Patior: To Suffer or Allow | Latin Grammar

Patior means “suffer,” “endure,” “undergo,” “tolerate,” or “allow.” Its principal parts are patior, patī, passus sum. It is a third-conjugation -iō deponent: present-system forms combine passive-looking endings with active meaning, while perfect passus sum means “I suffered/endured.”

The semantic bridge is tolerance: one can endure pain or tolerate another person’s action. English often translates that second use as “allow.”

Archaic legal style can preserve active-looking collateral forms such as patiuntō. They are historical survivals, not evidence for a productive active paradigm beside Classical patior.

Indicative: The Mixed Present System

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	patior	pateris	patitur	patimur	patiminī	patiuntur
Imperfect	patiēbar	patiēbāris	patiēbātur	patiēbāmur	patiēbāminī	patiēbantur
Future	patiar	patiēris	patiētur	patiēmur	patiēminī	patientur
Perfect	passus sum	passus es	passus est	passī sumus	passī estis	passī sunt
Pluperfect	passus eram	passus erās	passus erat	passī erāmus	passī erātis	passī erant
Future perfect	passus erō	passus eris	passus erit	passī erimus	passī eritis	passī erunt

The third plural patiuntur and imperfect/future patiē- show the -iō subtype. The perfect changes stem entirely. With a feminine subject use passa est; with feminine plural, passae sunt.

Aeger magnum dolōrem patitur.

The sick man is enduring great pain.

Multās iniūriās tacitī patiēbāmur.

We were silently enduring many wrongs.

Hoc diūtius nōn patiar.

I shall not tolerate this any longer.

Lūcia multa passa est, sed spem servāvit.

Lucia suffered many things but kept hope.

Complete Subjunctive

Tense	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Present	patiar	patiāris	patiātur	patiāmur	patiāminī	patiantur
Imperfect	paterer	paterēris	paterētur	paterēmur	paterēminī	paterentur
Perfect	passus sim	passus sīs	passus sit	passī sīmus	passī sītis	passī sint
Pluperfect	passus essem	passus essēs	passus esset	passī essēmus	passī essētis	passī essent

First-person patiar can be future indicative or present subjunctive. Context supplies the mood.

Timeō nē innocēns poenam patiātur.

I fear that an innocent person may suffer punishment.

Sī haec passī essētis, aliter sentīrētis.

If you had suffered these things, you would think differently.

Imperatives and Non-Finite Forms

Present imperatives are patere and patiminī. The future imperative has patitor for the second or third person singular and patiuntor for the third person plural; these are formal or archaizing. Since ordering suffering is pragmatically marked, the imperatives often mean “endure, tolerate.”

Patere hunc dolōrem paulō diūtius.

Endure this pain a little longer.

Category	Form and meaning
Present infinitive	patī — to suffer / allow
Perfect infinitive	passus, -a, -um esse — to have suffered
Future infinitive	passūrus, -a, -um esse — to be about to suffer
Present participle	patiēns — suffering, enduring
Perfect participle	passus — having suffered
Future participle	passūrus — about to suffer
Gerund	patiendī, patiendō, patiendum, patiendō
Gerundive	patiendus, -a, -um — to be endured
Supines	passum, passū — morphologically regular, but rare

Perfect passus is active in meaning, “having endured.” Gerundive patiendus has passive necessity: a burden is the thing that must be endured.

Haec passus, tamen amīcō ignōvit.

Having endured these things, he nevertheless forgave his friend.

Labor omnibus patiendus est.

The hardship must be endured by everyone.

Suffering and Enduring

The thing suffered is normally accusative: dolōrem, iniūriam, damnum, poenam patī. The subject experiences rather than receives a grammatical passive; therefore an English “by”-phrase should not be invented from the ending.

Cīvitās grave damnum passa est.

The state suffered a serious loss.

The participle patiēns developed the adjectival sense “enduring, patient.” Context distinguishes someone currently suffering from a person characterized by endurance.

Allowing an Action

With the meaning “allow, tolerate,” patior commonly governs an accusative subject plus infinitive. The person allowed to act is accusative because that person is the infinitive’s subject.

Nōn patiar tē sōlum proficīscī.

I shall not allow you to set out alone.

Pater fīlium suā sponte respondēre passus est.

The father allowed his son to answer on his own initiative.

See accusative-and-infinitive for the structure. This construction may express reluctant tolerance more strongly than neutral sinō “let, permit.” Patior suggests that the subject puts up with the action or refrains from preventing it.

The infinitive is the regular Classical choice when the permitted person and action are expressed together. That person must therefore be accusative: tē abīre, not tū abīre. A finite subordinate clause elsewhere in a sentence is not automatically wrong, so diagnose the complement before replacing it mechanically.

Patior and Sinō

Sinō is a broadly neutral “allow, let” and has active forms (sinō, sinere, sīvī, situm). Patior is deponent and often colors permission as tolerance: “suffer someone to do it.” The difference is a tendency, not a categorical division, but it helps explain authorial choice.

Magister discipulōs paulō diūtius manēre passus est.

The teacher allowed the students to remain a little longer.

Aspect and Limits of Tolerance

Imperfect patiēbātur presents suffering or tolerance as continuing, habitual, or unfinished. Perfect passus est views the endurance as a bounded whole; it does not imply that the experience was easy or voluntary.

Iniūriās diū patiēbātur; tandem respondēre cōnstituit.

He endured the insults for a long time; at last he decided to answer.

Omnēs difficultātēs passī sunt neque iter relīquērunt.

They endured every difficulty and did not abandon the journey.

Negated future nōn patiar is especially forceful: it can mean “I will not tolerate / I refuse to allow.” The force comes from context and future resolve, not from a separate grammatical construction.

Compounds

The important compound perpetior, perpetī, perpessus sum means “endure through, undergo fully.” It keeps deponent morphology and an accusative object. Its perfect stem is not predictable from English.

Nautae multās tempestātēs perpessī sunt.

The sailors endured many storms.

Other prefixed forms are far less central or belong chiefly to later Latin; do not treat the pattern as freely productive in Classical prose.

Parsing Diagnostic

Identify present pati-, perfect pass-, or compound perpess-. Decide whether an accusative is the thing endured or the subject of a following infinitive. Read finite passive-looking morphology as active because the lemma is deponent, but restore genuine passive force for the gerundive.

Common Mistakes

Inventing active present forms

❌ Aeger dolōrem patit.

Incorrect — patior is deponent.

✅ Aeger dolōrem patitur.

The sick man endures pain.

Regularizing the perfect

❌ Lūcia multa patīvit.

Incorrect — the perfect is passa est.

✅ Lūcia multa passa est.

Lucia suffered many things.

Leaving the infinitive's subject nominative

❌ Nōn patiar tū abīre.

Incorrect — the expressed subject of abīre must be accusative.

✅ Nōn patiar tē abīre.

I shall not allow you to leave.

Forgetting agreement

❌ Fēminae multa passus sunt.

Incorrect — feminine plural subjects require passae.

✅ Fēminae multa passae sunt.

The women suffered many things.

Key Takeaways

Memorize patior, patī, passus sum and its third-conjugation -iō present system.
An accusative can be the thing endured or the subject of an infinitive after “allow.”
Perfect passus has active meaning; gerundive patiendus has passive necessity.
Perpetior intensifies endurance and has perfect perpessus sum.

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