We've already looked at some of the ways that verbs that can function as adjectives in Latin and English in the chapter on participles. Gerunds and gerundives are one more way to allow writers to express actions.
Gerunds allow you to use verbs as nouns. In English, we do this when we say things like: “The skill of writing poems is difficult” or “By eating at home we can save money.” This differs from a participle because participles are adjectives and typically modify a noun (or an adjective acting as a noun). By contrast, gerunds stand in the place of a noun and are active in meaning.
The difference between gerunds and present active participles can be confusing because in English the two look the same, that is, they end in -ing. For example, consider the use of the word “sleeping” in these two sentences:
The puppy sleeping on the couch is fluffy.
The puppy has a habit of sleeping on the couch.
In the first sentence, “sleeping” is an adjective that modifies “puppy,” so it’s a present active participle.[1] But in the second sentence, “sleeping” isn’t modifying anything—it’s a gerund.
Gerundives are passive verbal adjectives. Some authors of grammar books call them a future passive participle, but they don’t necessarily convey a future meaning. They might seem to have a bit of an overlap with a perfect passive participle, since they can have some similarity. But they also often include a sense of obligation: “This is a thing that must be feared.”
To complicate matters, in Latin, gerunds and gerundives look very similar. And you can frequently adapt a sentence with a gerund to one with a gerundive; so, they are sort of interchangeable, but you need to be careful and think about the differences. In this text, however, we’ll focus more on translating them out of Latin than into Latin.
[1] A quick reminder of what we mean when we say that something is “modifying” something else. Adjectives modify nouns—that is they give extra layers of meaning to a noun—“the grey sheep,” “in the scary, moldy basement,” “turn down that loud music, it’s damaging my sensitive ears!” etc.
Gerunds are neuter nouns that only appear in the singular. They do not have nominative forms. In fact, the Romans used infinitives in the place of nominative gerunds: “seeing is believing” = “to see is to believe” = “videre est credere.”
To form a gerund, take the present stem of any verb, add -nd-, plus 2nd declension, neuter, singular endings:
Genitive
morem mittendi litteras habeo. I have a habit of sending letters.
Dative
operam mittendo litteras dabam. I used to pay attention to sending letters.
Accusative
ad forum ad mittendum litteras venimus. We came to the forum to send letters.
ad + acc. gerund is another way to express purpose in Latin!
Ablative
mittendo litteras populum iuvabam. I helped the people by sending letters.
In addition to expressing purpose with ad + an accusative gerund (or ut/ne + a subjunctive verb, of course), Latin can also use causā or gratiā + genitive gerund:
ad forum causā mittendi litteras venimus. We came to the forum for the sake of sending letters.
In each of the examples above, you can see how the gerund works as both a noun and a verb. As a noun, "sending" appears in sentences in an appropriate case (which we translate into English by using prepositions). But because it also has a verbal function, it has a direct object (letters).
Roman authors tended to use gerundives more often than gerunds, especially when a gerund uses a direct object in the accusative case. In fact, this means that all of the sentences above can also be expressed with gerundives! To switch a gerund-based sentence to a sentence with a gerundive, the noun that’s the direct object (in these examples, litteras) gets switched into the same case as the gerund, but then the gerund becomes an adjective and agrees with litteras in gender and number. Here are some examples of how a gerund can be alternately formed as a gerundive:
Gerund or Gerundive
morem mittendi litteras habeo. morem mittendarum litterarum habeo.
I have a habit of sending letters.
operam mittendo litteras dabam. operam mittendis litteris dabam.
I used to pay attention to sending letters.
ad forum ad mittendum litteras venimus. ad forum ad mittendas litteras venimus.
We came to the forum to send letters.
mittendo litteras populum iuvabam. mittendis litteris populum iuvabam.
I helped the people by sendingletters.
ad forum causā mittendi litteras venimus. ad forum causā mittendarum litterarum venimus.
We came to the forum to send letters.
The gerundive of obligation is the most common use of gerundives in Latin. It’s used as a way to express necessity or obligation (e.g. instead of using debeo with an infinitive). It is constructed as a passive expression that usually combines a gerundive plus a form of esse and puts the agent of the action in the dative (if it explicitly states an agent).
res non timenda est. The thing must not be feared.
omnes res experiendae sunt. All things must be tried.
canis mihi pascendus est. The dog must be fed by me. (or, active: I have to feed the dog.)
nunc nobis est bibendum. Now it must be drunk by us. (or, active: Now we’ve got to drink.)
Often when you’re translating a gerundive of obligation, it might sound better to switch it into the active voice, as demonstrated in the last two examples above. In this case, you'll make the agent (in the dative) your English subject and make the verb active.
Also note that in the last example, bibendum is neuter, nominative, singular—it is an adjective being used substantively, with no expressed subject in Latin (so translated with “it is…”)
It's easy to start feeling overwhelmed by the grammar and the grammar terminology here. Don't despair! The key to gerunds and gerundives is to look for an -nd- in the middle of a word that looks verby. The next step is to figure out whether you're looking at a gerund or gerundive--in this case, remember that the gerund only appears as a neuter singular--so, if that word has a plural ending or is feminine it's definitely a gerundive.