🗣️ 6. The non-finite verb: infinitive, participles, gerund, gerundive, supine

Besides the finite forms of chapter 5, a Latin verb has forms that are not marked for person and mood: the infinitive (a verbal noun), the participles (verbal adjectives), the gerund (the verbal noun in oblique cases), the gerundive (a passive verbal adjective of necessity or purpose) and the supine (a verbal noun in two cases). They are the source of much of the compactness of Latin prose: a participle can do the work of a whole subordinate clause, and a gerundive the work of a purpose clause (Bennett 1918 §§325–340).

Contents

1. The infinitive: forms
2. The infinitive: uses
3. The participles: forms
4. The participles: uses
5. The gerund and the gerundive
6. The supine
7. The periphrastic conjugations
8. How Mova handles it

1. The infinitive: forms

The present infinitive is the second principal part; its passive is made with -rī (first, second, fourth conjugations) or -ī (third) (amārī, monērī, audīrī, but regī, capī). The perfect active infinitive is the perfect stem + -isse (amāvisse), and the perfect passive the perfect participle + esse (amātus esse); the future active is the future participle + esse (amātūrus esse), and the future passive the supine + īrī (amātum īrī), a rare form (Bennett 1918 §§101–111, 270).

The tenses of the infinitive are relative: the present infinitive denotes an action contemporary with the main verb, the perfect one prior to it, the future one subsequent to it, whatever the tense of the main verb. (constructed:) dīcit eum venīre "he says that he is coming"; dīxit eum venīre "he said that he was coming"; dīcit eum vēnisse "he says that he came"; dīxit eum ventūrum esse "he said that he would come." The future infinitive often omits esse: conciliaturum, in se suis copiis suoque exercitu illis regna conciliaturum confirmat (Caes. B. G. 1.3), "he affirms that he will win kingdoms for them with his own forces and army".

2. The infinitive: uses

The infinitive is a verbal noun without case. It is used (Bennett 1918 §§326–335):

• as subject, with a predicate adjective or a verb of propriety: errāre hūmānum est "to err is human" (constructed); with an accusative subject it is the accusative-and-infinitive construction (chapter 10);
• as object (complementary infinitive) of verbs of will, ability, beginning, ending, habit: possum, volō, dēbeō, coepī, sciō, cōnor, audeō (Nemo potest duobus dominis servire, Matt 6:24, "no one can serve two masters"); the subject of the infinitive is the same as that of the main verb and is not expressed;
• as predicate and in apposition: vīvere est cōgitāre;
• with an accusative subject after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving (indirect statement), and after verbs of wishing and ordering (chapter 10);
• as the historical infinitive, a present infinitive with a nominative subject, in vivid narrative as a substitute for the imperfect (Bennett 1918 §335), common in Sallust and Tacitus;
• in exclamations of scorn or indignation (mē ista pati!, "that I should endure this!");
• as the dependent infinitive after adjectives (parātus, dignus in poetry): the infinitive of purpose is poetic and rare, and is replaced in prose by the supine, the gerund or the gerundive, or by ut.

In the Vulgate the infinitive of purpose and result is more frequent under Greek and Hebrew influence (Sicut Filius hominis non venit ministrari, sed ministrare, Matt 20:28, "the Son of man came not to be served but to serve"), and in Late and Medieval Latin the infinitive with ad or the subjunctive ut clause displaces the accusative-and-infinitive after verbs of saying (chapter 14, §6; chapter 15). The LLCT charters keep the infinitive after constat, videor and similar verbs: constat me Sanitulum … vendere et tradere praevideo tibi Rachiprando, "it is agreed that I, Sanitulus … sell and hand over to you, Rachiprandus" (la_llct train-s2).

3. The participles: forms

Latin has three participles (Bennett 1918 §§99, 119, 336):

• Present active participle (amāns, monēns, regēns, audiēns, capiēns): declined like a one-ending adjective of the third declension; the ablative singular is -e when it is used as a verb (regnante) and -ī when it is used as an adjective; the genitive plural -ium (amantium).
• Perfect passive participle (amātus, monitus, rēctus, audītus, captus): the fourth principal part and the supine stem; declined like bonus. It means "having been loved", and with sum forms the perfect passive; for deponents it has active meaning (hortātus "having encouraged", secūtus "having followed", passus "having suffered").
• Future active participle (amātūrus, formed on the supine stem + -ūrus): "about to love", "going to"; with sum it forms the active periphrastic conjugation (§7). It is the only future participle of the active, and the future passive participle is the gerundive.
• No perfect active participle exists for transitive verbs in Latin. Where English says "having loved him", Latin has a perfect passive participle (eō amātō, ablative absolute, chapter 11), a perfect participle of a deponent, or a subordinate clause with cum and the pluperfect subjunctive, or a clause with postquam. This gap is one of the reasons the ablative absolute is so frequent. In the Medieval language the perfect participle of a transitive verb with habeō ("I have the thing done") grows into the Romance perfect (j'ai aimé, ho amato), and the Late Latin participle takes on the function of a finite verb (chapter 15).

4. The participles: uses

A participle is a verb and an adjective at once (Bennett 1918 §§336–337). It agrees with a noun as an adjective and governs the case of its verb.

Tense is relative to the main verb: the present participle is contemporaneous (Catilinam orbem terrae caede atque incendiis vastare cupientem, Cic. Cat. 1.3, "Catiline, who is eager to lay waste the world"), the perfect prior to it (adducti, below), the future subsequent or intended (obtenturus, §7).

Caes. B. G. 1.3 · Latin Library Hac oratione adducti inter se fidem et ius iurandum dant … "Led on by this speech, they give each other their word and an oath …"

Adducti is a perfect passive participle (nom. pl. m.) in agreement with the subject, translating "having been led" or "when / because they had been led". Latin uses it where English uses a clause: the participial phrase does the work of a temporal, causal, concessive, conditional or relative clause, and the reader chooses the English connexion from the context (Bennett 1918 §337, with §227 on the ablative absolute).

Some further uses:

• attributive: rēs gestae "deeds done", rerum gestarum memoriae (Liv. praef.), "the record of events";
• predicative and in the periphrastic perfect: Orgetorix mortuus est (Caes. B. G. 1.4), "Orgetorix died", the perfect of a deponent, whose participle is part of the verb;
• substantive: amāns "a lover", amantēs "lovers", dīcta "sayings", factum "a deed", legentium plerisque, "to most of those who read" (Liv. praef.), persequentibus et calumniantibus vos, "those who persecute and slander you" (Matt 5:44); in Christian Latin the present participle as a noun is frequent (dominantium, Rev 19:16);
• with verbs of perception: vīdī eum currentem, "I saw him running";
• with verbs of causing and having (cūrō, dō, habeō with the perfect participle): the construction habeō + participle ("I have the thing done") is the source of the Romance perfect (chapter 15);
• after a verb of motion or other, to describe the manner: Caesarem … complexus obsecrare coepit (Caes. B. G. 1.20), "embracing Caesar, he began to beg": the perfect participle of a deponent (complexus, from complector) has active meaning;
• in the ablative absolute and in the accusative with verbs of saying (chapters 10–11).

The perfect participle may stand for a verbal noun: ab urbe conditā "from the founding of the city" (literally "from the city founded"), the title of Livy's history (Titi Livi ab urbe condita, Latin Library).

5. The gerund and the gerundive

5.1 Forms

The gerund is the verbal noun of the present stem, declined in the genitive, dative, accusative and ablative of the neuter singular, in -ndī, -ndō, -ndum, -ndō; it has no nominative, and the infinitive serves as the nominative (Bennett 1918 §338):

The gerundive is the passive verbal adjective in -ndus, -nda, -ndum (amandus, monendus, regendus, audiendus), meaning "to be loved, deserving to be loved, necessary to be loved". The forms -undus (faciundus, Caes. B. G. 1.7: itineris faciundi) and -endus both occur in the third conjugation; the older is -undus.

5.2 Use

The gerund is a noun; it may govern an accusative object (ad pacem petendum is possible, but classical prose prefers the gerundive). The gerundive attraction replaces the gerund + accusative object by the gerundive agreeing with the noun, which stands in the case that the gerund would have had: genitive consilium urbis capiendae "plan of taking the city" (for capiendī urbem); dative locum castris mūniendīs "place for fortifying the camp"; accusative with ad ad urbem capiendam "in order to take the city"; ablative urbe capienda "by taking the city" (Bennett 1918 §339).

Caes. B. G. 1.7 · Latin Library … neque homines inimico animo, data facultate per provinciam itineris faciundi, temperaturos ab iniuria et maleficio existimabat. "… and he did not think that men of hostile mind would refrain from violence and mischief if they were given the chance to make a march through the province."

Itineris faciundi is a gerundive in the genitive agreeing with itineris, not a gerund governing an accusative; facultate depends on it, and data facultate is an ablative absolute. In Cicero's hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus (Cat. 1.1), "this most strongly fortified place for holding the senate", the gerundive habendi agrees with senatus (gen. sg.). The two parts of the pattern are: genitive of the gerundive after a noun, to express the purpose of the noun.

The gerundive is also used alone with a form of sum to express obligation or necessity; this is the passive periphrastic conjugation (§7). It is intransitive for verbs that take no direct object, in the neuter impersonal form, with the agent in the dative: mihi eundum est "I must go". In the Seneca treebank (UD_Latin-CIRCSE, Latin_SenecaYounger_HercF_poetry-1, Juno's opening speech): locumque caelo pulsa paelicibus dedi tellus colenda est paelices caelum tenent, "driven from heaven I gave my place to my rivals; the earth is the place for me to dwell in; my rivals hold heaven", colenda est is a gerundive of necessity with the nominative subject tellus.

In the charters, gerunds are common in purpose clauses, with the preposition ad: in suprascripta casa hominem ad residendum et abitandum mittere debeatis, "you must send a man to the aforesaid house to live and dwell there" (la_llct train-s5220), ad usufructuandum dare, "to give for use" (train-s309); the gerund in this use, which in classical prose would take causa or a purpose clause, becomes the ordinary form of purpose in notarial Latin.

6. The supine

The supine is a verbal noun of the fourth principal part in two cases, -um (accusative) and -ū (ablative):

• The supine in -um expresses purpose after a verb of motion (Bennett 1918 §340): legātōs ad Caesarem mittunt rogātum auxilium "the Aedui send envoys to Caesar to ask help" (Caes. B. G. 1.11); the supine may govern a direct object (auxilium). The Vulgate prefers an infinitive or ut clause.
• The supine in -ū is an ablative of respect after an adjective: mirabile dictu, "wonderful to say" (Verg. Aen. 4.182), horrendum dictu (Aen. 4.454), facile factu; perfacile factu esse illis probat conata perficere (Caes. B. G. 1.3), "he proved to them that it was very easy to accomplish their undertakings".

With īrī the supine in -um forms the future passive infinitive (amātum īrī). The supine is rare in Late and Medieval Latin; the supine in -um is replaced by ad + gerund and by the infinitive.

7. The periphrastic conjugations

The active periphrastic is the future active participle + a form of sum: amātūrus sum "I am about to love"; Facturusne operae pretium sim … nec satis scio (Liv. praef.), "I do not know well enough whether I shall be doing something worthwhile"; obtenturus esset in ipse suae civitatis imperium obtenturus esset (Caes. B. G. 1.3), "he himself would obtain the rule of his state" (imperfect subjunctive after quod in the reported reason). It expresses intention or immediate future, and is the only way to form a future subjunctive (amātūrus sim, essem).

The passive periphrastic is the gerundive + a form of sum: amandus est "he is to be loved, he must be loved", with the agent in the dative (mihi amandus est). The negative sense "must not" is nōn est amandus; the meaning "can be loved" is not expressed by it. In the Christian authors the construction is common in the sense of "deserves to be …".

8. How Mova handles it

The pipeline (2026-10-22). None of these forms is analysed by Mova itself; the UD tags are the treebank's. The English parser path consumes the Penn-Treebank-style tag made by en xpos-fill: VB for VerbForm=Inf; VBG for a present participle (Tense=Pres) or a gerund (VerbForm=Ger); VBN for any other participle (a perfect passive participle, a future active participle, and a gerundive coded as Part). The gerund of a treebank that codes it Ger thus gets the same tag as a present participle, and a gerundive coded Part|Aspect=Prosp the tag of a perfect participle; the semantic difference (obligation, purpose) is invisible to the parser and is learnt, if at all, from the word forms.

UD conventions that differ. The participle is the case where the Latin treebanks differ most:

• LLCT codes every participle, the gerund and the gerundive as VerbForm=Part with Aspect (Imp present, Perf perfect, Prosp future and gerundive) and Voice; LLCT train (194 143 words): Part 7 775 tokens, of which Aspect=Prosp 1 527. The relations on a participial phrase are acl, advcl, xcomp, advcl:abs (1 589; the ablative absolute), nsubj:pass, aux:pass.
• CIRCSE (the Seneca and Tacitus corpus) uses the UD values Part, Gdv, Ger and Sup (train: Part 710, Gdv 18, Ger 4, Sup 4; 2026-10-22).
• PROIEL, ITTB, Perseus, UDante (checked in README and headers; non-commercial, not quoted) differ in whether a participle used as an adjective is ADJ or VERB, and in the lemma of the participle (the participle's own or the verb's). The harmonisation of 2023 (gamba-2023-universalising-latin-universal-dependencies-harmonisation) aligned the main tags and relations, and the question of the participial lemma is dealt with through the LiLa knowledge base by "hypolemmas" (passarotti-2025-harmonizing-divergent-lemmatization-part-speech); the reorganisation of the feature VerbForm is proposed in cecchini-2021-formae-reformandae-reorganisation-verb-form.

Where it stops. The English side of Mova has no category for a gerundive, a supine or a future participle; what UD marks as Aspect=Prosp is not used. Four things would be useful in order: (1) a count in LLCT and CIRCSE of the participial constructions (attributive, predicative, ablative absolute, gerundive of obligation), for which the relations above are already enough; (2) mapping the Gdv/Ger/Sup values of CIRCSE onto LLCT's Part|Aspect=Prosp, so that the two treebanks can be pooled for training; (3) a decision whether the accusative-and-infinitive is ccomp or xcomp (chapter 10); (4) a morphological analyser for the forms of this chapter.

Sources for this chapter. Bennett 1918 §§99, 101–111, 119, 325–340; Allen & Greenough 1903, Gildersleeve & Lodge 1895 (paraphrased); examples: Caes. B. G. 1.3, 1.4, 1.7, 1.11, 1.20; Verg. Aen. 4.182, 4.454; Cic. Cat. 1.1, 1.3; Liv. praef. (Latin Library); Vulgate Matt 5:44, 6:24, 20:28; UD_Latin-LLCT train-s2, s5220, s309; UD_Latin-CIRCSE.

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