For those of you in the beginning of your study, you're in for a treat when you get to these.
Latin has a fleet of verbs that look passive but have active meanings. The usual order of presentation is passive voice well before deponent verbs. This is a shame since deponent verbs are some of the most common verbs in Latin.
The first give away is going to be in the dictionary entry. A typical transitive verb will look something like this:
Another difference should come in the last part. The deponents have an odd final part. Profectus sum. See how it indicates the 1st person singular perfect tense? Very unusual until you get used to is.
The other thing to notice is the first principal part. Compare faciō and arbitror. Do you see it? Yeah, arbitror doesn't end with -ō. It's got an -or there. This is going to be your big tip off in the dictionary.
The problem, of course, is that Latin words only rarely hang out in dictionaries. Net up: recognizing deponents in reading.
Latin has a fleet of verbs that look passive but have active meanings. The usual order of presentation is passive voice well before deponent verbs. This is a shame since deponent verbs are some of the most common verbs in Latin.
The first give away is going to be in the dictionary entry. A typical transitive verb will look something like this:
faciō, facere, fēcī, factum, to make or doMore or less. Deponent verbs are going to have an entry that looks more like this:
putō, putāre, putāvī, putātum, to think
arbitror, arbitrārī, arbitrātus sum, to thinkA few differences should come screaming out. First, the plain ol' vanilla transitive verbs have four principal parts. Four. The deponents have three. The part corresponding with fēcī is missing from the deponent entries—after all, the Latin passive system doesn't use it.
proficīscor, proficīscī, profectus sum, to set out
Another difference should come in the last part. The deponents have an odd final part. Profectus sum. See how it indicates the 1st person singular perfect tense? Very unusual until you get used to is.
The other thing to notice is the first principal part. Compare faciō and arbitror. Do you see it? Yeah, arbitror doesn't end with -ō. It's got an -or there. This is going to be your big tip off in the dictionary.
The problem, of course, is that Latin words only rarely hang out in dictionaries. Net up: recognizing deponents in reading.
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