Latin Participles: The Ultimate Guide for Students
Participles are a tricky topic in Latin grammar, but they are also crucial for understanding the language. In this post, I will answer all your questions about Latin participles: what they are, how to translate them, and more!
I have taught introductory Latin many times at various institutions, and every time I emphasize participles and quiz my students on them over and over. While students may hate this in the moment, it helps them in the end. Participles are everywhere in Latin.
So let’s get started! I will walk you through everything in a beginner-friendly way and I will share all my best tips for approaching Latin participles.
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What are Latin participles?
In Latin, just as in English, a participle is a verbal adjective. This means that it has some qualities of a verb and some qualities of an adjective.
This sounds confusing in the abstract, so let’s look at an example. The participle is in bold in the following sentence.
The cat watching the birds is mine.
“Watching” is a present active participle. It acts like an adjective because it modifies, or describes, the noun “cat.” It tells us which cat is mine; it gives us more information.
“Watching” also acts like a verb because it expresses an action. This action has a direct object: “birds”. The cat is looking at the birds, an action which is expressed through a participial phrase.
Furthermore, participles are formed from verbs. For example, in English, we add “-ing” to a verb to make the present active participle. “Watching” is thus derived directly from the verb “watch.”
In Latin, participles also straddle the divide between verb and adjective. Participles have tense and voice (like verbs!) but also case, number, and gender (like adjectives!).
The Latin word for “participle” is participium, which literally means “partaking” or “participation”. This term stresses the hybrid nature of participles and the way that they have both verbal and adjectival qualities.
Types of Participles in Latin
I mentioned up above that Latin participles have tense and voice just as verbs do. This means that there are several kinds of participles.
Theoretically there are six possible participles, but in actuality Latin is missing two of them. The following chart summarizes the existing Latin participles.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
|---|---|---|
| Present | spectāns “watching” | N/A |
| Perfect | N/A | spectātus “having been watched” |
| Future | spectātūrus “about to watch” | spectandus “about to be watched” |
As you can see, the boxes for “perfect active” and “present passive” are left blank. This means that Latin has no way to say “having watched” (perfect active) or “being watched” (present passive).
Latin compensates for this gap by using relative clauses and other types of subordinate clause. In addition, the perfect passive participle is extremely common (especially in ablative absolutes – which we will discuss below!).
Now let’s take a closer look at each type of Latin participle before we move on to how to use participles.
Latin Present Active Participle
The present active participle describes an action that is occurring at the same time as the action of the main verb. We will talk more about this idea of relative time below, but for now just note that the English equivalent is “________ing.”
The following chart shows present active participles for each verb conjugation (including 3rd –iō). These participles are built off the verb’s present stem.
| Conjugation | Nominative Sg. | Genitive Sg. |
|---|---|---|
| 1st: spectō, spectāre | spectāns ‘watching’ | spectantis |
| 2nd: moneō, monēre | monēns ‘warning’ | monentis |
| 3rd: mittō, mittere | mittēns ‘sending’ | mittentis |
| 3rd -iō: capiō, capere | capiēns ‘seizing’ | capientis |
| 4th: audiō, audīre | audiēns ‘hearing’ | audientis |
You will notice that the nominative singular always ends in –ns. Before the –ns comes the stem vowel of the relevant conjugation. So, for first conjugation, you see a long A, and for second, a long E.
In third conjugation, the short E of the stem lengthens to a long E before the –ns. And for third –iō and fourth conjugation verbs, we see –iē– (the Romans didn’t like the sound of –ins, apparently!).
I have listed the genitive singular because most forms of the present active participle don’t have –ns. Instead they have –nt-.
To find the base of a given participle, remove the –is from the genitive singular. Then you can add 3rd declension adjective endings to the base.
This works because present active participles are one-termination 3rd-declension adjectives. That is, they have the same nominative singular form for masculine, feminine, and neuter.
If you would like to see a present active participle fully conjugated, then jump down to the end of this article. Otherwise, keep reading!
Here are two examples of present active participles in action.
Canis vidēns amīcum latrat. = The dog, seeing a friend, barks.
Propter canēs latrantēs nōn dormiēbam. = I was not sleeping on account of the barking dogs.
PRO TIP: We have lots of English words that derive from Latin present active participles. These words can help you to remember their basic form.
- A respondent is someone who responds (from respondēns, respondentis “responding”).
- A tangent is a line that touches a curve but does not cross it (from tangēns, tangentis “touching”).
- If you are expectant, this means you are waiting for or expecting something (from exspectāns, exspectantis “waiting”).
- An errant child is one who wanders about and/or misbehaves (from errāns, errantis “wandering, erring”).
- An incipient crisis is one that is just beginning (from incipiēns, incipientis “beginning”).
These are just a few examples of how present active participles have become part of everyday English!
Latin Perfect Passive Participle
Next up is the perfect passive participle. This Latin participle expresses an action that has already been completed prior to the action of the main verb. The standard English translation is “having been ________ed” or “_________ed”.
The good news is that you already know the perfect passive participle, assuming that you have memorized your principal parts. This is the point where my Latin students usually say, “Oh! This is why you have been telling us to memorize principal parts all along!”
Yes, exactly. Memorizing principal parts is especially important for third conjugation verbs since they have no standard formation process for the perfect passive participle.
Generally speaking, first conjugation verbs have perfect passive participles ending in –ātus, second conjugation verbs have ones ending in –itus, and fourth conjugation verbs have ones ending in -ītus. But there are many exceptions.
| Conjugation | Nominative Singular (M/F/N) |
|---|---|
| 1st: spectō, spectāre | spectātus –a -um ‘having been watched ‘ |
| 2nd: moneō, monēre | monitus -a – um ‘having been warned’ |
| 3rd: mittō, mittere | missus -a -um ‘having been sent’ |
| 3rd -iō: capiō, capere | captus -a -um ‘having been seized’ |
| 4th: audiō, audīre | audītus – a -um ‘having been heard’ |
The first form listed, ending in –us, is the nominative singular masculine. The –a is short for spectāta, monita, etc. and is the feminine singular form. Finally, the –um is short for spectātum, monitum, etc. and is the neuter singular form.
As this shorthand suggests, perfect passive participles are declined like 2-1-2 adjectives.
Examples:
Pecūniam ā matre missam in mēnsā posuimus. = We put the money sent by (our) mother on the table.
Elephantī captī Rōmam rediērunt. = The captured elephants returned to Rome.
Latin Future Active Participle
Future active participles indicate an action that will happen after the action of the main verb. In English we usually translate this type of Latin participle as “about to ________” or “going to ________”.
Future active participles are easy to form . . . if you know your perfect passive participles. Follow these two simple steps:
- Remove the -us -a – um from the perfect passive participle.
- Add –ūrus -a -um.
So, for example, the perfect passive participle of spectō is spectātus -a -um. When we remove the –us -a -um we are left with spectāt-. Then we add –ūrus -a -um to get spectātūrus -a -um.
And that’s all there is to it. Easy, right?
| Conjugation | Nominative Singular (M/F/N) |
|---|---|
| 1st: spectō, spectāre | spectātūrus –a -um ‘about to watch’ |
| 2nd: moneō, monēre | monitūrus -a – um ‘about to warn’ |
| 3rd: mittō, mittere | missūrus -a -um ‘about to send’ |
| 3rd -iō: capiō, capere | captūrus -a -um ‘about to seize’ |
| 4th: audiō, audīre | audītūrus – a -um ‘about to hear’ |
Future active participles are 2-1-2 adjectives just like perfect passive participles. Let’s look at a few quick examples!
Omnēs dē poētā carmen cantūrō loquuntur. = All are talking about the poet about to sing a song.
Hostēs nūntium rēgīnam monitūrum cēpērunt. = The enemies seized the messenger about to warn the queen.
One thing to note is that it sometimes sounds awkward to translate the future active participle literally. In such circumstances we often use a relative clause instead. So, for instance, the second sentence above could be translated as “The enemies seized the messenger who was about to warn the queen.”
FUN FACT: The word “future” is, in fact, a future active participle. The Latin futūrus is the future active participle of sum (“to be”). So, literally, “future” means “about to be” or “going to be”, which makes a lot of sense.
Latin Future Passive Participle
The last type of Latin participle is the future passive participle. This participle describes an action which is about to be performed after the action of the main verb. A literal translation would be “about to be ________ed” or “going to be ________ed”.
Future passive participles are formed from the present stem, which means that we need to look back at a verb’s first two principal parts.
The distinctive marker of this participle is –nd– (not to be confused with the –nt– of the present active participle!).
| Conjugation | Nominative Singular (M/F/N) |
|---|---|
| 1st: spectō, spectāre | spectandus –a -um ‘about to be watched’ |
| 2nd: moneō, monēre | monendus -a – um ‘about to be warned’ |
| 3rd: mittō, mittere | mittendus -a -um ‘about to be sent’ |
| 3rd -iō: capiō, capere | capiendus -a -um ‘about to be seized’ |
| 4th: audiō, audīre | audiendus – a -um ‘about to be heard’ |
For first conjugation verbs we see the stem vowel A in –andus, while both second and third conjugation verbs have -endus. Finally, both third –iō and fourth conjugation verbs have –iendus.
Future passive participles are declined as 2-1-2 adjectives, just like perfect passive participles and future active participles.
Nūntiōs Rōmam mittendōs videō. = I see the messengers about to be sent to Rome.
Mūrī urbis capiendae sunt parvī. = The walls of the city about to be seized are small.
So far I have focused on the pure participial use of the Latin future passive participle. But it turns out that this participle is best known under another name: the gerundive.
Future passive participles in Latin frequently express obligation, necessity, or duty. In other words, the sentences above could be understood as “I see the messengers who should be sent to Rome” and “The walls of the city which must be seized are small.”
👉 Curious? Check out my post on the passive periphrastic (the gerundive + sum).
Gerundives can also replace gerunds in a special grammatical construction unique to Latin.
Uses of Latin Participles
Since participles are adjectives, they most frequently modify nouns or pronouns.
Cornū in arce audītum discipulōs cēnantēs terret. = The horn heard in the citadel terrifies the dining students.
There are two participles in this sentence. The first, audītum, is a perfect passive participle in the neuter nominative singular and thus agrees with cornū. It gives us more information about the horn: it is the horn heard in the citadel that terrifies the students, not, say, a horn heard in the forest.
Cēnantēs is a present active participle in the masculine accusative plural since it modifies discipulōs. We know what the students were doing when the horn terrified them: they were eating dinner.
Notice that audītum is preceded by a prepositional phrase, in arce, which specifies where the action took place. Remember that participles, due to their verbal qualities, can be accompanied by direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional phrases, etc.
We call these groupings participial phrases. Often any words that are part of the participial phrase go between the participle and the noun it modifies.
In the following sample sentence, the participial phrase is in bold and the participle is in red.
Mīlitibus hastās magnā cum īrā tollentibus multa verba dē pāce dīximus. = We spoke many words of peace to the soldiers raising their spears with great anger. (present active participle)
Tollentibus is in the dative masculine plural and modifies mīlitibus. Notice how mīlitibus and tollentibus bookend the participial phrase.
The word order helps us to understand what is happening. After all, there are two accusatives in this sentence: hastās and multa verba. Without the self-contained nature of the participial phrase, we wouldn’t know which accusative was the object of which verb.
Because of the word order, we can see that hastās falls inside the participial phrase and so must be the object of tollentibus. Multa verba falls outside the participial phrase and therefore is the object of the main verb, dīximus.
This trick doesn’t always work, but it is helpful when you are first getting started.
Latin participles, like all Latin adjectives, can also stand on their own as substantives. In other words, they can act like nouns.
Fugitūrīs pecūniam dedī. = I gave money to the people about to flee. (future active participle)
Ablative Absolute
Latin participles frequently appear in a grammatical structure called the ablative absolute. This structure is used to specify the timeframe or circumstances in which an action occurs.
An ablative absolute has two components:
- A noun or pronoun in the ablative case
- A participle in the ablative case
Together, the noun and participle form an independent unit within a sentence. For this reason we call the structure absolute, that is, unattached to any other elements in the sentence.
Let’s look at an example.
Pecūniā in spēluncā conditā puella domum rediit. = With the money having been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
Pecūniā is the noun in the ablative and conditā is a perfect passive participle agreeing with it. This phrase specifies that the girl returned home only after the money was hidden.
Thus the ablative absolute tells us under what circumstances her actions took place.
I have a whole post about the ablative absolute coming soon. In that post I will give more examples and discuss how to translate ablative absolutes literally vs. idiomatically.
Compound Verb Forms
Latin participles also appear in compound verb forms. Most commonly we find the perfect passive participle combined with a form of the verb sum to create the perfect passive system of verbs.
It is also possible to use the future active participle with a form of sum to create a compound future tense. This is especially popular in indirect questions.
Rogō quis ventūrus sit. = I ask who is about to come / is going to come / will come.
The grammatical term for this compound form is the active periphrastic.
How to translate Latin participles
The literal translations of Latin participles are simple. Just plug the specific verb into the blanks below.
| Participle | Literal Translation |
|---|---|
| Present active | _______ing |
| Perfect passive | having been ________ed OR _________ed |
| Future active | about to _________ OR going to __________ |
| Future passive | about to be _________ed OR going to be __________ed |
Things get more complicated, though, when you try to craft a more idiomatic English translation. Latin participles frequently appear in contexts where English would use a subordinate clause.
In order to make your English translation sound more natural, you may want to expand the participial phrase into a clause introduced by when, since, although, etc.
The most important thing to remember is that participles indicate relative time.
For example, a present participle tells you about something happening at the same time as the action of the main verb. If the main verb is in the past, then the action of the participle also happened in the past.
Here is a sentence with a present tense main verb:
Agricola vīcīnōs in terram suam venientēs videt.
LITERAL: The farmer sees the neighbors coming into his (own) land.
LESS LITERAL: The farmer sees the neighbors as they come into his land. / The farmer sees the neighbors who are coming into his land.
And now let’s look at the same sentence with a perfect tense main verb. Notice that the literal translation of the participle does not change, but the more artistic one does. This is because the action of coming took place at the same time as the action of seeing.
Agricola vīcīnōs in terram suam venientēs vīdit.
LITERAL: The farmer saw the neighbors coming into his (own) land.
LESS LITERAL: The farmer saw the neighbors as they were coming into his land. / The farmer saw the neighbors who were coming into his land.
Most Latin participles can be translated less literally via subordinate clauses. But this more creative translation especially applies to participles used in ablative absolutes.
Let’s take another look at the example sentence from before.
Pecūniā in spēluncā conditā puella domum rediit. = With the money having been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
“With the money having been hidden” sounds weird in English. There are several ways we can adjust this translation to make it sound more natural.
In all of them, notice that the action of the ablative absolute occurs prior to the action of the main verb. This is because conditā is a perfect passive participle. The rules of relative time tell us that perfect passive participles document events that occur before the action of the main verb.
Pecūniā in spēluncā conditā puella domum rediit.
#1: When the money had been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
#2: After the money had been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
#3: Because the money had been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
#4: Although the money had been hidden in the cave, the girl returned home.
The most fitting translation will depend on the context.
How to decline Latin participles
As we discussed at the beginning of this post, participles are verbal adjectives. This means that Latin participles have to agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender. And this means that participles take adjectival endings.
Present active participles in Latin are declined like one-termination 3rd declension adjectives. It doesn’t matter what conjugation the verb belongs to: all present active participles have 3rd declension endings.
| SING | MASC./FEM. | NEUTER |
| Nom | spectāns | spectāns |
| Gen | spectantis | spectantis |
| Dat | spectantī | spectantī |
| Acc | spectantem | spectāns |
| Abl | spectante / spectantī | spectante / spectantī |
| SING | MASC./FEM. | NEUTER |
| Nom | spectantēs | spectantia |
| Gen | spectantium | spectantium |
| Dat | spectantibus | spectantibus |
| Acc | spectantēs | spectantia |
| Abl | spectantibus | spectantibus |
Tip for Advanced Students: Present participles have two possible ablative singular endings. –ī is for when the participle is used purely adjectivally, while –e is for participles with a strong verbal sense or participles used as nouns. You are more likely to encounter –e.
Perfect passive participles in Latin are declined like 2-1-2 adjectives.
| SING | MASC. | FEM. | NEUT. |
| Nom | spectātus | spectāta | spectātum |
| Gen | spectātī | spectātae | spectātī |
| Dat | spectātō | spectātae | spectātō |
| Acc | spectātum | spectātam | spectātum |
| Abl | spectātō | spectātā | spectātō |
| SING | MASC. | FEM. | NEUT. |
| Nom | spectātī | spectātae | spectāta |
| Gen | spectātōrum | spectātārum | spectātōrum |
| Dat | spectātīs | spectātīs | spectātīs |
| Acc | spectātōs | spectātās | spectāta |
| Abl | spectātīs | spectātīs | spectātīs |
Future active and future passive participles are also declined like 2-1-2 adjectives, which means that they have the same endings as perfect passive participles.
This is good news – you don’t need to memorize any new case endings for Latin participles! You just have to add the adjectival endings which you already learned.
FAQ about Latin Participles
What are the four participles in Latin?
The four Latin participles are 1) the present active, 2) the perfect passive, 3) the future active, and 4) the future passive (aka the gerundive).
How can you identify Latin participles?
First, participles will always have adjectival endings. This narrows things down considerably. Second, you can identify participles based on certain parts of their stems. Present active participles will include –ns or –nt-, future active participles will have –ūr-, and future passive participles will have –nd-. The perfect passive participle is the same as a verb’s fourth principal part.
How do you parse a Latin participle?
To fully parse a participle, you need to give five pieces of information: tense, voice, gender, number, and case. So, for instance, in the expression librīs missīs (“with the books having been sent” / “when the books had been sent”), missīs is the masculine ablative plural of the perfect passive participle.
How do you translate deponent participles in Latin?
Present active participles, perfect passive participles, and future active participles are all translated actively. Future passive participles (gerundives) are translated passively. You can see examples of deponent participles here.
Latin Participles: Final Thoughts
Latin participles can be tough at first, but they will get easier with time. My recommendation is to take things slowly and be kind to yourself.
As you move into advanced Latin grammar, you often won’t understand the topic fully the first time you learn it. Maybe not even the second time or the third time. But if you persevere, eventually things start to make sense.
When dealing with Latin participles, begin by focusing on the literal translations. Any time you see a perfect passive participle you can use the formula “having been ________ed”. It may not sound like natural English, but you will be able to get an idea of what is happening in the sentence.
Here are the two most important concepts to grasp:
- Latin participles are verbal adjectives. They have tense and voice (like verbs) and gender, number, and case (like adjectives).
- Latin participles express relative time. The present active participle conveys action at the same time as the action of the main verb, the perfect active participle conveys action before the action of the main verb, and the future participles convey action after the action of the main verb.
I hope you now feel more confident as you approach Latin participles. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
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Thanks for the participle lesson, a big subject.
My Jenney text says that the singular ablative ending of the present active participle is e, not i. It’s an exception to the adjectival rule. Is the exception worth mentioning?
You don’t mention the active periphrastic conjugation, but I don’t see its significance.
Looking forward to gerundives and passive peri. conj.
I look for gerunds to follow. Supine, anyone?
Regards
Hi Ralph, great point. The ablative singular of the present active participle can end in either -e or -ī. According to Allen & Greenough’s (section 121a), “Participles in -ns used as such (especially in the ablative absolute), or as nouns, regularly have -e; but participles used as adjectives have regularly -ī.” (emphasis is original)
I have updated the post to include both options. I also added the terminology “active periphrastic”; the concept was already there, but it’s good to mention the term, too.
Posts on gerundives, gerunds, and supines are all in the works! 🙂
Edit: my post on gerunds vs. gerundives is now live, as is my post on the passive periphrastic!
Hi, Livia,
I have a question about this sentence above in the text: Mīlitibus hastās magnā cum īrā tollentibus multa verba dē pāce dīximus. = We spoke many words of peace to the soldiers raising their spears with great anger. (present active participle).
Can this also be an Ablative Absolute? “With the soldiers raising their spears with great anger, we spoke many words of peace”?
Thank you!
Hi Anne, good question! Yes, this could also be an ablative absolute. Since many ablative and dative forms are identical, ambiguities do arise.
The meanings are similar, but not identical. If we understand the phrase as an ablative absolute, it is establishing background information or the general circumstances under which we spoke words of peace. If we understand the phrase as a dative indirect object, then we spoke words of peace to the soldiers, specifically.
Thank you, Livia,
I understood the example for its purpose, but then it occurred to me that it also looks like an ablative absolute, and wanted to be sure that I wasn’t hallucinating. And I thought that there were no ambiguities in Latin!!!
😉