal part signals that this is a semi-deponent.

Just like deponents, semi-deponents only have three principal parts.

List of Common Deponent & Semi-Deponent Verbs

Common Deponent Verbs

Latin has a lot of deponent verbs, so I can’t possibly list all of them here. I have settled for around 20 of the most common!

• arbitror, arbitrārī, arbitrātus sum ‘think, consider’
• cōnor, cōnārī, cōnātus sum ‘try, attempt’
• fateor, fatērī, fassus sum ‘confess’
• fruor, fruī, frūctus sum ‘enjoy’ (+ ablative)
• fungor, fungī, fūnctus sum ‘perform, do’ (+ ablative)
• hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum ‘encourage, urge’
• ingredior, ingredī, ingressus sum ‘enter, go in’
• loquor, loquī, locūtus sum ‘speak’
• mīror, mīrārī, mīrātus sum ‘wonder (at), admire’
• morior, morī, mortuus sum ‘die’
• moror, morārī, morātus sum ‘delay’
• nāscor, nāscī, nātus sum ‘be born’
• orior, orīrī, ortus sum ‘rise, arise’
• patior, patī, passus sum ‘suffer, allow’
• potior, potīrī, potītus sum ‘obtain, acquire’ (+ ablative)
• precor, precārī, precātus sum ‘beg, entreat’
• proficīscor, proficīscī, profectus sum ‘set out, depart’
• queror, querī, questus sum ‘complain’
• reor, rērī, ratus sum ‘reckon, think’
• sequor, sequī, secūtus sum ‘follow’
• ūtor, ūtī, ūsus sum ‘use’ (+ ablative)
• vereor, verērī, veritus sum ‘fear, respect’

More than half of extant deponent verbs belong to the first conjugation (although many of the most common deponents are not first conjugation). Most deponent verbs tend to be intransitive or reflexive.

Common Semi-Deponent Verbs

There are few semi-deponent verbs in Latin. In fact, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar highlights just four. Since these are the only semi-deponent verbs you will encounter on a regular basis, these are the ones that I will list here in this post.

• audeō, audēre, ausus sum ‘dare’
• fīdō, fīdere, fīsus sum ‘trust’
• gaudeō, gaudēre, gāvīsus sum ‘rejoice’
• soleō, solēre, solitus sum ‘be accustomed to’

Final Thoughts

How do you feel about Latin deponent and semi-deponent verbs? A bit better? Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

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