Latin 2 Quiz: Correcting Voice Errors

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Correcting Voice Errors, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Latin 2.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

Question 1

1. The principal parts of 'ago' (ago, agere, egi, actum) confirm a third-conjugation verb; 'agitur' ends in '-itur,' marking it as third person singular present passive, and 'a nautis' is the ablative of agent, so the correct translation is 'The ship is driven by the sailors.' (correct answer)
2. The principal parts of 'ago' confirm a third-conjugation verb; 'agitur' ends in '-itur,' which is the third person singular future active indicative of third-conjugation verbs, so the correct translation is 'The ship will drive the sailors,' correcting both voice and the direction of action.
3. Checking the principal parts of 'ago' reveals it is deponent because its third principal part 'egi' is passive in form; therefore 'agitur' carries active meaning throughout its paradigm, and 'The sailors drive the ship' is correct with no voice error present.
4. The principal parts of 'ago' confirm a third-conjugation verb; 'agitur' is third person singular present passive, but 'navis' must be the direct object here because ships are inanimate, making 'a nautis' the true nominative subject and rendering 'The sailors drive the ship' the correct translation.

Question 2

1. The verb ending '-atur' is first person singular present passive, indicating the speaker is loved by both nouns; the correct translation is therefore 'I am loved by the boy and the slave,' reading 'puer' and 'servo' together as dual agents of the action.
2. The verb ending '-atur' is third person singular present passive indicative, replacing the active '-at'; combined with 'a servo' as ablative of agent, this means 'puer' is the nominative subject receiving the action, so the correct translation is 'The boy is loved by the slave.' (correct answer)
3. The verb 'amatur' is the imperfect passive of 'amo,' so both the voice and the tense are wrong in the student's translation; the correct version must therefore read 'The boy was being loved by the slave,' adjusting simultaneously for passive voice and imperfect aspect.
4. Because 'amo' is a first-conjugation verb, '-atur' functions as a deponent ending unique to this conjugation group, preserving active meaning; thus 'The boy loves the slave' is a correct translation and no voice correction is required for first-conjugation verbs.

Question 3

1. The form 'scribitur' is a present passive infinitive embedded in an indirect statement; the student's error is therefore syntactic rather than a voice error, and the correct translation is 'It is said that the friend writes the letter,' reading the passive infinitive as part of an indirect construction.
2. The form 'scribitur' is third person singular imperfect passive indicative of 'scribo'; the student's error involves both voice and tense simultaneously, so the fully corrected translation must read 'The letter was being written by the friend,' addressing the imperfect passive ending '-itur.'
3. The form 'scribitur' is third person singular present active indicative, and 'ab amico' is an ablative of separation rather than an agent phrase; the correct translation therefore preserves active voice as 'The friend writes away from the letter,' consistent with the student's original reading.
4. The form 'scribitur' is third person singular present passive indicative of 'scribo'; the student treated the passive verb as active, reversing subject and agent. The corrected translation is 'The letter is written by the friend,' making 'epistula' the nominative subject receiving the action. (correct answer)

Question 4

1. The verb 'paratur' is a deponent form of 'paro,' a first-conjugation deponent that appears regularly in Latin prose; because '-atur' carries active meaning for deponents of this conjugation group, 'The mother prepares the dinner' is correct and requires no voice correction.
2. The verb 'paratur' ends in '-atur,' the third person singular present active ending for first-conjugation verbs taking an indirect object; since 'a matre' supplies that indirect object, the correct translation is 'The mother prepares the dinner for herself,' introducing a reflexive nuance absent from the student's version.
3. The verb 'paratur' ends in '-atur,' the third person singular present passive ending of a first-conjugation verb; 'a matre' is the ablative of agent and 'cena' is the nominative subject receiving the action, so the correct translation is 'The dinner is prepared by the mother.' (correct answer)
4. The verb 'paratur' ends in '-atur,' the third person singular perfect passive indicative of 'paro'; the student's error is therefore one of tense rather than voice, and the correct translation is 'The dinner was prepared by the mother,' adjusting the tense from present to perfect passive.

Question 5

1. Checking the principal parts of 'frango' reveals that its fourth principal part 'fractum' is passive in form, qualifying 'frango' as semi-deponent; semi-deponents use passive endings with active meaning throughout the present system, so 'frangitur' carries active meaning and 'The enemies break the gate' requires no correction.
2. The principal parts of 'frango' confirm a third-conjugation -io verb; for this subclass, '-itur' is the active third singular present ending rather than a passive marker, so 'frangitur' is active and 'The enemies break the gate' is correct with no voice correction required.
3. The principal parts of 'frango' (frango, frangere, fregi, fractum) confirm a regular third-conjugation verb; 'frangitur' uses the passive ending '-itur' while the active third singular would be 'frangit,' and 'ab hostibus' is the ablative of agent, so the correct translation is 'The gate is broken by the enemies.' (correct answer)
4. The principal parts of 'frango' confirm a third-conjugation verb and 'frangitur' is indeed passive, but 'ab hostibus' expresses ablative of means rather than agent because 'hostes' denotes a collective force rather than individual persons; the correct translation is therefore 'The gate is broken by means of the enemies.'

Question 6

1. The principal parts of 'capio' show it is a third-conjugation -io verb; 'capitur' is its third person singular present active indicative, meaning the student's translation 'The king captures the enemies' is correct and no repair is needed.
2. The principal parts of 'capio' (capio, capere, cepi, captum) confirm a third-conjugation -io verb, not a deponent; the ending '-itur' marks 'capitur' as third person singular present passive, and 'ab hostibus' is the ablative of agent, so the corrected translation is 'The king is captured by the enemies.' (correct answer)
3. The verb 'capitur' comes from 'capio,' which is a deponent verb in Latin; therefore '-itur' carries active meaning throughout its paradigm, and 'The king captures the enemies' is a valid translation that correctly applies the deponent rule requiring no voice correction.
4. Because 'capio' is irregular, 'capitur' can function as either active or passive depending on context; the presence of 'ab hostibus' alone is insufficient to determine voice, so 'The king captures the enemies' and 'The king is captured' are equally valid translations of this sentence.

Question 7

1. The principal parts of 'dico' (dico, dicere, dixi, dictum) confirm it is a regular third-conjugation verb; 'dicuntur' ends in '-untur,' which is the third person plural present passive ending, so the correct translation is 'The words are said by the poet,' not 'The poet says the words.' (correct answer)
2. Checking the principal parts of 'dico' shows it is deponent in the plural; '-untur' signals active meaning for plural deponents, so 'The poet says the words' is correct once the deponent rule is applied to the plural form.
3. The ending '-untur' in 'dicuntur' is the third person plural future active indicative of a third-conjugation verb, so the correct translation should be 'The poet will say the words,' correcting for tense rather than voice.
4. The principal parts of 'dico' indicate it is irregular; 'dicuntur' is an irregular active form equivalent to 'dicunt,' so the student's translation 'The poet says the words' is accurate and reflects the irregular active paradigm.

Question 8

1. The ending '-itur' on 'defenditur' signals a deponent usage that applies to 'defendo' in the present tense; for third-conjugation verbs, the present passive endings regularly carry active meaning, so 'The citizens defend the city' is the accurate translation.
2. The active third person singular present of 'defendo' is 'defendit'; 'defenditur' differs only by the suffix '-ur,' which marks the subjunctive mood rather than passive voice. The corrected translation should therefore reflect a subjunctive reading such as 'May the city defend the citizens,' correcting for mood rather than voice.
3. Comparing 'defenditur' to the active paradigm shows '-itur' is the third person singular present active ending for third-conjugation -io verbs; since 'defendo' belongs to this subclass, no voice error exists and 'The citizens defend the city' requires no correction.
4. The active third person singular present of 'defendo' is 'defendit'; the added '-ur' converts this to the passive form 'defenditur,' marking passive voice. With 'a civibus' as the ablative of agent, the corrected translation is 'The city is defended by the citizens,' not the active reading the student produced. (correct answer)

Question 9

1. The student confused the roles of 'puella' and 'magistra' because both are first-declension nouns, but 'docetur' is third person singular present passive indicative, so the correct translation is 'The girl is taught by the teacher,' with 'a magistra' functioning as the ablative of agent. (correct answer)
2. The student correctly identified 'puella' as the subject but mistook the deponent verb 'docetur' for a true passive; since deponents use passive endings with active meaning, 'The girl teaches the teacher' is actually an acceptable translation requiring no correction for voice.
3. The student misread 'magistra' as the nominative subject rather than an ablative noun, but 'docetur' is active voice third person singular, so the correct translation is 'The teacher teaches the girl,' placing the nominative agent in subject position and restoring the active reading.
4. The student confused voice because 'a magistra' could be ablative of means rather than agent; correcting for this, the passive verb 'docetur' yields 'The girl is taught by means of the teacher,' which reassigns the role of 'magistra' from agent to instrument.

Question 10

1. The verb 'laudantur' is active voice, third person plural, and 'a duce' marks the direct object; the correct translation is therefore 'The soldiers are being praised by the leader,' but the voice identification remains active with an unusual object marker.
2. The verb 'laudantur' is passive voice, third person plural, and the phrase 'a duce' signals the ablative of agent; the student incorrectly treated the passive verb as active, so the correct translation is 'The soldiers are praised by the leader,' reversing the subject-object relationship. (correct answer)
3. The verb 'laudantur' is a deponent form that functions as active despite passive endings, so the correct translation remains 'The soldiers praise the leader,' and the phrase 'a duce' functions as a standard direct object requiring no change to the original.
4. The verb 'laudantur' is passive voice, but 'milites' functions as the direct object in this construction, so the correct translation is 'The leader praises the soldiers,' keeping the agent as grammatical subject and the soldiers as the object of the action.