A supine is a fourth declension verbal noun ending in -um or -u. On the AP Latin exam, the form you need is the -u supine, which follows adjectives and translates as 'to ____,' as in horribile visu, 'horrible to see.'
A supine is a noun built from a verb, parked in the fourth declension, with only two endings you'll ever see, -um and -u. The AP Latin CED zeroes in on the -u form, which attaches to an adjective and gets translated 'to ____.' The classic example is horribile visu, 'horrible to see.' The adjective carries the judgment (horrible, wonderful, easy) and the supine tells you in what respect (to see, to say, to do).
Think of it this way. English does the exact same thing when you say 'hard to believe' or 'easy to say.' The supine in -u is Latin's version of that 'to ____' tagged onto an adjective. Vergil loves this construction in the Aeneid, where phrases like mirabile dictu, 'wondrous to say,' flag a moment the poet wants you to gasp at. When you spot an adjective plus a short fourth-declension form ending in -u, you've almost certainly found a supine.
The supine lives in Unit 5 (Vergil's Aeneid) and is named directly in the essential knowledge for learning objective AP Latin 5.1.D, which asks you to describe how verbs and verbals function in context and shape meaning. It also feeds 5.1.F, translating into idiomatic English, because a botched supine produces clunky non-English like 'horrible in the seeing' instead of the natural 'horrible to see.' The supine sits in a family of verbal forms the CED groups together (infinitive, gerund, gerundive, supine), and the exam expects you to tell them apart on sight. In Book 4, where Dido's story unfolds, these small verbal nouns do a lot of emotional work, so recognizing them fast keeps your translation accurate and your reading speed up.
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Gerund (Unit 5)
The gerund is the supine's closest cousin. Both are nouns made from verbs, but the gerund declines through several cases (bellandi, 'of waging war') while the supine only shows up as -um or -u. If the verbal noun has a genitive or ablative ending from the second declension pattern, it's a gerund, not a supine.
Infinitive (Unit 5)
The infinitive is the other verbal form translated 'to ____,' but it pairs with verbs like possum, volo, and licet rather than with adjectives. Same English translation, different Latin trigger. Possum videre means 'I am able to see,' while horribile visu means 'horrible to see.'
Accusative (Unit 5)
The -um supine looks identical to an accusative noun ending, which is exactly why it trips people up. Knowing your case endings cold is what lets you tell a fourth-declension supine apart from an ordinary accusative object in a packed Vergilian line.
The supine shows up in two ways. First, multiple-choice questions love the stem 'what is the grammatical function of ____?' and then line up verbal forms as answer choices, asking you to pick between supine, gerund, gerundive, and infinitive. Fiveable practice questions do exactly this with forms like vitandum and audire, and 'supine' often appears as a tempting wrong answer when the form is really a gerundive. Second, literal translation FRQs from the required Vergil passages (like the 2024 Translation Q1, where Iarbas prays to Jupiter in Book 4) reward you for rendering verbal nouns in smooth, idiomatic English. Your job is recognition plus translation, so spot the -u after an adjective, translate it 'to ____,' and move on.
Both are verbal nouns, and both can end in -um, which is the trap. The gerund is second-declension and appears in multiple cases (bellandi, bellando, ad bellandum), usually expressing the idea of an action as a thing ('of waging war'). The supine is fourth-declension with only -um and -u forms, and the -u supine specifically follows an adjective and translates 'to ____.' Quick test for the exam. If the form follows an adjective and ends in -u, it's a supine. If it's declining like a regular noun across cases, it's a gerund. And if it agrees with a noun like an adjective, it's actually a gerundive.
A supine is a fourth declension verbal noun with only two possible endings, -um and -u.
The supine ending in -u follows an adjective and is translated 'to ____,' as in horribile visu, 'horrible to see.'
The supine is one of four verbal forms named in the Unit 5 essential knowledge, alongside the infinitive, gerund, and gerundive, and the exam tests whether you can tell them apart.
The gerund declines through multiple cases while the supine does not, so a form like bellandi can never be a supine.
On translation FRQs, render the supine as natural English ('wondrous to say'), not a literal word-for-word gloss, because idiomatic translation is what learning objective 5.1.F rewards.
A supine is a fourth declension verbal noun ending in -um or -u. The -u form follows adjectives and translates 'to ____,' as in the AP CED's example horribile visu, 'horrible to see.'
A gerund is a second-declension verbal noun that declines through several cases (bellandi means 'of waging war'), while a supine is fourth-declension and only ever appears as -um or -u. If the form follows an adjective and ends in -u, it's a supine.
No. The -um ending is one of the most common in Latin, covering accusative nouns, gerunds, gerundives, and neuter forms. A supine is specifically a fourth-declension verbal noun, so check the context and the verb stem before labeling anything a supine on a multiple-choice question.
The trigger word is different. An infinitive pairs with verbs like possum, volo, and licet (possum videre, 'I am able to see'), while the -u supine pairs with an adjective (horribile visu, 'horrible to see'). Same English, different Latin construction.
Yes. It's named in the Unit 5 essential knowledge under learning objective AP Latin 5.1.D, it appears as an answer choice in grammar-function multiple-choice questions, and you may need to translate one idiomatically in a literal translation FRQ from the required Vergil passages.