Deponent Verbs.

133. Deponent verbs being in form passives, are conjugated like them, and follow the four regular conjugations. Those whose stems end in ā, ē, and ī, follow the first, second, and fourth conjugations, and all the rest belong to the third. But the conjugation of a deponent verb has more forms than the ordinary passive; for it has not only the supine and the gerund, but also four participles: the participle present-as hortans (admonishing), denoting the action in progress; perfect hortatus (having admonished), denoting the action as completed; future hortaturus (about to admonish), describing an action as future; and the gerundive hortandus (to be admonished), which has a passive meaning, and accordingly is formed only from those deponents which have a transitive signification. In the neuter gender, however, it occurs also from intransitive verbs.

sim.

Peculiar and Contracted Forms of
Conjugation.

135. The perfects ending in vi, as well as the tenses formed from them (the pluperfect, future perfect, and the infinitive perfect), sometimes appear in a syncopated form-that is, the v is thrown out, and the two vowels thus following one another are contracted into one. Thus

1. When in the first conjugation vi or ve is followed by r or s the v is omitted, and the a of the stem is contracted with i or e into ā-as amāsti, amāsse, amārim, amārunt, amāram, amāro, for amavisti, amavisse, amaverim, amaverunt, amaveram, and amavero. The same is the case with verbs of the second and third conjugations forming their perfects in (e)vi-as flēstis, flerunt, flēram, &c.; nēsti, nēstis, nērunt; delēram, decresse for flevistis, fleverunt, fleveram, &c.; nevisti, nevistis, neverunt; deleveram, decrevisse. So also siris, sīrit, for siveris, siverit, from sino, I allow.

Perfects ending in (o)vi are generally not contracted, and the only verbs in which a contraction does occur are novi (from nosco) and the compounds of moveo-as nōsti, nōrunt, nōram, nōrim, for novisti, noverunt, noveram, noverim (but we never find noro for novero); commōsse for commovisse, from commoveo.

2. In verbs making their perfect in (7)vi, the v is simply thrown out when s follows-thus audivisse, audivissem, become audiisse, audiissem; but here also the double i may be contracted into one-as audisse, audissem; so also petisse or petiisse, from peto, perf. petivi. In those forms where the v is followed by e the v is thrown out without any contraction taking place-as audierunt,

auideram, desierunt, definieram, quaesieram, for audiverunt, audiveram, desiverunt, definiveram, quaesiveram.

3. In the third person plural of the perfect indicative active we very often find the termination ēre for ērunt- -as amavēre, delevēre, scripsere, audivēre, for amavērunt, delevērunt, scripsērunt, audivērunt. The second person singular in passive and deponent verbs generally ends in ris; but another termination equally common is re-as amabaris and amabare; amareris, amarere; amaberis, amabere; in the second person of the present indicative, however, the termination re occurs very rarely-as arbitrare for arbitraris.

Verbs of the third conjugation, of which the stem ends in a consonant, usually take e in the present imperative; but the verbs dico, I say; duco, I lead; facio, I do; and fero, I bear, form their imperatives without e-as dic, duc, fac, fer. The same is the case in their compounds-as educ, from educo; affer, and refer, from affero and refero. Of facio, only those compounds follow this rule in which the a is retained-as calefac from calefacio; but in all other compounds in which the a is changed into i, the imperative is formed regularlyas confice, perfice, effice, from conficio, perficio, efficio.

Many verbs of the third and fourth conjugations take u as the connecting vowel instead of e in forming the gerund and gerundive. This is done especially when i precedes-as fac-i-undus for faci-endus; poti-u-ndus for poti-e-ndus; but we also find divid-u-ndus, reg-u-ndus, for divid-e-ndus, reg-e-ndus; and dic-u-ndus for dic-endus.

Some verbs, chiefly intransitive (both active and deponent), form a sort of participle in bundus, a, um. In the first conjugation, where this form occurs most frequently, bundus is added to the stem-as cuncta-bundus, delibera-bundus, mira-bundus, &c. In the third conjugation either i or e is prefixed to bundus—as fur-i-bundus, mor-ibundus, frem-e-bundus, trem-e-bundus. In the second and fourth conjugations such participles scarcely ever occur. Their meaning is like that of the present participle, but somewhat stronger; so that furibundus is full of fury,' whereas furens is only 'furious.'