Latin Deponent Verbs & Semi-Deponent Verbs: The Ultimate Guide

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. Example sentences are included!

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What are deponent verbs in Latin?

Let’s start with the textbook definition of a Latin deponent verb. If this doesn’t clear anything up, that’s okay. We will go over everything in more detail below.

The word “deponent” comes from the 3rd conjugation Latin verb dēpōnō, which means “lay down” or “put aside.” The idea is that a deponent verb puts aside its expected passive meaning in favor of an active one.

If you aren’t sure about the difference between active and passive voice, then start by reading about how verb conjugation works. That post includes a detailed discussion of grammatical 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, verbs have special active and passive personal endings. 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. 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, I depart (ACTIVE meaning, PASSIVE ending)

This seems super weird at first, but you will 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)

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 Latin verb is deponent?

Fortunately this is very easy. Simply look it up in a 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.

Now you know how to identify deponent verbs in Latin, so it’s time to move on to some examples of deponents in action.

How To Translate Deponent Verbs (with examples!)

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.

Here are some example sentences with deponent verbs.

Notice that all of these verbs are translated in the active voice. In the first sentence, for example, sequitur means “follows”, not “is followed.”

Pro tip: one of my favorite Latin phrases commonly used in English comes from the deponent verb sequor. A “non sequitur” is something that does not follow from the previous conversation. So if you have trouble remembering that deponents are active in meaning, remember the phrase non sequitur!

Deponent Participles

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 the section on semi-deponent verbs.)

But if you’re more advanced, keep reading. It’s time to discuss how the participles of Latin deponent verbs work.

There are three exceptions to the “no active endings on deponents” rule. All of these exceptions relate to participles.

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 a chart that lists Latin deponent participles and how to translate them. I have used the verb sequor “follow” as an example.

Participle	Form	Meaning	Example
Present active	Active	Active	sequēns (following)
Future active	Active	Active	secūtūrus (about to follow)
Future passive	Passive	Passive	sequendus (about to be followed)
Perfect passive	Passive	Active	secūtus (having followed)

What are semi-deponent verbs in Latin?

Definition: Semi-deponent verbs are verbs that are regular in the present system and deponent in the perfect system. They are called semi-deponents because semi means “half” in Latin.

Half of the time they behave regularly. Active endings have active meanings and passive endings have passive meanings. But half of the time they act like deponents: passive endings lead to 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 the irregular verb sum.

Example: audeō, audēre, ausus sum

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

To reiterate: just like deponents, semi-deponents only have three principal parts. But unlike deponents, you will see that the first principal part ends in -ō.

List of Common Deponent & Semi-Deponent Verbs

Common Latin 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!

These verbs are the ones often included in introductory Latin textbooks, and almost all of them are also on the DCC Latin Core Vocabulary List. This means they are among the 1000 most frequently used Latin words.

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.

Latin Verb	Meaning
arbitror, arbitrārī, arbitrātus sum	judge, think
cōnor, cōnārī, cōnātus sum	try, attempt
ēgredior, ēgredī, ēgressus sum	go out, leave
experior, experīrī, expertus sum	test, experience
fateor, fatērī, fassus sum	confess
for, fārī, fātus sum	say, speak
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
īrāscor, īrāscī, īrātus sum	grow angry, get angry
loquor, loquī, locūtus sum	speak
mīror, mīrārī, mīrātus sum	marvel 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

Common Semi-Deponent Verbs

There are few semi-deponent verbs in Latin. In fact, my favorite 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.

Notice that three of these four verbs belong to the second conjugation.

Latin Verb	Meaning
audeō, audēre, ausus sum	dare
fīdō, fīdere, fīsus sum	trust
gaudeō, gaudēre, gāvīsus sum	rejoice
soleō, solēre, solitus sum	be accustomed to

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

How do you feel about Latin deponent and semi-deponent verbs? A bit better? The number 1 thing to remember is that when in doubt, assume the verb is being used actively.

It is also crucial to know if the verb is deponent or not. So make sure you look it up in a good dictionary or in your textbook first, before you try to figure out what it means.

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