1. All you ever wanted to know… And probably a little bit more.

2.  This is the –ing form.  It refers to an action that is happening AT THE SAME TIME as the main event of the sentence:  The laughing girl is singing.  The slaves hurried through the house looking for the amulet.

3.  So what does it mean to be a participle?  The laughing girl is singing.  Is laughing an action?  Then it is a type of verb.  Is it describing a person or thing?  Then it is sort of an adjective.  This is why we call participles VERBAL ADJECTIVES.

4.  Since “laughing” is part action word, part describer, it comes from a verb, but declines like an adjective.  So it is formed from a verb:  Rideo, ridēre, risi, risus – to laugh  And it has nominative, genitive, dative, etc. endings like an adjective.

5.  What tense is “laughing”?  Present… So we use the PRINCIPAL PARTS associated with the present tense.  Rideo, ridēre, risi, risus  Rideo = I laugh  Ridēre = to laugh  You just take the –re off of the SECOND part.  Ridēre  And add the appropriate adjectival ending.

6.  Ridēns  This is the NOMINATIVE form. What does this mean?  Is it singular or plural?  So we would use this form to describe who/what?  One person or thing doing the action.  What if we wanted to describe one possessive person or thing?  Ridēntis  The –nt- lets us know it is a present participle  The –is lets us know it is genitive singular.

7.  What if we wanted to talk about something in the DATIVE case and PLURAL?  Ridēntibus  The ridē- tells us the verb is “laugh,” the “-nt-” tells us it is –ing and the “–ibus” tells us it is DATIVE or ABLATIVE plural.  You try it.  What about the accusative singular?  Ridēntem

8.  Is the action still simultaneous?  When did this action happen?  Since this is in the PAST, we use a different PRINCIPAL PART  Duco, ducere, duxi, ductus– to lead  This is our “go-to” form for perfect participles.  For MOST verbs, this means “having been”  So ductus would mean…  Notice the last two letters of this word.  Where have we seen this ending?  Amicus, servus, dominus, etc.  So we would use the ductus form to describe what gender? What #? What case?

9.  What if we wanted to say “with the girls having been praised..”  Cum puellīs …  Laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus  Which part?  Laudatus  What case do we need? What gender? What #?  Ablative, feminine, plural  Cum puellīs laudatīs  So do PERFECT participles use the same endings as PRESENT participles?  Perfect = 1 st and 2 nd declension adjective endings (like BONUS, A, UM)  Present = 3 rd declension adjective endings (fortis, fortis)

10.  These make up a SMALL subset of perfect participles.  You can make a list of the ones we’ve seen:  Precatus, a, um  Ingressus, a, um  Locutus, a, um  And so on.  All of these are translated “having _____ed”  Having prayed  Having entered  Having spoken

11.  The perfect PASSIVE participles we’ve seen are accompanied by a/ab and an ablative noun.  templum, ab architecto aedificatum, stat.  The temple, having been built by the architect, stands.  What case is temple? What number? What gender?  Vir servum, a venalicio ductum, vendit.  the man sells a slave, having been led by the slave-dealer.

12.  And the perfect *actives* are only that small group we’ve seen in the vocab list and in our translations.  These are translated “having verbed” NOT “having been verbed.”  Active = you do it  Passive = it is done to you

13.  Laudantibus  Present active  Laudatus  Perfect passive  Regressa  Perfect active  Portantes  Present active  Precatum  Perfect active  Scriptorum  Perfect passive

14.  Remember the genitive plural of 3 rd declension nouns and adjectives is a –um.  Regium = of the kings  Amantum matrum = of the loving mothers  Compare this with templum aedificatum  The temple having been built (nom/acc)  How can you tell that amantum is present active and aedificatum is perfect passive?  Notice: amantum versus aedificatum.  Go slowly and watch for the –n- in the middle.  -n- just like English, -ing.