''This list is not exhaustive.''
- Greek has middle-voice deponents (some of which are very common) and some passive-voice deponents. An example in Greek is ερχομαι (''erchomai'', I come or I go), middle/passive in form but active in translation.
- Latin has passive-voice deponents, such as ''loqui'' ('to speak'), ''pati'' ('to endure') and ''sequi'' ('to follow'). There is also a verb form called the semi-deponent, where the verb looks active in the present, imperfect, and future tenses but looks passive in the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect. Since it is deponent, though, the latter verbs take on an active meaning. The number of such semi-deponent verbs is limited to four (''audere'', to dare; ''gaudere'', to rejoice; ''solere'', to be accustomed; ''fidere'', to trust).
- Swedish has a few passive-voice deponents, although interestingly, its closely related neighbour languages Danish and Norwegian don't have them.
- In Japanese , at first sight it might seem as though the passive voice can be used to increase the degree of politeness in a sentence, i.e. establishing the existence of deponent verbs. However, it is merely by coincidence that the passive suffix corresponds exactly to a method of expressing politeness; in ''Nihongo Wocchingu'', by Inoue Fumio, it is noted that grammar texts dating from the Heian Era list the four uses of the auxiliary ''-ru/-reru'' (which has become ''-reru/-rareru'' in modern Japanese) as indicating intransitivity, the potential mood (as distinct from the tentative mood), the passive voice, and honorifics.
Some verbs are deponent universally, but other verbs are deponent only in certain tenses, or use deponent forms from different voices in different tenses. For example, the Greek verb αναβαινω (''anabaino'') uses active forms in the Imperfect and Aorist , but in the Future it is a middle-voice deponent, αναβησομαι (''anabesomai''). If it were not deponent, the future active form would be αναβαισω (''anabaiso''), but this form does not occur in Koine Greek , because the verb is deponent in the future tense. The future forms that do occur have the same meaning and translation value that the active forms would have if they occurred.
Koine Greek has a few verbs which have very different meanings in the active and middle/passive forms. For example, 'απτω ('hapto') means "I burn," whereas its middle form 'απτομαι ('haptomai') means "I touch." Because ;απτομαι is much more common in usage, beginners often learn this form first and are tempted to assume that it is a deponent.
- Swedish ''andas'' ("breathe", deponent), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ''ånde'' ("breathe", non-deponent).
- Swedish ''hoppas'' ("hope", deponent), Danish ''håbe'', Norwegian Bokmål ''håpe'' ("hope", non-deponent).
- Greek example αναβησομαι (''anabesomai'') taken from the Principal Parts table in the appendix to ''Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar'', William D. Mounce.
|
