First-Conjugation Deponents

First-conjugation deponents are identified by -ārī in the present infinitive: hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum “urge, encourage”; cōnor, cōnārī, cōnātus sum “try”; moror, morārī, morātus sum “delay, remain.” They preserve the first conjugation's long ā where the corresponding passive forms preserve it, but their passive-looking forms carry non-passive meaning.

The pattern is highly predictable once the three principal parts are known. The present stem supplies present, imperfect, future, and their subjunctives; the perfect participle plus sum supplies the perfect system. Review What Deponent Verbs Are if passive morphology with active meaning is not yet familiar. All forms on this page are (neutral Classical) unless a lexical note says otherwise.

The present indicative of hortor

The stem vowel contracts in first singular hortor and before -ntur is short in hortantur. Alternative second singular hortāre is finite here; context distinguishes it from the identical singular imperative.

The verbs keep their own complements. Hortor commonly takes an accusative person and ut/nē with the subjunctive for the encouraged action; cōnor commonly takes a complementary infinitive. Deponent morphology does not change those active syntactic relations.

Imperfect and future indicative

The imperfect inserts -bā- and the future inserts -bi-/-bu- exactly as in the first-conjugation passive.

The imperfect presents continuing or repeated encouragement; the future predicts it. Do not let English “was urging” prompt an active-looking hortābat: the Latin lexeme remains deponent in every present-system tense.

Present and imperfect subjunctive

The first-conjugation present subjunctive replaces ā with ē: horter. The imperfect adds deponent endings to the full present infinitive hortārī: hortārer.

Mood comes from the clause: ut ... hortentur is a substantive purpose/content clause, while cōnārēris belongs to a present contrary-to-fact condition. The ending is not “more passive” because it is subjunctive.

The perfect-system indicative

The perfect participle hortātus, -a, -um agrees with the subject. Forms of sum then locate the completed action in time.

The masculine forms in the table are citation defaults. A woman says hortāta sum; women say hortātae sumus.

Perfect and pluperfect subjunctive

The perfect subjunctive uses hortātus sim, sīs, sit, sīmus, sītis, sint; the pluperfect uses hortātus essem, essēs, esset, essēmus, essētis, essent. Agreement varies as above.

English “tried” does not identify mood. The embedded question licenses cōnātus sit; the unreal past condition licenses hortāta essēs.

Commands and non-finite forms

The singular present imperative is hortāre; the plural is hortāminī. Future imperatives hortātor, hortāminor, hortantor occur chiefly in (formal/archaic) prescriptions. The ordinary infinitive and participial inventory is:

The gerundive retains passive necessity despite the deponent lexeme: iuvenēs hortandī sunt means “the young men must be encouraged.”

Common first-conjugation deponents

Besides hortor, cōnor, and moror, frequent verbs include arbitror “judge, think,” mīror “wonder at, admire,” precor “pray, beg,” contemplor “observe,” and populor “ravage.” Learn each verb's complements rather than assuming an English pattern.

Common Mistakes

1. Using an active ending

2. Translating hortātur as passive

3. Ignoring perfect-participle agreement

4. Guessing a perfect from the English tense

5. Giving the gerundive active meaning

Key Takeaways

First-conjugation deponents combine the stem in -ā- with passive/deponent endings: hortor, hortābar, hortābor, horter, hortārer. Their perfect system uses agreeing hortātus plus sum. Commands are hortāre/hortāminī, the perfect participle is active in meaning, and the gerundive remains passive. Principal parts and syntax—not an English tense label—choose every form.