Referring to:
Vīsne īre dēambulātum? │ Do you want to
go for a walk?
[i] Image #1: Most Latin verbs have four principal
parts which are listed in dictionaries; it is from these four
principal parts that all other forms of the verb are created:
[1] First principal part: rogō [ask]; the
first person singular present tense
[2] Second principal part: rogāre; the present
active infinitive
[3] Third principal part: rogāvī; the first
person singular perfect tense
[4] It is the fourth part where some
confusion might occur since, depending on which dictionary you use, it can
be listed in two different ways as either [i] rogātus,
or [ii] rogātum
[i] rogātus, -a, -um is
the perfect passive participle = having been asked
[ii] rogātum is the supine; the
entry in Wiktionary gives it the name ‘supine’, but most dictionaries /
vocabulary lists don’t i.e. there is the assumption that you know the
difference between [i] and [ii] without it being explicitly stated. The supine
is a 4th declension noun which expresses a verbal idea. It only has two forms, and we’ll look
at both.
[2] The supine has more than one use, but here we’ll focus
on two.
[i] As in the video, the supine is used with verbs
of motion to express purpose; grammatically, it is in the accusative case,
but does not agree with any word in gender, number or case
Vīsne īre dēambulātum? │ Do you
want to go for a walk? [Literally: to go to
walk]
Spectātum veniunt (Ovid) │ They come to
watch.
Haeduī lēgātōs […] mittunt rogātum auxilium
(Caesar) │ The Haedui send deputies to ask for
aid.
Vēnērunt questum iniūriās. (Livy)
│ They came to complain of wrongs.
Vēnērunt pacem petitum. │ They
came to ask for peace.
Two useful examples of this are:
Cubitum eō │ I go ¦ to
sleep [literally: to lie down to sleep]
From Plautus:
Voluī Chalīnum … mittere tēcum obsōnātum │
I wanted to send Chalinus with you to buy provisions [i.e.
to shop]
Obsōnātum eō │ I go ¦ shopping [ =
to shop]
Note: Latin has many different ways of expressing purpose,
the supine being only one of them and used in a very restricted way. This is a
far wider topic which we’ll revisit when other related features of the language
are discussed.
[2] The second use has an ending in -ū: there can be some
uncertainty as to how the case of that ending is interpreted; for the sake of
argument, I’ll stick to it being ablative. It conveys the idea of “with regard
to” or “with respect to” and is used with adjectives.
Compare English: It is [i] difficult [ii] to
say.
dīcō, dīcere, dīxī, (supine) dictum >
[i] Difficile ¦ [ii] dictū est.
Hoc [i] facile est [ii] intellēctū.
│ This is [i] easy [ii] to understand.
Ō rem nōn modo vīsū foedam sed etiam
audītū! (Cicero) │ a thing not only shocking to see,
but even to hear of
Sī hoc fās est dictū (Cicero) │
If this is lawful to say
In the group I will continue to list the principal parts of a verb with the perfect passive participle rather than the supine since it is the former that occurs far more often. However, there are some Latin verbs which do not have a perfect passive participle; at that point, the supine will be listed.
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