Loquor: To Speak | Latin Grammar

Loquor means “speak,” “talk,” or “say in conversation.” Its principal parts are loquor, loquī, locūtus sum. It is a third-conjugation deponent: present-system forms look passive but carry active meaning, and the perfect uses a participle plus sum but means “spoke” or “have spoken.”

There is no parallel ordinary active paradigm such as loquō. Deponency is lexical, not a choice of voice made for a particular sentence.

For the wider morphology and history of this class, see what deponent verbs are.

Indicative: Active Meaning, Passive Form

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	loquor	loqueris	loquitur	loquimur	loquiminī	loquuntur
Imperfect	loquēbar	loquēbāris	loquēbātur	loquēbāmur	loquēbāminī	loquēbantur
Future	loquar	loquēris	loquētur	loquēmur	loquēminī	loquentur
Perfect	locūtus sum	locūtus es	locūtus est	locūtī sumus	locūtī estis	locūtī sunt
Pluperfect	locūtus eram	locūtus erās	locūtus erat	locūtī erāmus	locūtī erātis	locūtī erant
Future perfect	locūtus erō	locūtus eris	locūtus erit	locūtī erimus	locūtī eritis	locūtī erunt

The table uses a masculine subject. A woman says locūta sum; a group of women, locūtae sumus. The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Cum sorōre meā loquor.

I am talking with my sister.

Ōrātor diū dē pāce loquēbātur.

The speaker was talking about peace for a long time.

Crās ad populum loquar.

Tomorrow I shall speak to the people.

Lūcia cum iūdice locūta est.

Lucia spoke with the judge.

Complete Subjunctive

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	loquar	loquāris	loquātur	loquāmur	loquāminī	loquantur
Imperfect	loquerer	loquerēris	loquerētur	loquerēmur	loquerēminī	loquerentur
Perfect	locūtus sim	locūtus sīs	locūtus sit	locūtī sīmus	locūtī sītis	locūtī sint
Pluperfect	locūtus essem	locūtus essēs	locūtus esset	locūtī essēmus	locūtī essētis	locūtī essent

First-person loquar is future indicative or present subjunctive. Crās loquar is future; ut loquar is subjunctive.

Rogat ut clārius loquāmur.

He asks us to speak more clearly.

Sī vērum locūtus esset, eī crēdidissem.

If he had spoken the truth, I would have believed him.

Imperatives and Non-Finite Forms

Present imperatives are loquere (singular) and loquiminī (plural). They look passive but command active speaking. The future deponent imperative has loquitor for the second- or third-person singular and loquuntor for the third-person plural. These future forms belong especially to laws and precepts and are not ordinary conversational commands.

Loquere paulō lēnius; puer dormit.

Speak a little more softly; the boy is sleeping.

Category	Form and meaning
Present infinitive	loquī — to speak
Perfect infinitive	locūtus, -a, -um esse — to have spoken
Future infinitive	locūtūrus, -a, -um esse — to be about to speak
Present participle	loquēns — speaking
Perfect participle	locūtus — having spoken
Future participle	locūtūrus — about to speak
Gerund	loquendī, loquendō, loquendum, loquendō
Gerundive	loquendus, -a, -um; impersonal loquendum est
Supines	locūtum, locūtū

The present, perfect, and future participles all have active meaning: loquēns “speaking,” locūtus “having spoken,” and locūtūrus “about to speak.” The gerundive is the exception to that active pattern. It keeps passive or obligation force: personal haec loquenda sunt means “these things must be said,” while impersonal loquendum est means “one must speak.”

Haec locūtus, ē forō discessit.

Having said this, he left the forum.

Nunc apertē loquendum est.

Now one must speak openly.

Conversation Partner, Audience, and Topic

Use cum plus ablative for the person one talks with, ad plus accusative for an audience addressed, and dē plus ablative for the topic. Apud plus accusative presents the people before or in whose presence one speaks; prō plus ablative identifies the person or cause on whose behalf one speaks. These phrases answer different questions and can occur together.

Cum medicō dē vulnere locūta sum.

I spoke with the doctor about the wound.

Dux ad mīlitēs dē proeliō locūtus est.

The commander spoke to the soldiers about the battle.

English uses direct objects in “speak a language,” but Latin commonly uses an adverb: Latīnē loquī, Graecē loquī. Neuter pronouns or adjectives may express content: haec loquitur “he says these things,” multa locūtus est “he said many things.” A personal accusative can exceptionally name someone spoken about, especially in poetry, but an ordinary conversation partner is not made the direct object of simple loquor in prose.

Puella Latīnē bene loquitur.

The girl speaks Latin well.

Manner adverbs are especially natural with loquor: clārē “clearly,” breviter “briefly,” līberē “freely,” submissē “in a low voice.” They describe how the act of speaking unfolds rather than what proposition is asserted.

Testis prīmō timidē, deinde līberius locūtus est.

At first the witness spoke timidly, then more freely.

Loquor and Dīcō

Loquor profiles the act, manner, or exchange of speaking. Dīcō more readily presents a definite message and introduces reported assertions. Thus cum amīcō loquī means converse with a friend, while amīcō rem dīcere means tell the friend something.

Cum eō diū locūtus sum, sed nihil certī dīxit.

I talked with him for a long time, but he said nothing definite.

Using loquor for every English “say” obscures this useful distinction. Direct quotation is possible after either verb, but accusative-and-infinitive reporting is especially characteristic of dīcō.

Compounds

Compounds remain deponent and normally preserve perfect -locūtus sum. Colloquor means “converse” and is normal prose, usually with cum or inter sē. Alloquor takes an accusative person and means “address”; it is rare in Cicero and becomes commoner from Augustan poetry onward. Ēloquor means “utter, express,” prōloquor “declare” (chiefly early or poetic), and obloquor “speak against, interrupt.” Prefixes can change government as well as meaning.

Cōnsul mīlitēs paucīs verbīs allocūtus est.

The consul addressed the soldiers in a few words.

Duo lēgātī inter sē prīvātim collocūtī sunt.

The two envoys conferred privately with each other.

Do not give alloquor the cum phrase required by simple reciprocal conversation: it directly governs the person addressed.

Parsing Diagnostic

On seeing -tur, -mur, or -ntur, first identify the lemma before labeling the voice. Forms of loquor are active in meaning. For perfect forms, parse locūtus with sum as one deponent verb and check agreement. Then locate cum, ad, and dē phrases before choosing “talk with,” “address,” or “speak about.”

Common Mistakes

Inventing active endings

❌ Cum amīcō loquō.

Incorrect — loquor is deponent.

✅ Cum amīcō loquor.

I am talking with a friend.

Translating a deponent form passively

⚠️ Lūcia loquitur.

Correct Latin, but not ‘Lucia is spoken’: loquitur means ‘is speaking.’

✅ Lūcia loquitur.

Lucia is speaking.

Failing to agree the perfect participle

❌ Lūcia locūtus est.

Incorrect — the participle must be feminine.

✅ Lūcia locūta est.

Lucia spoke.

Making a conversation partner a direct object

⚠️ Amīcum loquor.

Not the ordinary way to say ‘I talk with my friend’; a direct object with loquor presents what or whom one speaks about, not a conversation partner.