Passive Voice in Latin

1
Passive Voice in Latin

• How is it formed?
• What does it mean?

2
What does Passive Voice mean?

• There are two voices in Latin (and English)
  active and passive

3
Active Voice

• the SUBJECT performs the action
• Vir cibum portat
• (the subject, man, is doing the carrying)

4
Passive Voice

• the subject is being acted or performed upon
• Cibus a viro portatur
• (the subject, food, is being carried)

5

• In passive voice, the DOER/PERFORMER of the
  action is called the ablative of personal agent,
  and it follows the preposition a or ab.
• Cibus a servo portatur.
• (The doer of the action, the slave, is the
  personal agent, so we use a before it)

6

• NON personal doers of action go into the ablative
  of means WITHOUT a preposition
• Servus carro portatur.
• (The doer of the action is the cart)

7
How is Passive Voice Formed?

• In present, imperfect, and future tenses, passive
  verbs use a different set of endings.
• The verb stem standard vowel personal passive
  endings
• -r -mur
• -ris -mini
• -tur -ntur

8
Present tense, passive

• -r -mur
• -ris -mini
• -tur -ntur
• So, porto (carry, first conjugation) is
  conjugated and translated as follows
• portor (I am carried) portamur (we are
  carried)
• portaris (you are carried) portamini (you all
  are carried)
• portatur (he/she/it is carried) portantur (they
  are carried)

9
Present tense, passive

• -r -mur
• -ris -mini
• -tur -ntur
• .and teneo (hold, second conjugation) is
  conjugated and translated as follows
• teneor (I am held) tenemur (we are held)
• teneris (you are held) tenemini (you all
  are held)
• tenetur (he/she/it is held) tenentur (they
  are held)

10
Imperfect tense, passive

• In the imperfect tense, the same endings are
  used
• portabar (I was being carried) portabamur (we
  were being carried)
• ..etc.
• and
• tenebar (I was being held) tenebamur
  (we were being held)
• ..etc.

11
Active to Passive

• When changing an active sentence into passive
  voice, remember this
• The direct object of the active sentence becomes
  the subject of the passive sentence.
• The subject of the active sentence becomes the
  agent (either personal or non-personal) of the
  passive sentence.

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Active to Passive

• Example
• (Active) Servus portat cibum.
• (Passive) Cibus portatur a servo.
• The original direct object (cibum) becomes the
  subject (Cibus) of the passive sentence.
• The original subject (Servus) becomes the
  personal agent (a servo) of the passive
  sentence.