Future Participle
The future ACTIVE participle is the -tūrus, -tūra, -tūrum form: amātūrus "about to love," moritūrus "about to die." Build it from the supine stem (the fourth principal part with -um swapped for -ūrus) and then decline it like bonus, -a, -um.
Its everyday job in Cicero and Caesar is to pair with esse and form the active periphrastic — amātūrus est "he is about to love / he intends to love." That construction is how Latin says "going to," and it is how the future infinitive (amātūrus esse) shows up in indirect statement.
Poets and later prose let the participle stand alone with a noun to mark intent or imminence (moritūrus in hostīs "plunging in to die"); classical prose almost never does this on its own.
The trap is the gerundive — amandus — which looks neighboring but means the future PASSIVE: "about to be loved / needing to be loved."
"about to / going to / intending to " — the participle alone marks intent; with esse it conjugates as the active periphrastic.
ACTIVE voice. The look-alike -ndus form (amandus) is the gerundive — future PASSIVE.
See It In Action
— Cic. Sen. 68
This is the future infinitive at work — vīctūrum (esse) in indirect statement after spērat. The participle agrees with sē (acc.); esse is dropped, as it usually is.
— Cic. Cat. ii. 24
Cicero pairs habitūrus with subjunctive sit — the active periphrastic carries through every mood and tense of esse, just like a normal compound verb.
— Verg. Aen. ii. 675
Pure poetic intent: peritūrus stands alone with the subject of abīs and means "in order to / intending to die." Classical prose would say ut pereās — Vergil compresses it into one participle.
— Verg. Aen. xi. 741
Vergil uses moritūrus in the same intent-or-imminence slot a Greek future participle would fill — "plunging in to die." Notice the participle is doing the work of a whole purpose clause.
"intending to / meaning to "
moritūrus = intending to die
"about to / on the point of ing"
moritūrus = about to die
"that X will / would "
sē vīctūrum (esse) = that he will live
"in order to " / "to "
invāsūrus = (goes out) to attack
"would have ed" (= pluperf. subj.)
datūrus erat (sī...) = would have given
Both are "future" verbal adjectives, both decline like bonus. The suffix is the giveaway: -tūrus is ACTIVE, -ndus is PASSIVE.
"about to / going to " (active)
amātūrus
about to love
"to be ed / needing to be ed" (passive)
amandus
needing to be loved / lovable
Tip: Look at the suffix on the stem: -tūr- (or -sūr-) → active, future. -nd- → passive, often with a flavor of obligation. Then check who is doing what to whom.
In Cicero's spērat adulēscēns sē diū vīctūrum, what work is vīctūrum doing?
Study Tips
- •Build it mechanically: take the supine (amātum, missum, moritūrum-stem moritū-), drop the -um, add -ūrus, -ūra, -ūrum. The same stem gives the supine, the perfect passive participle, and this form — three for one.
- •When you see -ūrus + a form of esse, read "about to / going to / intending to" before you reach for anything else. vīctūrum esse in indirect statement is just "that he will conquer / live."
- •Hold the amātūrus (future active) vs. amandus (gerundive — future passive) pair side by side until the -tūrus / -ndus signal is automatic — the suffix tells you the voice.