narratur

Narratur is the third-person singular present passive indicative form of the Latin verb narrare, meaning “to tell” or “to relate.” As a Latin tense and voice, narratur translates to “it is told” or “it is related.” It is commonly used to indicate that a piece of information is conveyed by someone else or by tradition, rather than being presented as a direct observation by the narrator.

In usage, narratur often marks reported information within a narrative or historical text. It can introduce events, statements, or traditions that the author does not claim to witness firsthand. The passive form helps to focus on the content of the report rather than on the agent who tells it, which can create an impersonal or documentary tone. This makes narratur a common device in classical and medieval prose for presenting what was said or believed, sometimes without naming the source.

Morphologically, narratur is part of a broader verbal system around narrare. Related forms include the present active narrat, the present passive infinitive narrari, and related perfect and future forms that extend the same “to tell” root into different voices and tenses. In scholarly discussions, researchers may reference narratur when describing how a text handles reported discourse or the flow of information in a narrative.

See also: narratio, narratology, narrator, narration, indirect discourse.