Hortor: To Urge | Latin Grammar

Hortor means “urge,” “encourage,” “exhort,” or “incite.” Its principal parts are hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum. It is a first-conjugation deponent: the present system looks passive but means active urging, and hortātus sum means “I urged.”

The person urged is accusative. The desired action is commonly expressed by ut plus subjunctive; nē introduces what the speaker urges someone not to do.

Early drama has the expanded infinitive hortārier. Isolated active-looking forms such as hortō or hortāvī, and a few genuinely passive uses of deponent forms, also survive in marginal passages. They are recognition forms, not a second productive paradigm for ordinary Classical prose.

Complete Indicative

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	hortor	hortāris	hortātur	hortāmur	hortāminī	hortantur
Imperfect	hortābar	hortābāris	hortābātur	hortābāmur	hortābāminī	hortābantur
Future	hortābor	hortāberis	hortābitur	hortābimur	hortābiminī	hortābuntur
Perfect	hortātus sum	hortātus es	hortātus est	hortātī sumus	hortātī estis	hortātī sunt
Pluperfect	hortātus eram	hortātus erās	hortātus erat	hortātī erāmus	hortātī erātis	hortātī erant
Future perfect	hortātus erō	hortātus eris	hortātus erit	hortātī erimus	hortātī eritis	hortātī erunt

Dux mīlitēs hortātur.

The commander encourages the soldiers.

Magister discipulōs saepe hortābātur.

The teacher often used to encourage the students.

Crās tē iterum hortābor.

Tomorrow I shall encourage you again.

Lūcia sorōrem hortāta est ut fortiter ageret.

Lucia encouraged her sister to act bravely.

Complete Subjunctive

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	horter	hortēris	hortētur	hortēmur	hortēminī	hortentur
Imperfect	hortārer	hortārēris	hortārētur	hortārēmur	hortārēminī	hortārentur
Perfect	hortātus sim	hortātus sīs	hortātus sit	hortātī sīmus	hortātī sītis	hortātī sint
Pluperfect	hortātus essem	hortātus essēs	hortātus esset	hortātī essēmus	hortātī essētis	hortātī essent

Rogat ut iuvenēs ad labōrem hortēmur.

He asks us to encourage the young men to work.

Sī nōs hortātus esset, fortius pugnāvissēmus.

If he had encouraged us, we would have fought more bravely.

Imperatives and Non-Finite Forms

Present imperatives are hortāre and hortāminī. The future imperative has hortātor for the second or third person singular and hortantor for the third person plural; these forms are formal or archaizing.

Hortāre eum ut vērum dīcat.

Urge him to tell the truth.

Category	Form and meaning
Present infinitive	hortārī — to urge
Perfect infinitive	hortātus, -a, -um esse — to have urged
Future infinitive	hortātūrus, -a, -um esse — to be about to urge
Present participle	hortāns — urging
Perfect participle	hortātus — having urged
Future participle	hortātūrus — about to urge
Gerund	hortandī, hortandō, hortandum, hortandō
Gerundive	hortandus, -a, -um — to be encouraged
Supines	hortātum, hortātū — morphologically regular, but rare

Perfect hortātus has active meaning; gerundive hortandus has passive obligation. This contrast is characteristic of deponents.

Mīlitēs hortātus, dux signum dedit.

Having encouraged the soldiers, the commander gave the signal.

Hic discipulus saepe hortandus est.

This student must often be encouraged.

Person Urged and Desired Action

The person urged is accusative: mīlitēs hortārī. A positive desired action normally uses ut plus subjunctive; a negative one uses nē plus subjunctive.

Dux mīlitēs hortātus est ut pontem dēfenderent.

The commander urged the soldiers to defend the bridge.

Māter fīlium hortāta est nē spem āmitteret.

The mother urged her son not to lose hope.

The past verb hortāta est leads here to imperfect subjunctives dēfenderent and āmitteret by secondary sequence. See indirect commands.

A bare subjunctive without ut is also attested, and a simple infinitive occurs rarely. For prose production, however, accusative addressee plus ut/nē and subjunctive is the clearest default; do not copy the English infinitive automatically.

Goal or Field of Effort

Ad plus accusative can name the goal, conduct, or sphere toward which someone is encouraged: ad virtūtem, ad pācem, ad labōrem hortārī. This need not replace the clause; both can occur when the prose needs greater specificity.

By contrast, dē plus ablative frames the matter about which advice or exhortation is given: aliquem dē pāce hortārī “urge someone concerning peace.” The two prepositions therefore encode goal and topic, not interchangeable English “about/to” phrases.

Ōrātor cīvēs ad concordiam hortātus est.

The speaker urged the citizens toward harmony.

The action urged does not necessarily occur. Like “advise” or “urge” in English, hortor reports an attempt to influence, not compliance.

Hortor, Iubeō, and Moneō

Hortor encourages or presses; iubeō orders and normally takes accusative plus infinitive; moneō warns, reminds, or advises. Authority, urgency, and tone determine the best verb. The same English “tell someone to” can conceal these distinctions.

Dux nōn iussit; mīlitēs tantum hortātus est.

The commander did not order them; he merely encouraged the soldiers.

Compound and Lexical Family

Cohortor, cohortārī, cohortātus sum intensifies the meaning: “exhort strongly, rally.” It is especially common in military narrative and public exhortation, but it also occurs in good prose outside battle scenes. It keeps the same object-plus-clause patterns.

Centuriō mīlitēs ut locum tenērent cohortātus est.

The centurion strongly urged the soldiers to hold their position.

Nouns hortātus and cohortātiō belong to the same family; they do not alter the verb’s case government.

Aspect and Compliance

Imperfect hortābātur can present repeated encouragement or an appeal still in progress. Perfect hortātus est presents an exhortation as a completed speech act. Neither form says whether the addressee complied.

Dux mīlitēs diū hortābātur, sed illī tacēbant.

The commander kept encouraging the soldiers, but they remained silent.

Eōs hortātus est ut manērent; tamen discessērunt.

He urged them to remain; nevertheless they left.

This distinction resembles cōnor: the verb reports an effort to influence, while the result requires its own statement. Because hortor is deponent, there is also no ordinary finite passive “be urged.” Latin may use gerundive hortandus, or choose an active construction with an expressed encourager.

Parsing Diagnostic

Identify hortā- or hortāt- and verify the deponent lemma. Locate an accusative person, then ask whether ut/nē plus subjunctive, an infinitive, or ad plus accusative expresses the desired behavior. In perfect forms, make the participle agree with the encourager, not the person encouraged.

Common Mistakes

Inventing active endings

❌ Dux fessōs mīlitēs hortat.

Incorrect — hortor is deponent.

✅ Dux fessōs mīlitēs hortātur.

The commander encourages the tired soldiers.

Making the person dative

❌ Dux mīlitibus hortātur.

Incorrect — the person urged is accusative.

✅ Dux mīlitēs hortātur.

The commander encourages the soldiers.

Using nōn instead of nē

❌ Eum hortor ut nōn abeat.

Incorrect as the regular negative indirect command.

✅ Eum hortor nē abeat.

I urge him not to leave.

Forgetting perfect agreement

❌ Lūcia sorōrem hortātus est.

Incorrect — the encourager is feminine.

✅ Lūcia sorōrem hortāta est.

Lucia encouraged her sister.

Key Takeaways

Memorize hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum.
The person urged is accusative; ut/nē plus subjunctive commonly gives the action.
Perfect hortātus is active and agrees with the encourager; gerundive hortandus is passive.
Cohortor is an intensified compound frequent in military and public exhortation.

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