Passive Voice of the Present System

1. Passive Voice of the Present System Chapter 18

2. What is the passive voice? So far, all the verbs that we have been working with have been used in the active voice. In the active voice, the subject performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is the recipient of the action of the verb. Therefore, only transitive verbs (i.e. ones that take a direct object) can be used in the passive voice.

3. The boy reads the book. The book is read by the boy.

4. What is the passive voice? In English, we form the passive voice by combining an inflected form of the verb “to be” with a passive participle. I am loved. I will be seen. He was being praised.

5. Which voice? • I hid the book under my bed. • The exam was graded by the teacher. • The portrait was painted by an unknown artist. • The motor propelled the boat across the lake.

6. The personal endings for verbs which we learned in chapter 1 were for the active voice. For the present system of the passive voice, we have a new set. But we still conjugate the verbs in the same way, by adding the personal endings to the verb stem.

7. Present Tense of 1st and 2nd Conjugations laudāre monēre laudā monē laudor moneor laudor moneor laudāris monēris laudā monē laudātur monētur laudā monē laudāmur monēmur laudā monē laudāminī monēmini laudā monē laudantur monentur laudā monē

8. Imperfect Tense present stem + imperfect infix + passive endings laudābar monēbar laudābāris monēbāris laudābātur monēbātur laudābāmur monēbāmur laudābāminī monēbāminī laudābantur monēbantur

9. Future of 1st and 2nd Conjugations amābor monēbor amāberis monēberis amābitur monēbitur amābimur monēbimur amābiminī monēbiminī amābuntur monēbuntur present stem + bo/bi/bu + passive endings NB alternate 2nd Sg: amābere and monēbere

10. Infinitives The infinitive we learned in chapter 1 is the present active infinitive. ex: amare – to love Now we’ll learn how to form the present passive infinitive.

11. Infinitives For conjugations 1 and 2, just change the final –e of the active infinitive into –ī.

12. Agent The person by whom the action of a passive verb is performed is indicated by using ā or ab with the ablative case. We ingeniously call this the ablative of agent. If the performer of the verb not a person, the means by which it is done is indicated using the ablative of means (Ch 14). Puer ā patre necātur. Puer tempestāte necātur.