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Supine

In grammar a '''supine''' is a form of verbal noun used in some languages.

In Latin

In Latin there are two supines, I and II. They are originally the Accusative case|accusative and Dative case|dative or Ablative case|ablative forms of verbal noun in the Latin Declensions|fourth declension, respectively. The first supine is often used as the fourth principal parts|principal part of Latin verbs and ends in ''-um''. It has two uses. The first is with verbs of motion and indicates purpose. For example, "Gladiatores adfuerunt '''pugnatum'''" is Latin for "The gladiators have come '''to fight'''", and "Legati '''gratulatum''' et '''cubitum''' venerunt" is Latin for "The messengers came '''to congratulate''' and '''to sleep'''." The second usage is in the Future Passive Infinitive, for example "'''amatum''' iri" means "to be about to be loved". It mostly appears in indirect statements, for example "credidit se '''necatum iri'''", meaning "he thought that he was going to be killed". The second supine can be used with adjectives but it is rarely used and only a small number of verbs traditionally take it. It is derived from the ''dativus finalis'' which expresses purpose or the ''ablativus respectivus'' which indicates in what respect. It is the same as the first supine minus the final ''-m'' and with lengthened "u". "Mirabile dictū", for example, means "amazing to say", where ''dictū'' is a supine form.

In other languages

Outside of Latin, a supine is a non-finite verb form whose use resembles that of the Latin supine. The English language|English supine is the bare infinitive (the verb's plain form) introduced by the particle ''to''; for this reason it is often called the ''full infinitive'' or ''to-infinitive''. The Romanian language|Romanian supine generally corresponds to an English construction like ''for doing''; for example, "Această carte este '''de citit'''" means "This book is '''for reading'''." The Slovene language|Slovene supine is used after verbs of movement. ''See'' Slovenian verbs#Supine and Infinitive (Namenilnik in nedoločnik)|Slovenian verbs. The supine was used in Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic but it was replaced in most Slavic languages by the infinitive in later periods. In Czech language|Czech, the contemporary infinitive Ending (linguistics)|ending ''-t'' (formerly ''-ti'') originates from the supine. In Swedish language|Swedish the supine is used with an auxiliary verb to produce some compound verb forms. ''See'' Swedish grammar#Supine form|Swedish grammar. This also applies to Norwegian language|Norwegian where the form ''supine'' is called ''perfektum''.

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