Wordlist arena, -ae (f.) = arena canis, canis (m.) = dog captivus, -i (m.) = prisoner do, dare, dedi, datum = to give dormio, -ire = to sleep epistola, -ae (f.) = letter fidelis, -is, -e = faithful gladiator, gladiatoris (m.) = gladiator in (+ abl.) = in magnus, -a, -um = large manus, -us (f.) = hand maritus, -i (m.) = husband meus, -a, -um = my miles, militis (m.) = soldier morior, mori, mortuus = to die osculo, -are = to kiss pater, patris (m.) = father princeps, principis (m.) = emperor prope (+ acc.) = beside pugno, -are = to fight sedeo, -ere = to sit servus, -i (m.) = slave signum, -i (n.) = signal spectator, spectatoris (m.) = spectator specto, -are = to watch sto, stare, steti, statum = to stand tablinum, -i (n.) = study trado, -ere, tradidi, traditum = to hand over turba, -ae (f.) = crowd uxor, uxoris (f.) = wife via, -ae (f.) = street video, -ere, vidi, visum = to see

Participles

Latin has three participles:

The Present Participle
The Past Participle
The Future Participle

This page will tell you about the Present Participle.

I The present participle in Latin corresponds exactly to the present participle in English, i.e. the part of the verb ending in -ing like sleeping, talking, playing, writing etc.
Look at the passage in the box below and be sure that you understand that the words underlined are present participles:

The king stayed out of sight, watching the women dancing to the hypnotic rhythm of the drums. No one saw him hiding there until one of the women shouted "Look! In the forest there! A lion!" Pentheus looked around, smiling that the crazed women could be so foolish as to mistake him for a lion.

 

 

 

 

 

The present participle will refer to a noun or pronoun somewhere in the sentence. English can sometimes be ambiguous but in Latin the participle will be the same case and number (i.e. sing./plur.) as the noun to which it refers.

The present participle behaves like a 3rd declension adjective with all three genders are the same. In the wordlist the present participle does not appear as a separate item; only the verb from which it is created will be listed. Here are examples of present participles from verbs in each of the 4 conjugations:

1. amans, amantis (loving) from amare = to love
2. videns, videntis (seeing) from videre = to see
3. currens, currentis (running) from currere = to run
4. dormiens, dormientis (sleeping) from dormire = to sleep

The present participle uses the same case endings as a 3rd declension noun. Here are their full declensions:

s i n g u l a r
nom.	amans	videns	currens	dormiens
acc.	amantem	videntem	currentem	dormientem
gen.	amantis	videntis	currentis	dormientis
dat.	amanti	videnti	currenti	dormienti
abl.	amante	vidente	currente	dormiente
p l u r a l
nom.	amantes	videntes	currentes	dormientes
acc.	amantes	videntes	currentes	dormientes
gen.	amantium	videntium	currentium	dormientium
dat.	amantibus	videntibus	currentibus	dormientibus
abl.	amantibus	videntibus	currentibus	dormientibus

Here is a batch of sentences containing present participles. See if you can translate them; there is a wordlist following them.

Exercise 1 (Present Participles) When you have finished click here for the correct translation.