Verbs

Passive Voice

Recall that the Passive voice in the Present, Imperfect and Future tenses is formed by changing the personal endings from active to passive:

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Active Endings		Passive Endings
1st person	o/m	mus	r/or	mur
2nd person	s	tis	ris	mini
3rd Person	t	nt	tur	ntur

But the Perfect system is not formed in the same way. In fact, it's a snap because there are NO new forms to learn, just a new way to combine old forms. The perfect system passive verbs are compound verbs using normal, very familiar forms of the verb 'esse' along with a perfect passive participle declined just like the adjectives you first learned.

Select the 4th principal part of the verb, also called the perfect passive participle.
Change its ending to the nominative case ending that matches the number and gender of the verb's subject.
Determine the tense of 'esse' that will apply --
- If the passive verb is to be perfect tense, use the present tense of esse: sum-es-est-sumus-estis-sunt
- If the passive verb is to be pluperfect tense, use the imperfect tense of esse: eram-eras-erat-eramus-eratis-erant
- If the passive verb is to be future perfect tense, use the future tense of esse: ero-eris-erit-erimus-eritis-erunt
Select the correct form of esse that matches the number and person of the verb's subject.

Why doesn't the tense of esse have to be the same as the tense of the passive verb you are creating? Because the perfect passive participle that will be combined with esse already connotes its own degree of 'pastness.'

Here's a demonstration of how to create a Passive Perfect tense verb, have/has been carried. The Latin verb with its principal parts will be porto,portare, portavi, portatus - carry. Portatus, -a, -um is the 4th principal part, and it is declined just like any 1st/2nd declension adjective. To create a perfect passive tense, it will be combined with the present tense of 'esse'.

[portatus, portata, portatum] sum	I have been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] sumus	we have been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] es	you have been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] estis	you have been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] est	he (she, it) has been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] sunt	they have been carried

Now in the Pluperfect Passive tense -- had been carried:

[portatus, portata, portatum] eram	he (she, it) had been carried	[ortati, portatae, portata] eramus	we had been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] eras	you had been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] eratis	you had been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] erat	he (she, it) had been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] erant	they had been carried

And now in the Future Perfect Passive -- will have been carried:

[portatus, portata, portatum] ero	I will have been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] erimus	we will have been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] eris	you will have been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] eritis	you will have been carried
[portatus, portata, portatum] erit	he, she, it will have been carried	[portati, portatae, portata] erunt	they will have been carried

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