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Concept
Deponent verb
Summary
In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. A deponent verb has no active forms.
This list may not be exhaustive.
Ancient Greek verbs and Koine Greek grammar
Ancient Greek has middle-voice deponents (some of which are very common) and some passive-voice deponents. An example in classical Greek is ἔρχομαι (, 'I come' or 'I go'), middle/passive in form but translated into English using the active voice (since English has no middle voice).
Some 'active' verbs will take middle-form futures, such as how ἀκούω (, 'I hear') becomes ἀκούσομαι (, 'I will hear'), rather than the regular adding of a sigma (like παύω (, 'I stop') becoming παύσω (, 'I will stop')). These are still translated into English as active. For these verbs, there is no future middle, but the future passive is unaffected.
Koine Greek has a few verbs which have very different meanings in the active and middle/passive forms. For example, ἁπτω () means "I set fire to", whereas its middle form ἁπτομαι () means "I touch". Because ἁπτομαι is much more common in usage, beginners often learn this form first and are tempted to assume that it is a deponent.
Latin deponent verbs can belong to any conjugation. Their form (except in the present and future participle) is that of a passive verb, but the meaning is active. Usually a deponent verb has no corresponding active form, although there are a few, such as vertō 'I turn (transitive)' and vertor 'I turn (intransitive)' which have both active and deponent forms.
Examples are hortārī ('to exhort'), verērī ('to fear'), loquī ('to speak'), blandīrī ('to flatter'), and many more. The forms regularly follow those of the passive of normal verbs:
Deponents have all the participles normal verbs do, although those of the perfect carry an active meaning, rather than a passive meaning as in the case of normal verbs. Some deponent verbs, such as sequī (to follow), use the corresponding forms of other verbs to express a genuine passive meaning.
Official source
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