Latin with Foster

Experience III, Lesson 22: Deponent Participles

Using the following Deponent Verbs as an example:

ARBITROR, ARBITRARI, ARBITRATUS = to think, judge, decide

CONFITEOR, CONFITERI, CONFESSUS = to confess

	Active	Passive	Natural Meaning
Contemporaneous	arbitrans (arbitrantis) confitens	<<<---No Passive--->>>	thinking confessing
Antecedent	arbitratus,a,um confessus,a,um	<<<------>>>	having thought having confessed
Futurity	arbitraturus,a,um confessurus,a,um	<<<------>>>	about to judge going to judge intending to judge
Necessity	<<<------>>>	arbitrandus,a,um confitendus,a,um	needing to be decided having to be decided to be decided

N.B.

The deponent verbs form participles in the same way as the regular verbs, the only exception is in the meaning of the antecedent participle, which is active, not passive.
This one difference is a great advantage, since one can't say "having thought" with a regular antecendent participle, which is always passive in its natural meaning, "having been thought".
By the Definition of a Deponent Verb, it shouldn't have an active form, but it does in the exception of these participles. Also a deponent verb shouldn't have a passive meaning, but it does in this case of the participle of necessity.