Experience III, Lesson 20: Introduction to Participles

Learning principles of Participles

Participles are Verbal Adjectives

1. As an Adjective, the participle can describe/modify a noun
   Corollary: Like other adjectives, they can stand alone and act like a noun.

   As a Verb, the participle can take an object

   Corollary: As verbs, participles can take adverbs and produce clauses

   The Romans squeezed participles (to death)

   Corollary: There is hardly a sentence in Latin without a participle

   The problem with participles is that there are two few.

   Corollary: There are only 4 participles in Latin (e.g. Greek has about 12)

   Corollary: The participle can't be used to express many ideas in Latin - they don't exist

   Participles never change their natural meanings - no matter what, whichever / however they are used

   Corollary: Participles don't depend on the English/vernacular translation for their meaning

Third Experience Latin - Fr. Reginald Foster

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