Participles – GCSE Latin OCR Revision

Present Participles

Present participles are verbals that express action happening in the present.
In Latin, they are typically formed by removing -re from the present infinitive of the verb and adding -ns.
The declension of present participles is similar to that of 3rd declension adjectives with a base in -nt-.
For example, ‘amans’ (loving), ‘legens’ (reading) and ‘capiens’ (taking).

Perfect participles are used to express action that has been completed before the action of the main verb.
In Latin, they are typically formed by removing the -i from the perfect stem of a verb and adding -us, -a, -um in the nominative singular.
They are declined like first and second declension adjectives.
Perfect participles often function as adjectives and describe a noun.
For instance, ‘amatus’ (having been loved), ‘lectus’ (having been read) and ‘captus’ (having been taken).

Future participles express an action that will occur after the action of the main verb.
Formed by adding -urus, -ura, -urum to the present stem of the verb.
They are declined as first and second declension adjectives.
Future participles can function as adjectives and describe a noun.
Examples include ‘amaturus’ (about to love), ‘lecturus’ (about to read) and ‘capturus’ (about to take).

Deponent verbs have passive forms but active meanings.
They form their participles in the same way as non-deponent verbs but the meanings are active.
The Perfect participle of deponent verbs have an active meaning rather than passive.
Examples include ‘hortatus’ (having encouraged), ‘conatus’ (having tried), ‘secutus’ (having followed).