Passive Voice
Passive voice in Latin works like English passive — the subject receives the action — but the recognition skill matters more than the meaning.
Present-stem tenses use a single passive ending: amātur "is loved", amābātur "was being loved", amābitur "will be loved."
But perfect-stem tenses are compound — perfect-passive participle + a form of sum: amātus est "has been loved", amātus erat "had been loved." Two words, one verb form. This is the #1 recognition trap.
The agent — the "by whom" — is ā / ab + ablative for people (ā Caesare interfectus est); bare ablative of means for things (gladiō interfectus est). With the gerundive of obligation, the agent flips to dative: haec mihi facienda erant, "these had to be done by me."
And deponents look passive but mean active — hortātur, "he urges," not "he is urged."
Learnings0 core · 1 AP claim
AP framework claims (1)— verbatim from AP CED
"is/was/will be V-ed" — the subject receives the action.
The compound perfect-passive (PPP + sum) is the #1 recognition trap. amātus est is ONE verb form — perfect passive indicative — not "loved" + "is."
See It In Action
— B. G. i. 1
Caesar's most famous opening sentence — and the canonical recognition trap. Dīvīsa est is one perfect-passive verb form, not two words. Students who parse it as est ("is") + dīvīsa ("divided") get the meaning roughly right but miss that this is a compound tense; they'll fail the same trap on capta erat ("had been captured") or amātus erit ("will have been loved").
— B. G. i. 21
The textbook agent construction. ab + person ablative always marks the agent of a passive verb — never "from." Compare Caesar's variant per explōrātōrēs ("through scouts"): same scouts, but the per + accusative version frames them as means / instrument rather than as the volitional agent.
Both have passive endings (-r, -tur, -ntur). Only one means what its endings say.
subject receives the action; dictionary entry has BOTH active and passive forms (amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus)
Gallia dīvīsa est
Gaul has been divided
subject performs the action; dictionary entry has ONLY passive forms (hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum)
Caesar mīlitēs hortātur
Caesar urges his soldiers
Tip: Always check the dictionary entry. If you see only three principal parts — and the first ends in -or and the second in -ārī / -ērī / -ī / -īrī — it's a deponent. Translate active despite the passive look.
In Gallia est omnis dīvīsa in partēs trēs, what verb form is est ... dīvīsa?
Study Tips
- •Two-word verb forms are still ONE verb. amātus est is one form (perfect passive indicative), not amātus + est. Always parse PPP + sum as a unit.
- •If a Latin verb looks passive but the dictionary entry shows only passive forms (hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum), it's a deponent — translate it active.
- •When you see ā / ab + person ablative near a passive verb, that's the agent. ā Caesare is "by Caesar" — never "from Caesar" in this construction.
- •An intransitive verb in the passive goes IMPERSONAL: pugnātur = "there is fighting"; ventum est = "they came" / "there was a coming." English has no clean parallel — translate it as a generic statement.