In the passive voice, the action is being received by the subject of the verb. The agent doing the action is expressed with an ablative case.
E.G. Active - The girl reads the book. Puella librum legit. "Girl" is doing the action and subject of the verb (nominative case); book is receiving the action and direct object of the verb (accusative case)
Passive The book is being read by the girl. Liber â puellâ legitur. "Girl" is still doing the action and the book is still receiving the action but look at the difference of subject and object. In this sentence, book is the subject and in the nominative case. "Girl" is the agent, doing the action of reading, and thus expressed by the ablative case. "Girl" has a brain and thus needs "a" as a preposition. If an inanimate object were the agent no "a" would be used.
Formation of the Passive Voice:
In the present system (so called because the stem is taken from the present active infinitive) use the same base as the active voice, delete active endings (-o or m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt) and add the passive endings. (-r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -mini, -ntur). The present system refers to the PRESENT, IMPERFECT AND FUTURE TENSES ONLY.
E.G.
| duco = I lead | ducor = I am lead |
| ducebam = I was leading | ducebar = I was led |
| ducam = I will lead | ducar = I will be led |
The Perfect system uses the 4th principal part of the verb. In our text, it is usually given with a terminus of -us. This part of the verb is considered an adjective and thus has a choice of endings as do all adjectives. The perfect passive system is easy to create and recognize. Use the 4th principal part and the verb "to be". When you use the present tense of "to be" with the 4th principal part give us the pluperfect passive and use "had" as the helper with been for the passive. The future of "to be" gives us the future perfect passive and the translation uses the future of have, will have + been. The ending of the participle will agree with the subject of the verb. e.g. ductus est = he has been led, ducta est = she had been led, ductum est = it had been led, ducti sunt = they(masc.) have been led, ductae sunt = they(fem.) have been led, ducta sunt = they(neuter) have been led.
See Ecce Romani book charts page 138 for further explanation.
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