Dictionary formpono, ponere, posui, positum

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Translation

to put, to place; to lay down, to set aside

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Examples

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He placed the body in the tomb.

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Lay down your weapons!

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They are pitching camp on a hill.

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The city is situated on a mountain.

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They wanted to give him a name.

Pono, ponere, posui, positum, third conjugation. Perfect and supine both drop the n of the present stem, so posui and positum look like a different verb until you have met them a few times; the imperative is the bare pone.

Two idioms do a lot of work. Castra ponere is to pitch camp, the standard phrase in any military narrative. And positus est is very often not a passive at all in feeling but simply "is situated": urbs in monte posita, a city set on a hill. The compounds are among the most productive in the language - depono, impono, expono, compono, propono, suppono, dispono - and they walk into English wholesale as deposit, impose, expound, compose, propose and position. Do not confuse it with pono's near neighbour statuo, which is to set something upright or to decide.

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pono: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "pono" (to put, to place; to lay down, to set aside): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is taught in chapter 3, lesson 6: pono, uterque, amor and 7 more words.