Latin 101

So far we've been working with verbs in the active voice. We've seen two types of verbs:

• transitive: the subject perfoms the action of the verb on the object
• Casey eats the bone.
• intransitive:
• the verb describes the state of the subject
• Casey barks.
• the verb links the subject to a predicate
• Casey is the best dog ever.

Chapter 18 introduces the passive voice

• In the passive voice, the action of the verb is performed upon the subject. The person /thing that performs the action of the verb is called the agent.
• The bone is eaten by Casey.
• The subject ("the bone") is in the nominative
• The agent ("by Casey") is indicated by a prepositional phrase (ab plus ablative)
• In English, we indicate the passive by a linking verb and a passive participle (is eaten). Latin, on the other hand, forms the present passive system, by adding passive endings to the present stem.
• Only transitive verbs can be formed/used in the passive.
• i.e., You would never say "is barked."