THE PASSIVE VOICE

Lessons 27-28

• Passive voice does NOT mean “past tense.”

• There are 2 voices of verbs in Latin:

–Active voice

–Passive voice

In the active voice, the subject

PERFORMS THE ACTION of

the verb.

Puellae aquam portant.

The girls carry water.

In the passive voice, the subject is

ACTED UPON by the verb.

Aqua a puellis portatur.

(The water is carried by the girls.)

Puella aquam potat.potat: drinks

Aqua a puella potatur.

Change These To Passive Voice!Do not change tense.

• The girl holds the doll.

• The team was winning the game.

• The student will pass the test.

• Mom drove me to work.

• The doll is held by the girl.

• The game was being won by the team.

• The test will be passed by the student.

• I was driven to work by Mom.

Ablative of Agent• The words “a” and “ab” can

mean “by” in Latin.• They are used with passive

voice verbs to tell “by whom” something is done.

Ablative of Agent

• The noun (agent) will be in the ablative case.

• Ablative endings:

• -ā, -o (singular)

• -is (plural).

Aqua a puellis portatur.

ABLATIVE OF AGENT

In Latin, there are special endings to

show that the verbs are in the passive voice!

First, let’s review the ACTIVE

endings of the present tense.

Portare--active voice• porto

• portas

• portat

• portamus

• portatis

• portant

Now we’ll look at the passive voice endings:

portare--passive voice

• portor• I am (being) carried…

• portaris• you are (being)

carried…

• portatur

• portamur

• portamini

• portantur

Imperfect Tense---passive voice

• -bar• I was being verbed

• -baris• you were being verbed

• -batur• he/she/it was being verbed

• -bamur• we were being verbed

• -bamini• Y’all were being verbed

• -bantur• They were being verbed

Future Tense---passive voice 1st/2nd conjugation

• -bor• I will be verbed

• -beris• you will be verbed

• -bitur• he/she/it will be verbed

• -bimur• we will be verbed

• -bimini• y’all will be verbed

• -buntur• they will be verbed

Future Tense---passive voice 3rd/4th conjugation

• -ar• I will be verbed

• -eris• you will be verbed

• -etur• he/she/it will be verbed

• -emur• we will be verbed

• -emini• y’all will be verbed

• -entur• they will be verbed

FINIS

Practice Sentences

• Litterae in otio scribuntur.

• Nautae ad provincias mittentur.

• Viri in agris a puellis videbantur.

• Pauci libri legebantur.

• Puella a puero amatur.