What is the difference between a deponent and a semi-deponent verb?
Deponent verbs are verbs that look passive, but are active in meaning. Examples of these verbs are: conor, conari, conatus sum; loquor, loqui, locutus sum. Though these all conjugate like the passive voice of most verbs, these verbs are translated into the active voice. You must learn which verbs are deponent in order to spot them when doing a translation.Semi-deponent verbs are, as above, always translated into the passive voice. However, in their infinite and present states they look like a regular verb (i.e. audeo, audere, audatus sum). Again, you must learn to recognise these verbs by heart in order to translate them correctly when coming across them in translations.
TM
Related Latin GCSE answers
All answers ▸What is the possessive pronoun in Latin?
What's a good method to translate a sentence from Latin into English?
'dux militibus imperavit ut summa virtute pugnarent.' What construction is this? Parse 'militibus' and explain why it is like this. With the same construction, rewrite this sentence using 'iubeo' instead of 'imperare'.
How do you form the imperfect subjuctive?