The Latin Supine Made Easy: Ultimate Guide for Students
Supines are mysterious verbal nouns that appear at the end of textbooks and never get much attention. So if you aren’t sure what the Latin supine is or how to use it, you are not alone!
The supine indicates purpose in the accusative and respect in the ablative. We will also look at how the supine combines with a rare passive infinitive of eō to form the future passive infinitive.
Most of the grammar discussed in this post is very advanced, so if you don’t understand everything perfectly, that’s all right. The most important thing is to be able to recognize supines when you see them!
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Latin Supine: Basic Facts
A supine is a verbal noun used to convey purpose or respect. It has extremely limited usage, as we will discuss more below.
The supine has 4th declension endings, but it is only found in two cases: the accusative and the ablative. All supines are neuter singular and they are not modified based on tense or voice.
Here are some sample verbs with their supines.
| Case | videō | dīcō | audiō |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accusative | vīsum | dictum | audītum |
| Ablative | vīsū | dictū | audītū |
If the accusative form reminds you of the perfect passive participle, well spotted! The accusative of the supine is identical in form to the neuter nominative/accusative singular of the perfect passive participle.
This means that to find the supine, you look at a verb’s fourth principal part. Remove the –us from the perfect passive participle and you have what we call the supine stem.
Then you can add –um (for the accusative) and –ū (for the ablative).
So, for example, the principal parts of faciō are faciō, facere, fēcī, factus. The fourth principal part is factus, and subtracting –us gives us the stem fact-.
Adding –um yields the accusative factum, while adding –ū yields the ablative factū.
The supine is rare, but you may find your textbook or grammar book talking about the supine stem more frequently. As I explained above, you can find the supine stem by removing the –us from a verb’s perfect passive participle.
This works because the supine and the perfect passive participle are built on the same stem. Conventionally we call this the supine stem, but I usually refer to it as the perfect passive participle stem since this is the form that students are more familiar with.
Some materials will give the supine as the fourth principal part of a verb rather than the masculine perfect passive participle. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, because both forms come from the same stem!
Accusative Supines in Latin
Supines in the accusative express purpose, but only after verbs of motion like eō, veniō, etc.
This is because this usage of the supine developed out of the accusative of place to which, also called the accusative of end of motion.
Pecūniam inventum vēnistī. = You came to / in order to find the money.
Our supine, inventum, specifies why or for what end you came. Notice also that the supine can take an accusative direct object. In our example, pecūniam is the direct object of inventum.
In the accusative, supines have a function similar to purpose clauses and to ad + the gerund or gerundive.
There isn’t any substantial difference between vēnistī ut pecūniam invenīrēs (purpose clause); ad pecūniam inveniendam vēnistī (gerundive); and pecūniam inventum vēnistī (supine).
They all mean “You came to find the money”.
But the supine is more limited in range. It can only appear with a verb of motion (in this instance, vēnistī) and the same subject needs to be performing the motion and the action of the supine.
In other words, you are the one who came, and you are the one who will find the money.
Let’s look at some examples from Roman authors. The supines are in blue and the verbs of motion are in red.
Example #1
nunc ille geminus, quī Syrācūsīs habet,
hodiē in Epidamnum veniet cum servō suō
hunc quaeritātum geminum germānum suom.Now that twin who lives in Syracuse
Plautus, Menaechmi 69-71
will come today to Epidamnus with his slave
in order to search for this twin brother of his.
Example #2
Sēgnī Condrūsīque . . . lēgātōs ad Caesarem mīsērunt ōrātum, nē sē in hostium numerō dūceret nēve omnium Germānōrum, quī essent citrā Rhēnum, ūnam esse causam iūdicāret.
The Segni and the Condrusi . . . sent ambassadors to Caesar to beg that he not consider them in the number of his enemies and that he not think that one and the same cause belonged to all the Germans, who were on this side of the Rhine.
Caesar, Gallic Wars 6.32.1
Example #3
Septem ductōrēs quī Thēbās oppugnātum ībant dēvēnērunt in Nemeam, ubi Hypsipylē Thoantis fīlia in servitūte puerum Archemorum . . . nūtriēbat.
The seven leaders who were going to attack Thebes arrived in Nemea, where Hypsipyle, daughter of Thoas, was nursing the boy Archemorus in servitude.
Hyginus, Fabulae 74.1
Ablative Supines in Latin
The supine in the ablative case indicates in what respect or with reference to what something is true.
We frequently find the ablative supine paired with an adjective.
Hunc librum legere est difficile factū. = To read this book is difficult to do (with respect to doing).
In this example, difficile is the trigger adjective. The supine factū tells us in what respect reading is difficult: it is difficult with respect to doing. In more idiomatic English, it is difficult to do.
Supines appear with adjectives that express some sort of value judgment: difficilis (difficult) and facilis (easy), bonus (good) and turpis (shameful), mīrābilis (marvelous), etc.
Ablative supines can also accompany the expressions fās est (it is lawful), nefās est (it is unlawful), and opus est (it is necessary).
It is important to note, though, that most Latin verbs do not have ablative supines. According to Allen and Greenough’s, only the following supines are common in classical Latin:
- audītū
- dictū
- factū
- inventū
- memorātū
- nātū (from nāscor)
- vīsū
Furthermore, ablative supines cannot take direct objects.
Time to look at examples from Roman literature! The supines are in blue while the accompanying adjective or noun is in red.
Example #1
Vōs enim, patrēs conscrīptī (grave dictū est sed dīcendum tamen), vōs, inquam, Servium Sulpicium vītā prīvāstis.
For you, conscript fathers (it is serious to say, but it must be said nevertheless), you, I say, deprived Servius Sulpicius of life.
Cicero, Philippics 9.8
Example #2
Nihil dīgnum memōrātū āctum [est].
Nothing worthy to remember was done.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 4.43
Example #3
infert sē saeptus nebulā (mīrābile dictū)
per mediōs, miscetque uirīs neque cernitur ūllī.Covered in a cloud (marvelous to say!) he goes in their midst, and mingles with men and is not perceived by anyone.
Vergil, Aeneid 1.439-440
Example #4
ecce, nefās vīsū, mediīs altāribus anguis
exit et exstinctīs ignibus exta rapit.Behold, a crime to see, a snake emerges from the middle of the altars
Ovid, Fasti 2.711-712
and, when the fires had been extinguished, seizes the entrails.
Supines in the ablative frequently appear in interjections and parenthetical statements. This makes sense, given that a speaker might exclaim something like incrēdibile audītū (“Incredible to hear!”) when in shock.
Future Passive Infinitive
The supine is used to construct the future passive infinitive. This form is quite rare, but it is still worth making a brief note.
To form the future passive infinitive of a verb, you combine the accusative supine with īrī, the present passive infinitive of eō “go”.
The future passive infinitive can be translated as “to be about to be __________ed”.
- audiō > audītum īrī “to be about to be heard”
- dō > datum īrī “to be about to be given”
- reddō > redditum īrī “to be about to be given back”
We use this infinitive in indirect statements to convey something that will be done in the future.
Example #1
quem dēfendis, spērat sē absolūtum īrī.
He whom you defend hopes that he will be absolved.
Cicero Pro Sulla 21
Example #2
Quā rē etiam lēgātiōnēs rēiectum īrī putō.
For this reason I think that even the business of the embassies will be set aside.
Cicero, Letters 1.18.7
I told you to translate future passive infinitives as “to be about to be __________ed”, and in indirect statements this is best expressed as “will be ____________ed”.
But if you are an advanced Latin student, you should be aware that this is a simplification. The literal translation sounds much odder and is harder to conceptualize in English.
The infinitive īrī is used impersonally; its subject is an impersonal “it”. Audītum īrī means something like “to be gone to hear”, which is nonsense in English.
If I translated Example #1 super literally, it would be: “He whom you defend hopes that it is gone to absolve him.” Example #2 would be “I think that it is gone to set aside even the business of the embassies.”
Sē and lēgātiōnēs are the direct objects of the supines absolūtum and rēiectum in Latin. In our English translation, we turn them into the subjects of the indirect statement.
If this technicality doesn’t make sense to you, that’s fine. Once you have spent a few years reading Latin and familiarizing yourself with the ins and outs of indirect statements, you can come back and try again!
Why is the supine called a “supine”?
The word “supine” is the English version of supīnum verbum (supine verb), a term that first appears in Late Latin grammatical texts.
But the adjective supīnus had been around for a while. It means “backwards” or “lying on the back,” which is why we now use “supine” to refer to someone reclining.
How does this have anything to do with verbal nouns?
As Etymonline explains, the idea seems to be that the supine “falls back” on the verb of motion (or adjective) that accompanies it.
Consider the uses of the Latin supine discussed in this post. You will see that the supine cannot exist on its own. In the accusative case it requires a verb of motion to give it meaning, and in the ablative case it requires an adjective or noun.
So a supine is a verbal noun that relies on other words to enable its presence in a sentence.
Final Thoughts on the Latin Supine
The supine does not appear frequently in Latin texts. It’s to the point that when I am reading Latin and I see a supine “in the wild”, I always feel a thrill of excitement.
Despite this comparative rarity, it is still important to be able to recognize and translate the supine. You are most likely to encounter it in set phrases like mīrābile dictū.
Although the accusative and ablative of the supine have very different functions, you can usually translate them in the same way: “to ___________”. This is highly convenient!
If you only remember one thing from this post, remember this translation trick. You will be off to an excellent start.
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