What are deponent verbs and how do they work?

Deponent verbs are verbs which look passive, but have an active meaning. We are used to seeing active verbs, like 'capio', meaning 'I take or capture', where the subject of the verb is doing the action themselves. These active verbs take the passive voice when the action of the verb is being done to the subject, rather than the subject doing it. For example, 'capior' (the -r ending signifying the passive voice) would mean 'I am taken or captured'. Deponent verbs, therefore, look passive because their endings are the same as those of the passive voice, but have an active meaning. Examples include: loquor (I speak), egredior (I go out), miror (I wonder at), and hortor (I encourage). There are 14 of these types of verbs on the OCR Latin GCSE vocabulary list; it is easiest to memorise them as a separate group from other verbs - fun rhymes and mnemonics are encouraged - so you know which ones to look out for in the exam.