Participles - Overview
Participles are verbal adjectives. That means that they are built off Latin verb forms but modify nouns. Take a look at some examples of participles in English:
- The laughing boy appreciated the joke.
- We sang the praised song.
- The dog, about to jump, was growling.
These participles modify nouns because they tell us what that noun is doing (“laughing”) or about to do (“about to jump”) or what has been done (“praised”) to that noun. So, participles in Latin will look like Latin adjectives, either a 2-1-2 or a one-termination, and either agree with an explicit noun in the sentence or be used as a substantive.
Participles, because they are derived from verbs, can also function like verbs by taking direct objects, ablatives of agent, prepositional phrases, indirect statements, etc., depending on the type of verb in question.
- The song, having been sung by the choir, was beautiful.
- The cow, about to jump over the moon, did not run away with the spoon.
- We saw the girl plucking flowers in the meadow.
Types of Participles
Participles in Latin have a tense (present, perfect, or future) and a voice (active or passive). Participles do not have a person, number, or mood, and there are no imperfect, pluperfect, or future perfect participles. Of the existing tenses and voices, there are only four combinations for participles in Latin, two of which you’ve already met!
- present active
- perfect passive
- future active
- future passive