Ago: To Do or Drive | Latin Grammar

Agō means “drive,” “lead,” “conduct,” or “do,” but its many idioms also express spending time, handling business, pleading a case, and giving thanks. Its principal parts are agō, agere, ēgī, āctum. The present uses ag-, the perfect active ēg-, and the supine system āct-.

English “do” does not make agō interchangeable with faciō. Agō often presents activity or conduct; faciō often presents making or accomplishing. Established collocations decide between them.

The three-stem method is explained more generally under principal parts as a predictive system.

Active Indicative and Subjunctive

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	agō	agis	agit	agimus	agitis	agunt
Imperfect	agēbam	agēbās	agēbat	agēbāmus	agēbātis	agēbant
Future	agam	agēs	aget	agēmus	agētis	agent
Perfect	ēgī	ēgistī	ēgit	ēgimus	ēgistis	ēgērunt / ēgēre
Pluperfect	ēgeram	ēgerās	ēgerat	ēgerāmus	ēgerātis	ēgerant
Future perfect	ēgerō	ēgeris	ēgerit	ēgerimus	ēgeritis	ēgerint

Subjunctive tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	agam	agās	agat	agāmus	agātis	agant
Imperfect	agerem	agerēs	ageret	agerēmus	agerētis	agerent
Perfect	ēgerim	ēgerīs	ēgerit	ēgerīmus	ēgerītis	ēgerint
Pluperfect	ēgissem	ēgissēs	ēgisset	ēgissēmus	ēgissētis	ēgissent

Agricola bovēs ex agrō agit.

The farmer drives the cattle out of the field.

Mercātōrēs in forō negōtium agēbant.

The merchants were conducting business in the forum.

Crās dē pāce agēmus.

Tomorrow we shall discuss peace.

Ōrātor causam prō amīcō ēgit.

The advocate pleaded a case for his friend.

Future indicative and present subjunctive share agam. An independent future context gives “I shall conduct”; ut/nē, a wish, or another subordinate environment identifies subjunctive.

Passive Voice

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	agor	ageris	agitur	agimur	agiminī	aguntur
Imperfect	agēbar	agēbāris	agēbātur	agēbāmur	agēbāminī	agēbantur
Future	agar	agēris	agētur	agēmur	agēminī	agentur
Present subjunctive	agar	agāris	agātur	agāmur	agāminī	agantur
Imperfect subjunctive	agerer	agerēris	agerētur	agerēmur	agerēminī	agerentur

Perfect passive uses āctus, -a, -um plus sum: āctus est, ācta erat, ācta erunt; āctus sit, ācta esset.

Haec causa crās apud iūdicēs agētur.

This case will be argued before the judges tomorrow.

Omnia rēctē ācta sunt.

Everything was carried out correctly.

Impersonal agitur dē + ablative means “the discussion/business concerns”: agitur dē vectīgālibus “taxes are under discussion.” No nominative subject is understood; English either supplies dummy “it” (“it is being discussed”) or promotes the topic (“taxes are under discussion”).

Commands and Non-Finite Forms

Present active imperatives are age, agite. The future active has agitō (second- or third-person singular), agitōte (second-person plural), and aguntō (third-person plural). Passive commands are agere, agiminī in the present and agitor (second- or third-person singular), aguntor (third-person plural) in the future. The future and passive commands are (formal/archaic or contextually rare). In conversation, age! and plural agite! can urge action: “come on!” (informal in dramatic dialogue).

Age, dīc mihi quid acciderit.

Come now, tell me what happened.

Category	Active	Passive
Present infinitive	agere	agī
Perfect infinitive	ēgisse	āctum esse
Future infinitive	āctūrum esse	āctum īrī
Participles	agēns; āctūrus	āctus; agendus
Gerund	agendī, agendō, agendum, agendō	—
Supines	āctum, āctū	—

Nōbīs nunc dē auxiliō agendum est.

We must now discuss assistance.

Dīxit sē negōtium celeriter ēgisse.

He said that he had handled the business quickly.

Core Idioms

Expression	Meaning
grātiās agere + dative	thank someone
vītam / aetātem agere	spend one’s life/time
causam agere	plead a case
rem / negōtium agere	conduct an affair/business
cum aliquō bene / male agere	treat someone well/badly
dē aliquā rē agere	discuss/deal with something

Tibi grātiās agō quod mihi adfuistī.

I thank you because you supported me.

Avus rūrī vītam quiētam ēgit.

Grandfather spent a peaceful life in the country.

These are lexical combinations. “Make thanks” or grātiās facere is not a substitute for grātiās agere.

Choosing Agō, Faciō, or Dūcō

The three verbs overlap in English but organize an event differently. Agō emphasizes driving, conducting, or carrying on an activity; faciō emphasizes making, producing, or bringing about a result; dūcō emphasizes leading a person or group along a course. The noun normally selects the established verb.

Latin	Natural meaning	Why
negōtium agere	conduct business	an activity is carried on
opus facere	do/make a piece of work	a result is produced
exercitum dūcere	lead an army	a group follows a leader
currum agere	drive a cart	the driver sets it in motion

Dūx exercitum dūcit, aurīga currum agit, faber mēnsam facit.

The commander leads the army, the charioteer drives the cart, and the craftsperson makes a table.

This is not a universal philosophical distinction that mechanically decides every sentence. Latin inherited many fixed combinations, and learners must memorize the frequent ones. For example, bellum gerere is normally “wage war,” while triumphum agere is “celebrate a triumph.” Consult the noun’s collocations rather than starting from English “do.”

Aspect and Participant Roles

With a physical object, active agō places the driver as subject and the moved group as accusative: pastor ovēs agit. Passive ovēs aguntur promotes that group. With an abstract idiom such as grātiās agere, however, a literal passive is usually not the natural way to express thanks.

Pāstor ovēs tōtō diē agēbat, sed ante noctem eās domum ēgit.

The shepherd was driving the sheep all day, but before nightfall he drove them home.

Imperfect agēbat shows the activity unfolding; perfect ēgit presents the completed drive. English “drove” can conceal that aspectual difference, so temporal frame and stem must guide interpretation.

Compounds

Compounds often weaken a to i and keep the perfect/supine alternation: redigō, redēgī, redāctum “drive back/reduce”; subigō, subēgī, subāctum “subdue”; trānsigō, trānsēgī, trānsāctum “complete/transact”; adigō, adēgī, adāctum “drive to/compel.” Not every compound weakens the present stem: peragō, peragere, perēgī, perāctum retains a. The contracted compound cōgō, cōgere, coēgī, coāctum means “drive together, compel.”

Dūx hostēs in angustiās coēgit.

The commander forced the enemy into a narrow pass.

The compound’s English gloss does not predict its stem. Recognize coāctus as the perfect passive participle of cōgō: neither coēgī nor coāctum can safely be inferred from the contracted present form alone, so learn all four principal parts together.

Parsing Diagnostic

First identify ag-, ēg-, or āct-. Then inspect the object and collocation: cattle favor “drive,” a case favors “plead,” grātiās gives “thank,” and dē + ablative gives “discuss.” Finally check prefixes before translating a compound.

Common Mistakes

Inventing a regular perfect

❌ Herī negōtium aguī.

Incorrect — the perfect stem is ēg-.

✅ Herī negōtium ēgī.

Yesterday I handled the business.

Replacing an idiom with faciō

❌ Tibi grātiās faciō.

Incorrect for the standard idiom ‘I thank you.’

✅ Tibi grātiās agō.

I thank you.

Confusing future and subjunctive

❌ Rogat quod causam agam.

Incorrect for a request — use ut plus subjunctive.

✅ Rogat ut causam agam.

He asks me to plead the case.

Regularizing cōgō

❌ Dūx hostēs herī cōxit.

Incorrect — the perfect of cōgō is coēgit, not cōxit.

✅ Dūx hostēs manēre coēgit.

The commander forced the enemy to remain.

Key Takeaways

Memorize agō, agere, ēgī, āctum.
Collocation selects among “drive,” “conduct,” “do,” “spend,” and “plead.”
The verb has full active, passive, and non-finite systems.
Age! can be a conversational exhortation, while agitur dē is an impersonal formal idiom.
Compounds often change the present vowel and must be learned with their own principal parts.

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