Currō means “run,” “hurry,” “move swiftly,” or, of water and other things, “flow.” Its principal parts are currō, currere, cucurrī, cursum. The doubled r belongs to the present stem, the perfect reduplicates as cu-curr-, and the supine system changes to curs-.
Simple currō is normally intransitive. It has no ordinary personal passive because there is no accusative patient to promote, but it forms an impersonal passive such as curritur “people run / there is running.”
Active Indicative
| Tense | 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | currō | curris | currit | currimus | curritis | currunt |
| Imperfect | currēbam | currēbās | currēbat | currēbāmus | currēbātis | currēbant |
| Future | curram | currēs | curret | currēmus | currētis | current |
| Perfect | cucurrī | cucurristī | cucurrit | cucurrimus | cucurristis | cucurrērunt |
| Pluperfect | cucurreram | cucurrerās | cucurrerat | cucurrerāmus | cucurrerātis | cucurrerant |
| Future perfect | cucurrerō | cucurreris | cucurrerit | cucurrerimus | cucurreritis | cucurrerint |
Puer ad portam currit.
The boy is running to the gate.
Athlētae per campum currēbant.
The athletes were running across the field.
Crās in stadiō currēmus.
Tomorrow we shall run in the stadium.
Nūntius tōtam noctem cucurrit.
The messenger ran all night.
The perfect does not mean merely that running began: it presents the event as a bounded whole. Imperfect currēbat instead supplies ongoing action or background. The duration accusative tōtam noctem measures how long the running continued; it is not a direct-object patient.
Active Subjunctive
| Tense | 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | curram | currās | currat | currāmus | currātis | currant |
| Imperfect | currerem | currerēs | curreret | currerēmus | currerētis | currerent |
| Perfect | cucurrerim | cucurrerīs | cucurrerit | cucurrerīmus | cucurrerītis | cucurrerint |
| Pluperfect | cucurrissem | cucurrissēs | cucurrisset | cucurrissēmus | cucurrissētis | cucurrissent |
Present curram may be future indicative or present subjunctive. A purpose clause, command, wish, or other syntactic environment resolves the ambiguity.
Cotīdiē exercēris ut celerius currās.
You train every day so that you may run faster.
Dux imperāvit ut nūntius ad urbem curreret.
The commander ordered the messenger to run to the city.
Impersonal Passive
The impersonal passive presents the activity without a nominative runner. It stays third-person singular even when many people participate. This concise event-centered construction is especially common in narrative and procedural prose (formal).
| Tense or mood | Form | Natural meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Present | curritur | people run / there is running |
| Imperfect | currēbātur | people were running |
| Future | currētur | people will run |
| Perfect | cursum est | people ran / there was running |
| Pluperfect | cursum erat | people had run |
| Future perfect | cursum erit | people will have run |
| Present subjunctive | currātur | let there be running |
| Imperfect subjunctive | currerētur | people might be running |
| Perfect subjunctive | cursum sit | people may have run |
| Pluperfect subjunctive | cursum esset | people might have run |
Undique ad portās curritur.
People are running to the gates from every direction.
Ad flūmen quam celerrimē cursum est.
People ran to the river as quickly as possible.
Perfect cursum est uses fixed neuter singular cursum. It is not masculine cursus est agreeing with an understood group of runners. For the wider construction, see impersonal passive constructions.
Commands and Non-Finite Forms
Present imperatives are curre, currite. Future curritō, curritōte, curruntō is (formal/archaic).
| Category | Form/status |
|---|---|
| Present infinitive | currere |
| Perfect infinitive | cucurrisse |
| Future infinitive | cursūrum esse |
| Present participle | currēns, currentis |
| Future participle | cursūrus, -a, -um |
| Gerund | currendī, currendō, currendum, currendō |
| Gerundive | currendum, normally impersonal |
| Supines | cursum, cursū |
| Impersonal passive infinitives | currī; cursum esse |
Curre ad medicum et auxilium pete.
Run to the doctor and seek help.
Nūntium currentem procul vīdimus.
We saw the messenger running in the distance.
Nōbīs ad portam currendum est.
We must run to the gate.
The gerundive of obligation is impersonal because running has no patient: nōbīs names the people responsible in the dative, while currendum est remains neuter singular. Future cursūrus is active: cursūrus erat means “he was about to run.”
Direction, Route, Extent, and Purpose
Destinations use ad/in plus accusative, while towns and domum take a bare directional accusative: ad portam currit, Rōmam currit, domum currit. Source uses ā/ab, ē/ex, or dē plus ablative; route commonly uses per plus accusative.
Servus ex forō per angiportum domum cucurrit.
The servant ran home from the forum through an alley.
A measured course or extent can be accusative, as can duration. These accusatives do not make currō an ordinary transitive verb: they answer “how far?” or “how long?” rather than “what was acted upon?” See the accusative of direction.
Literal and Figurative Motion
People and animals run, but rivers flow, wheels move, reports spread, and time passes. The subject and context choose the English verb. Figurative uses preserve the idea of rapid or continuous movement.
Flūmen inter altōs montēs currit.
The river flows between high mountains.
Fāma per tōtam urbem cucurrit.
The rumor spread through the whole city.
English “run” has many unrelated senses—run a business, run a machine, run out of food—that do not automatically belong to currō. Latin may use gerō, administrō, agō, or another lexical verb. Begin from the Latin subject and construction, not from an English dictionary list.
Compounds and Their Government
Common compounds include accurrō “run toward,” concurrō “run together, clash,” dēcurrō “run down, complete a course,” discurrō “run about,” incurrō “run into/attack,” occurrō “run to meet, encounter,” praecurrō “run ahead,” and recurrō “run back.” Unlike simple cucurrī, compounds commonly have unreduplicated perfects such as accurrī, concurrī, and occurrī, with supines in -cursum.
Amīcō in viā occurrī.
I met my friend on the road.
Occurrō normally governs the dative (amīcō), while incurrō often takes in plus accusative for the target. Prefix meaning does not by itself predict case government, so learn the complement with the compound.
Parsing Diagnostic
Identify curr-, cucurr-, or curs-. Next decide whether the clause is active and personal or passive and impersonal. Then classify accusatives as destination, route with per, extent, or duration rather than assuming a direct object. With a compound, check both its specialized meaning and its governed case before translating.
Common Mistakes
Inventing a regular perfect
❌ Nūntius ad urbem currīvit.
Incorrect — the perfect is reduplicated cucurrit.
✅ Nūntius ad urbem cucurrit.
The messenger ran to the city.
Creating a personal passive
❌ Athlētae curruntur.
Incorrect — simple currō has no ordinary personal passive.
✅ Ab athlētīs curritur.
The athletes are running. (Literally: there is running by the athletes.)
Adding a preposition before a town destination
❌ Nūntius ad Rōmam cucurrit.
Incorrect for ordinary motion into Rome; town names use the bare accusative.
✅ Nūntius Rōmam cucurrit.
The messenger ran to Rome.
Giving occurrō an accusative person
❌ Amīcum in viā occurrī.
Incorrect — occurrō normally governs the dative.
✅ Amīcō in viā occurrī.
I met my friend on the road.
Key Takeaways
- Memorize currō, currere, cucurrī, cursum and the unreduplicated perfects of common compounds.
- Simple currō is intransitive; its passive is impersonal and singular.
- Direction, route, duration, and extent have different case functions.
- Context distinguishes literal running from flowing, spreading, and other figurative motion.
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