Gerundive
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Towards more picturesque speech™
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A gerundive is a form of a Latin verb, having the (declinable) ending -ndus which functions as an adjective meaning “that should or must be done”.
There is no gerundive in English; the closest you get is a passive infinitive like “books to be read”, combining a transitive verb and its object with a sense of obligation. But wouldn’t you just use the active infinitive and avoid that ugly passive: "books to read".
Latin examples
- quod erat demonstrandum — because that is the very thing one seeks to prove;
- mutatis mutandis — changed in ways that must be changed.
See also gerund, which is capable of social snobbery.
