| Latin grammar |
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The main Latin tenses can be divided into two groups: the present system (also known as infectum tenses), consisting of the present, future, and imperfect; and the perfect system (also known as perfectum tenses), consisting of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect. [1] [2] [3] [4]
To these six main tenses can be added various periphrastic or compound tenses, such as ductūrus sum 'I am going to lead', or ductum habeō 'I have led'. [5] However, these are less commonly used than the six basic tenses.
In addition to the six main tenses of the indicative mood, there are four main tenses in the subjunctive mood and two in the imperative mood. Participles in Latin have three tenses (present, perfect, and future). The infinitive has two main tenses (present and perfect) as well as a number of periphrastic tenses used in reported speech.
Latin tenses do not have exact English equivalents, so that often the same tense can be translated in different ways depending on its context: for example, dūcō can be translated as 'I lead', 'I am leading' or 'I led', and dūxī can be translated as 'I led' and 'I have led'. [6] In some cases Latin makes a distinction which is not made in English: for example, imperfect eram and perfect fuī both mean 'I was' in English, but they differ in Latin.
The six main indicative tenses in classical Latin are the following, using the verb dūcō as an example: [7]
(a) Infectum tenses
(b) Perfectum tenses
The three perfectum tenses are made using a different stem (in this case dūx- instead of dūc-). [8] The perfect stem can usually not be guessed, and must be learnt from a dictionary.
There are also indicative paradigms for all six tenses in the passive voice, as follows:
(a) Infectum tenses
(b) Perfectum tenses
The perfectum system has simple tenses in the active (dūxī, dūxerō, dūxeram) and compound tenses in the passive (ductus sum, ductus erō, ductus eram). The periphrasis for the perfectum passive tenses is made of a passive perfect participle (ductus, ducta, ductum, ductī, ductae, ducta, which changes according to the gender and number of the subject) combined with different tenses of the verb sum 'I am'. The forms in brackets were rare in Classical Latin, but became more common in post-classical times. In some cases, during the classical period, a difference in meaning between the two forms can be discerned. [9]
The order of the words in a compound tense can be inverted, e.g. sum ductus etc. If the negative adverb nōn 'not' is added, various orders are possible, e.g. nōn est ausus, ausus nōn est, nōn ausus est 'he did not dare' (the first is the most common).
Certain verbs in Latin have the form of a passive verb, but the meaning is active. These verbs are known as deponent verbs. [10] An example is the verb sequor 'I follow':
(a) Infectum tenses
(b) Perfectum tenses
The so called "periphrastic conjugation" is formed from the future participle (ductūrus, ductūra, ductūrum, etc., depending on the gender and number of the subject) combined with various tenses of the verb sum 'I am'. [11] For example:
and so on. Examples are given below.
A passive periphrastic conjugation can be made using a gerundive instead of a participle. This usually has a necessitative meaning such as 'need' or 'have to': [12]
and so on. The gerundive also changes according to the number and gender of the subject (dūcenda, dūcendum, dūcendī, dūcendae etc.
A third type of periphrastic conjugation, which eventually developed into the perfect or pluperfect tenses in Romance languages such as Italian and French, is formed from the accusative perfect participle (ductum, ductam, ductōs etc., according to the gender and number of the object) combined with various tenses of habeō 'I have', for example: [13]
Occasionally, especially in poetry, there occur archaic forms which don't conform to the usual patterns of tense formation. These include futures or future perfects with -s- such as iussō 'I will have ordered', faxō 'I will ensure'; subjunctives with -s- such as ausim 'I would dare', faxim 'I would do'; [14] archaic subjunctives such as siem, fuam or duim; [15] infinitives in -ier or -assere such as vituperarier or impetrāssere; shortened perfect or pluperfect forms such as dīxe (for dīxisse), ērēpsēmus (for ērēpsissēmus), vīxet (for vīxisset) etc. [16] These are discussed below.
The present tense of regular verbs is formed in different ways according to the conjugation of the verb.
The six endings in brackets mean 'I, you (singular), he/she/it, we, you (plural), they' respectively. Thus amās means 'you (sg.) love', amat 'he/she/it loves' and so on.
Irregular verbs:
There is no distinction of aspect in the present tense: faciō can mean 'I do (now)', 'I do (regularly), or 'I am doing'; that is, it can be perfective, habitual, or progressive in aspect. Other possible meanings in certain contexts are 'I have been doing', 'I did', and 'I was doing'.
The present tense can refer to a current situation:
The present tense can also be used for habitual actions:
The present, as in English, can also describe a general truth: [22]
It can also be used performatively to describe an event which takes place at the moment of speaking or immediately after it:
The present can sometimes mean 'has been doing', referring to a situation that started in the past and is still continuing. In some sentences a length of time is given and the adverb iam 'now' is added: [25]
The present tense can also be used in this meaning when combined with a temporal clause using postquam: [29]
Sometimes the postquam clause itself has the present tense:
Another idiom is the following using the conjunction cum: [34]
The present tense is often used in narrative in a historic sense, referring to a past event, especially when the writer is describing an exciting moment in the story. This is known as the 'historic present':
According to Pinkster, the historic present is the most frequent tense used in narrative in both prose and poetry. [22]
In Caesar when a verb is placed initially in the sentence, as in the first example above (videt imminēre hostēs), it is very frequently in the present tense. [37]
Another situation where the use of the historic present is frequent is in utterance verbs, such as fidem dant 'they give a pledge' or ōrant 'they beg'. More than half the historic presents in Caesar are of this kind. [38]
In biographical writing, however, the perfect is used much more often than the present. [39]
The present tense can replace not only the perfect tense, but also sometimes the imperfect tense: [40]
After dum 'while', in a past context, the present indicative regularly has the meaning of an imperfect tense: [42]
But when dum is followed by an imperfect tense it usually has the meaning 'as long as'. The difference is that in this case the two actions are co-extensive: [44]
Another idiom that can be mentioned is the phrase longum est, which means 'it would take a long time' or 'it would be tedious'. It is frequently used by Cicero as well as other writers: [46]
The future indicative has various endings depending on the verb. First conjugation verbs and eō and its compounds have a future ending in -bō (passive -bor); sum and its compounds have a future ending in -erō; other verbs have a future ending in -am (passive -ar):
Irregular verbs:
A future meaning can also be expressed using a periphrastic future such as ductūrus sum 'I am going to lead' (see below).
There is no distinction in the future between perfective and imperfective aspect, so that dūcam can mean either 'I will lead' or 'I will be leading'.
Future event or situation
The future tense can describe an event or a situation in the near or distant future:
In subordinate clauses
A difference between Latin and English is that in subordinate clauses such as 'if this happens in future', English uses the present tense, but Latin usually uses the future. [48]
Occasionally, however, a present tense can be used in the subordinate clause referring to the future: [48]
Polite requests
The future can also be used for polite requests, as when Cicero sends greetings to his friend Atticus's wife and daughter:
The imperfect indicative tense of regular verbs ends in -bam or -bar in all verbs except sum and possum, when it ends in -ram.
Irregular verbs:
The imperfect indicative generally has an imperfective meaning and describes situations in the past. Often the imperfect can be translated into English as 'was doing', but sometimes the simple tense 'did' or expressions such as 'used to do', 'would do', 'kept doing', 'began to do', 'had been doing' are more appropriate.
Situation at a particular time
A common use of the imperfect is to describe a situation that already existed at a particular moment:
Often an expression such as tum 'then' or eō tempore 'at that time' is added:
Vivid description
The use of the imperfect rather than the perfect can be used to make a scene more vivid, as with this sentence of Cicero's:
The passage is commented on by Aulus Gellius. He says that the use of caedēbātur rather than caesus est creates a 'drawn-out vivid description' (diūtīna repraesentātiō); [62] that is to say, making it seem to the audience that the scene is taking place in front of them.
So frequently in descriptions of battles, the imperfect is used to describe what was happening at a particular moment, as though seen through the eyes of an observer: [63]
'Began doing'
Another meaning is inceptive, describing a situation that began at a certain moment and continued indefinitely. Often in English it is translated with 'began': [65]
Habitual use
The imperfect tense can describe a situation that used to take place regularly or habitually:
But in sentences like the following, in which the verb has a quasi-negative meaning ('he didn't write as well as he spoke'), the perfect can be used: [69]
Iterative use
Similar to the above is the iterative or 'frequentative' [71] use of the imperfect, describing what something that kept on happening or which happened on an indefinite number of occasions:
Geographical description
Sometimes the imperfect is used for description of the surroundings as they appeared at the time of the story:
Unfinished action
Another use is to describe an action that someone was intending to do, or about to do, but which never actually took place, or which was interrupted by another event: [74]
Pluperfect continuous meaning
When the imperfect tense is used with a length of time it means 'had done' or 'had been doing', referring to a situation which had been going on for some time and was still going on. [78] The adverb iam 'by now' is sometimes added:
Sometimes in letters a writer imagines himself in the position of the recipient and uses an imperfect tense to describe a situation which for the writer himself is present: [84]
Other tenses can also be used from the point of view of the reader, such as the pluperfect and the perfect in the example below:
Potential meaning ('would be')
Sometimes the imperfect of sum is used with a potential meaning ('would be'): [89]
The perfect indicative active tense is the third principal part given in Latin dictionaries. In most verbs it uses a different stem from the present tense; for example, the perfect tense of dūcō 'I lead' is dūxī 'I led'.
The usual form of the 3rd pl is -ērunt. The ending -ēre is common in some authors, such as Livy, and in poetry. The form -ĕrunt is sometimes found in poetry. [16]
In the 1st conjugation, the 2nd sg, 2nd pl, and 3rd pl are often contracted, for example amāstī, amāstis, amārunt. Contracted forms such as dīxtī (for dīxistī) are also sometimes found, especially in Plautus.
Irregular verbs:
The forms with fuī are much less common. These forms are discussed in a separate section below.
The participle changes in gender and number to agree with the subject; for example, it can be plural or feminine:
The auxiliary verb with these tenses is usually placed after the participle, but sometimes precedes. This often happens when the auxiliary follows a focussed word, a quantity word, or a conjunction: [94]
Sometimes the auxiliary verb est or sunt is omitted. This style is often found in the historian Livy:
Not every perfect participle combined with est is a perfect tense. Thus in the examples below, the participle does not refer to any event but is merely descriptive or adjectival:
Past event
The perfect most frequently narrates an event in the past. The usual translation is the simple English past tense with '-ed' or the equivalent:
The perfect passive and deponent can also be used to describe an event in the past:
Present perfect meaning
The perfect active can also be used like the English present perfect ('I have done'): [105]
The perfect passive and perfect deponent can be used like an English perfect tense, describing a present state resulting from an earlier event: [111]
The negative of the perfect often has the meaning 'has not yet done':
Experiential meaning
As with the English perfect, the Latin perfect can sometimes be used to relate experiences which have happened several times in the past:
It can also be used with semper to describe what has always been the case:
Gnomic perfect
Similar to this is the 'gnomic perfect', which states a general truth based on past experience: [120] [121]
No longer existing situation
The perfect can sometimes be used to describe a situation which no longer exists:
Temporal or relative clause
After the conjunction cum, the perfect indicative often has in iterative meaning (= "whenever"). [126] In English the present tense is often used:
The perfect tense is also used in temporal clauses after postquam 'after', ubi 'when', ut 'as soon as', and simulac 'as soon as'. Here English often uses the pluperfect tense:
It is also used in a past-time relative clause referring to an anterior action where similarly English might use a pluperfect:
Perfect with length of time
The perfect, not the imperfect, is used when a situation is said to have lasted in the past for a certain length of time, but is now over. [69] (The imperfect, however, with a length of time, is used for a situation which was still going on at the time referred to; see the examples above.)
However, the phrase iam diū with the perfect tense means 'long ago':
Meminī, ōdī, nōvī
Certain verbs, of which the most common are meminī 'I remember', ōdī 'I hate', and nōvī 'I know', are used in the perfect tense but have the meaning of a present tense:
The future perfect and pluperfect of these verbs serve as the equivalent of a future or imperfect tense: meminerō 'I will remember', memineram 'I remembered'. meminī has an imperative mementō 'remember!' There is also a subjunctive which can be used in a hortatory sense:
The verb nōvī usually means 'I know':
But sometimes the perfect nōvī has a past meaning, 'I became acquainted with' or 'I got to know':
The perfect of cōnsuēscō, cōnsuēvī 'I have grown accustomed', is also often used with a present meaning: [144]
In the verb sum 'I am', the imperfect tense eram and the perfect fuī both mean 'I was', but in Latin there is usually a difference. As with other verbs, the perfect is usually used when the length of time is mentioned:
But if the situation was still continuing at the time referred to, the imperfect is used:
The perfect is also used when the sentence describes an event rather than a state:
Another use of the perfect fuī is to describe a former state, emphasising that it is no longer in existence: [120]
However, if a time adverb such as ōlim 'once upon a time' is added, there is no need for the perfect tense and the imperfect eram is more usual:
The perfect is also used in sentences such as the following, which describe a permanent state, as opposed to the imperfect, which describes a temporary one: [156]
According to Pinkster, the use of erat in these two examples would sound wrong. 'In both cases the reader would want to know "What happened next?"' [159]
For geographical description, on the other hand, erat is used, describing the landscape was it was at the time of the narrative:
The use of fuit here would imply that there used to be a bridge, but that it has now gone.
The perfect must also be used with adverbs such as semel 'once', bis 'twice', ter 'three times', which imply that the situation is now over: [162]
The perfect is also used for something which has always been (or never been) the case:
The adverb saepe, when referring to a past period of time, can have either tense:
There are also some types of sentences where either tense may be used indifferently, for example when describing someone's name or character:
The equivalent of these two tenses, Spanish era and fui both meaning 'I was', still exist in Spanish and Portuguese today. (See Spanish conjugation, Portuguese verb conjugation.)
The future perfect active originally had a short -i-, while the perfect subjunctive had a long -ī-, but by the time of Cicero the two forms had become confused. It seems that Catullus and Cicero usually pronounced the future perfect with a long ī. [168] Virgil has a short i for both tenses; Horace uses both forms for both tenses; Ovid uses both forms for the future perfect, but a long i in the perfect subjunctive. [169]
Irregular verbs:
The future perfect is usually used in a sentence with sī 'if' or cum 'when' referring to future time, but it can sometimes be used on its own, as in the following sentences where it follows an imperative:
In the following passage with a future perfect is the call of Julius Caesar's eagle-bearer to his men when their boat reached the shore of Britain in 55 BC:
Sometimes both halves of a sentence (main clause and subordinate) can have the future perfect: [173]
There is also an idiom using the future perfect of videō, where the future perfect is almost equivalent to a command: [173]
More frequently the future perfect tense is found after sī 'if' or cum 'when' in clauses referring to a future time. In such sentences English uses the present tense: [177] [144]
The future perfect of meminī and ōdī has a simple future meaning:
An ancient future or future perfect is sometimes found in early Latin ending in -sō: faxō, capsō, iūssō, amāssō, occepsō. [16] [185] The form faxō is often found in Plautus and Terence. It means something like 'I will make sure' or 'assuredly'. In Plautus it is often followed by a future indicative:
But it can also be followed by a present subjunctive:
The 2nd person ends in -is. The metre in the following example (a repeated u u – u –) shows that the -i- is short in the indicative, whereas the subjunctive has a long -i-: [188]
Apart from faxō the tense is rarely used in later Latin; but iussō occurs in Virgil:
Quoting the above line, Seneca comments that iussō is equivalent to a future perfect:
According to Lindsay, this tense ending in -sō corresponds to the Greek future tense ending in -σω. [192] It is connected with the subjunctive ending in -sim and the future infinitive in -āssere, described below.
The pluperfect active is formed using the perfect stem (e.g. dūx-) with the endings -eram, -erās, -erat, -erāmus, -erātis, -erant, e.g. dūxeram 'I had led'
The passive and deponent are usually formed using a perfect participle together with the imperfect tense of sum, e.g. ductus eram 'I had been led', locūtus eram 'I had spoken'. But there is another pluperfect passive (often with a different meaning), ductus fueram, which is discussed in a separate section below.
As with the perfect passive, the pluperfect passive tense can also have the auxiliary before the participle:
The pluperfect represents any meaning which the perfect tense can have, but transferred to a reference time in the past.
Prior event
The pluperfect can be used as in English to describe an event that had happened earlier than the time of the narrative:
Situation at a time in the past
Often the pluperfect can be used to describe the situation prevailing at a certain moment:
No longer existing situation
Just as the perfect tense can sometimes describe a situation that no longer exists at the present time (e.g. fuit Īlium), so the pluperfect can describe a situation which no longer existed at a time in the past, as in the following example:
Pluperfect in temporal clauses
In subordinate clauses of the type 'whenever...', 'whoever...' etc. in past time the pluperfect indicative is used if the event precedes the event of the main clause. Usually in English the simple past is used: [200]
In later writers such as Livy, the pluperfect subjunctive is used in a similar context. [202]
Potential meaning ('would have')
Sometimes in a conditional clause a pluperfect indicative can have the meaning of a potential pluperfect subjunctive ('would have'), when it refers to an event which very nearly took place, but did not: [89]
Pluperfect of meminī, ōdī, nōvī
The pluperfect of ōdī, nōvī and meminī has the meaning of an imperfect:
Alongside the regular perfect passive tenses described in the previous section, there exists a second set of passive and deponent tenses made with fuī, fuerō and fueram. [207] These are referred to as 'double perfectum forms' by de Melo. [208] In early Latin, they seem to be slightly more common in deponent verbs than in passive ones, though in later Latin this difference is not found. [209]
In classical Latin, although these tenses occur, they are only rarely used. In Plautus and Terence the perfect passive or deponent with fuī occurs 25 times compared with 1383 of the regular forms, and the pluperfect indicative with fueram 9 times compared with the regular pluperfect 11 times. [210] In Cicero they are rarer still: the numbers of examples of the six tenses above are 1, 6, 5, 5, 5, 2 respectively. [211]
The history of the perfect with fuī is different from the other tenses. For a long time it was rarely used. It remained rare in the Augustan period and does not occur at all in the travelogue of the pilgrim Egeria (4th century AD). Later, however, in the 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar, it became more common. [212] In modern Spanish and Portuguese, it is the regular way of forming the past tense passive (e.g. Spanish fue matado en la guerra 'he was killed in the war', Portuguese foi construído em 1982 'it was built in 1982').
The pluperfect indicative with fueram and future perfect with fuerō, on the other hand, were used more often in classical Latin: in the Augustan-period writers Hyginus and Vitruvius they even outnumber the normal tenses, and in the travelogue of the pilgrim Egeria (4th century AD), they completely replaced them. [213]
In the examples below, in cases where there is contrast of tenses, the verb with fuit generally refers to an earlier situation than the verb with est. According to Woodcock, this is clearly a factor in the choice of tense. [214] Often the correct nuance can be obtained by adding the word 'earlier' or 'previously'. In some cases, however, there is little difference in meaning from the ordinary perfect or pluperfect tense. [215]
For the double perfect infinitive, see #Perfect infinitive with fuisse below.
The perfect passive or deponent tense with fuī in some cases refers to an earlier time than the time of another event mentioned. Woodcock quotes the following example: [214]
An English pluperfect tense is sometimes appropriate for translating this Latin tense:
In the following examples, the double perfect refers to a situation which existed a long time earlier, before Ovid was exiled:
However, according to de Melo [220] it is not always possible to tell from the context whether the tense with fuī refers to an anterior time or is merely a stylistic variation of an ordinary perfect passive. He contrasts the following two sentences, the first of which is made with sum and refers to a very recent time; the second is made with fuī and may refer to a time earlier than the following verb but this is not certain (the speaker goes on to say that after sailing to Egypt he sailed round the most distant coasts, ōrās ultimās sum circumvectus):
In the following examples, both from the same scene, the meaning of the double perfect passive seems to be the equivalent of an ordinary perfect active:
Similarly, the following two examples use different tenses, although the context is very similar and the meaning is the same:
However, only the sum form can be used in sentences like the following where the verb has a present perfect meaning:
In some cases, the perfect participle accompanied by fuī is merely adjectival, and does not describe any particular event. Thus in the following example, according to the 19th-century grammarian Madvig, [228] the words clausus fuit do not describe an event but the state in which the temple of Janus was in:
The perfect indicative with fuī is not used by Cicero except in the following example, [230] where the participles are adjectival. It refers to a previous situation which has now changed:
Often, especially from the Augustan period onwards, this tense had no particular anterior meaning but was a mere variation of the perfect passive with sum. De Melo cites the following example, where the second verb is obviously not anterior to the first:
In the Vulgate Bible (4th century A.D.), just as with Cicero, the perfect indicative with fuī is only very rarely used compared with the other double tenses. An example is the following:
The following example, quoted by Woodcock, contrasts the two passive future perfect tenses. There is a clear difference in time between the two verbs:
In the following examples, a distinction is made between an earlier situation, expressed by the pluperfect with fuerat, and a later situation, expressed by the ordinary pluperfect with erat: [235]
In the following, the double pluperfect is similarly contrasted with an ordinary active pluperfect. In each case the situation resulting from the double pluperfect verb no longer applies, while the situation resulting from the ordinary pluperfect still holds true:
In the following examples, the pluperfect with fuerat is used similarly to refer to an earlier situation which later changed, while the later situation is expressed by the perfect tense:
The following example looks back to a conversation which had taken place at an earlier time and in another place:
The following refers to a time in the distant past:
With this tense it is usually unnecessary to add an expression meaning 'earlier', since this meaning is implied in the tense itself, but in the following example it is made explicit with the words superiōre tempore 'at an earlier time':
In the following the meaning 'previously' or 'earlier on' is not explicit, but would fit the context:
The future participle with the present tense of sum is known as the periphrastic future. It describes a person's intention at the present time. It can be translated with 'going to', 'planning to', 'intending to', or by using the future continuous 'I'll be doing':
Despite its name, the future periphrastic tense factūrus sum is really a present tense, describing a person's present intentions. For this reason, it can have a future form ductūrus erō, used for example in future conditional or future temporal clauses:
A past version of the periphrastic future can be made with the imperfect tense of sum, describing what someone's intentions were at a moment in the past:
In a conditional sentence this tense can mean 'would have done': [89]
Although less common than the periphrastic future with eram, the perfect tense version of the periphrastic future is also found: [255]
This tense can also be potential, expressing the meaning 'would have done':
An example of this tense is the following:
The gerundive of the verb (an adjectival form ending in -ndus) can be combined with the verb sum 'I am' to make a passive periphrastic tense. This usually expresses what is needing to be done:
Negative meaning
The negative gerundive usually means 'not needing to be', as in the first example above or the first example below. However, sometimes the interpretation 'ought not to be' or 'it isn't possible for it to be' is more appropriate:
Impersonal construction
Very often the passive periphrastic is used impersonally, together with a dative of the agent:
The impersonal form of this tense can also be made using intransitive verbs such as eō 'I go' and verbs such as persuādeō 'I persuade' and ūtor 'I use' which do not take an accusative object: [263]
An example of a future gerundive periphrastic is the following:
An example of the imperfect passive periphrastic is the following:
As with the active perfect periphrastic, in a conditional sentence the perfect gerundive periphrastic tense can mean 'would have done': [269]
Another meaning of the perfect passive is 'ought to have been done':
In the following result clause, this tense becomes subjunctive:
The active future perfect periphrastic tense is not found, but the passive occurs:
Occasionally the gerundive has the meaning of a simple future passive, without any sense of obligation. However, this is generally only found in post-classical Latin, as in the following examples from Eutropius (4th century AD) and the Historia Augusta (4th or 5th century AD): [273]
For other examples of gerundive infinitive tenses see #Gerundive infinitives below.
Occasionally a perfect tense is made using the perfect participle combined with various tenses of the verb habeō 'I have'. This became the regular way of forming the perfect tense in French and Italian. [276]
According to Gildersleeve and Lodge, this form of the perfect 'is not a mere circumlocution for the Perfect, but lays particular stress on the maintenance of the result'. [121] However, in some cases it can be translated simply as a perfect tense in English:
In later Latin this construction became more common, for example: [278]
A variation with teneō 'I hold or keep' is also sometimes found, but usually with emphasis on the idea of holding:
The future perfect of this idiom is made with habēbō:
A pluperfect can similarly be made using one of the three past tenses of habeō: [282]
In some sentences, however, the participle is simply adjectival, and does not form a tense with habeo, for example:
Formation
Active verbs form their present subjunctive in -em, -am, or -im, depending on the verb, as follows:
Irregular verbs:
The subjunctive mood has a variety of uses in Latin. It can be optative (used in wishes), jussive ('should', 'is to'), or potential ('would', 'could', 'may', 'might'). [289] [290] It is also frequently used in indirect speech, in causal clauses, in circumstantial clauses after cum 'when' in past time, and when imagining a hypothetical situation. The negative of the potential subjunctive is nōn, and the negative of the optative and jussive subjunctive is nē.
The present subjunctive very frequently describes an event which the speaker wishes, commands, or suggests should happen at a future time:
The negative of this meaning is nē: [293]
Usually, the jussive subjunctive is used in the 2nd person only when the person is indefinite: [296]
However, in the following example from Plautus, the 2nd person is used for politeness when a young slave girl is talking to a man:
In the following, the speaker is talking to himself:
The present subjunctive is also used in deliberative questions (which are questions which expect an imperative answer): [300]
Another use of the present subjunctive is concessive: [296]
In philosophical discourse, the present subjunctive represents a hypothetical situation which is imagined as happening at an indefinite time:
In an 'ideal' conditional clause, the speaker imagines a hypothetical event or situation in the future. The negative of this meaning is nōn:
In early Latin, a present subjunctive can also be used to make an unreal conditional referring to the present: [306]
However, there was a gradual shift in usage, and in the classical period, and even sometimes in Plautus, the imperfect subjunctive is used in such clauses.
Occasionally in poetry a present subjunctive can be used to refer to an unreal past event, where in prose a pluperfect subjunctive would be used in both halves of the sentence: [308]
In a conditional clause of comparison ('as if...') the use of tenses is different from the normal unreal conditional clause. Here the main clause is in the indicative or imperative, and the 'if'-clause follows the sequence of tenses rule, with present or perfect subjunctive for an imaginary present situation, and imperfect or pluperfect for an imaginary past one:
When a conditional sentence expresses a generalisation, the present subjunctive is used for any 2nd person singular verb, whether in the subordinate clause or the main clause: [312]
One of the most common uses of the subjunctive is to indicate reported speech (or implied reported speech). After a present tense main verb, the present subjunctive is usual, for example in the following indirect command:
When a question is made indirect, the verb is always changed into the subjunctive mood, as in the following example:
After dubitō quīn, if the context is clearly future, a present or imperfect subjunctive can sometimes represent a future tense or potential subjunctive: [317]
Similarly in the protasis ('if' clause) of a conditional sentence in indirect speech, a present subjunctive can represent an original future indicative: [319]
In other examples in reported speech, the subjunctive in the 'if' clause represents an original present subjunctive with potential meaning:
In Latin a clause of fearing is constructed like a negative wish ("may it not happen!"). For this reason fears usually start with the negative particle nē. [322] If the speaker fears that something may not happen, the two negatives nē and nōn can be combined:
The present subjunctive is also used in purpose clauses with ut such as the following: [324]
The present subjunctive may also be used in consecutive clauses following a present tense verb:
After the word forsitan 'perhaps' and occasionally after fortasse 'perhaps', the present subjunctive can mean 'may' or 'could', expressing a possibility. The first example below uses the present subjunctive, and the second the perfect: [328]
A relative clause which is indefinite uses the subjunctive mood in Latin. This is known as a generic relative clause:
The subjunctive mood is also used in clauses which have a causal meaning ('in view of the fact that'), such as after causal cum. Any tense can be used including the present:
Formation
The imperfect subjunctive, even in passive and deponent verbs, looks like an active infinitive with an ending:
Irregular verbs:
Passive and deponent verbs:
Usage
The imperfect subjunctive is used in situations similar to the present subjunctive above, but in a past-time context.
The imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives can describe something which should have been done in the past, but which it is now too late for: [332] [296]
This usage is quite common in Plautus [336] but rare in later Latin. The normal prose practice is to use either a past tense of dēbeō 'I have a duty to' or oportet 'it is proper' with the infinitive, or else a gerundive with a past tense of sum.
The imperfect subjunctive can also be used to represent an imagined or wished for situation in present time: [337]
In a conditional clause representing an unreal situation in present time, the imperfect subjunctive is used in both clauses:
Sometimes, however, an imperfect subjunctive refers to an unreal situation in the past rather than the present: [342]
The 2nd person imperfect subjunctive when potential is nearly always indefinite and generalising, i.e. an imaginary 'you': [344]
In a conditional clause of comparison, the imperfect subjunctive indicates an imagined situation not at the present time but contemporary with the main verb:
For other examples of this see Latin conditional clauses#Conditional clauses of comparison.
In indirect questions in a historic context, an imperfect subjunctive usually represents the transformation of a present indicative. [347] In the examples below the imperfect subjunctive represents a situation which is contemporary with the main verb:
In other sentences, however, the imperfect subjunctive is prospective; that is, it represents an action which is future relative to the main verb: [350] (In indirect sentences of this kind there is in fact no difference between the vivid future and the ideal future conditional.) [351]
The imperfect subjunctive is also used for indirect commands, clauses of fearing or indirect questions after a main verb in the past tense:
It can also have a prospective or future meaning in a relative clause: [358]
After verbs meaning 'it happened that...', the imperfect subjunctive is always used even of a simple perfective action, which, if the grammatical construction did not require a subjunctive, would be expressed by a perfect indicative: [360]
Following cum 'when, while', however, the imperfect subjunctive has the meaning of an imperfect indicative. This is very common:
Formation
Passive and deponent verbs:
The form with sim is more common in the classical period. In some cases there is a difference in meaning between the two forms (see below).
Usage
The perfect subjunctive sometimes expresses a wish for the past, leaving open the possibility that it may have happened: [14]
It can also be used in a concessive meaning:
The perfect subjunctive can also be used in a wish for the future, but this use is described as 'archaic'. [293]
With the negative particle nē the perfect subjunctive can express a negative command:
Sometimes the perfect subjunctive refers to present or future time, and means 'could'. [368] For example, in the following idiom the perfect is usual:
In the following sentence both 'could' and 'could have' are possible: [337]
In other examples, however, the perfect subjunctive definitely refers to the past and means 'could have done' or 'would have done': [371]
The perfect tense may also (but rarely) sometimes be used in an ideal condition, describing an imagined hypothetical situation in the future: [373]
In the following sentence, in which a conditional clause is used in reported speech, the perfect subjunctive is equivalent to a future perfect indicative in oratio recta:
'they said that if these things were reported to Ariovistus, they didn't doubt that he would put them all to death'
The perfect subjunctive is also found in subordinate clauses in indirect statements, usually when the main verb is in the present tense. This also applies to when the indirect speech is only implied rather than explicit, as in the following sentences:
The perfect subjunctive usually represents what would be a perfect indicative in an independent clause. However, since there is no way of expressing an imperfect tense in primary sequence except using the perfect subjunctive, it could also sometimes represent an imperfect indicative. [378]
Phrases of the kind nōn dubitō 'I do not doubt' are usually followed by quīn (literally 'how not') and the subjunctive, much like an indirect question:
In consecutive (result) clauses, the sequence of tenses rule is not so strictly adhered to. For example, in the following, the perfect subjunctive vīderit is used, despite the fact that the main verb is historic:
The subjunctive is also used in various types of relative clause. The following is an explanatory relative clause ('inasmuch as' or 'in view of the fact that'): [383]
The following is generic or indefinite:
The following is a restrictive relative clause: [383]
The perfect subjunctive with fuerim is more common than the perfect indicative with fuī. In the Augustan-period writers Hyginus and Vitruvius nearly a third of perfect subjunctives are double ones, and in Egeria's writing (4th century AD) it completely replaced the perfect subjunctive with sim. [387]
In the following examples, the perfect subjunctives with fuerit contrast with the ordinary perfect subjunctive tenses, and apparently refer to an earlier event:
In the following example, however, the tense may have been chosen simply for euphony rather than meaning:
Formation
Irregular verbs:
Passive and deponent verbs:
The form with essem is more common than fuissem in the classical period. In some cases there is a difference in meaning between the two forms (see below).
Occasionally a shortened form of the pluperfect subjunctive active is found, e.g. ērēpsēmus for ērēpsissēmus. Scholars are unclear whether this is an archaic survival or whether it is merely a "syncopated" (shortened) form of the usual tense. (For examples, see below.)
The pluperfect subjunctive can be used to make a wish which cannot now be fulfilled about a situation in the past:
Sometimes velim or vellem 'I would that' is used instead of utinam. In the following sentence, the imperfect subjunctive vellem is used to wish for something that cannot now come true, while the present subjunctive velim leaves open the possibility that it may be true:
The jussive pluperfect is also fairly uncommon. The following examples are from Cicero, again using the negative nē: [394]
In the following sentence, using the pluperfect subjunctive, according to one view, Queen Dido contemplates what 'might have been': [397]
Others see the pluperfect subjunctive in this sentence as a wish ('if only I had carried!'); others again as jussive ('I ought to have carried!'). [399]
The pluperfect subjunctive in conditional clauses is used for referring to unreal events in past time. This usage is found as early as Plautus: [337]
It is also possible for the protasis to be imperfect subjunctive, and the apodosis pluperfect subjunctive, or the other way round, as in the following examples:
Another very common use of the pluperfect subjunctive is in a circumstantial cum-clause. Here cum tends to have the meaning "after X happened", equivalent to postquam with the perfect indicative:
In indirect speech, the pluperfect subjunctive is often a transformation of a perfect indicative in direct speech. [317] In the following example, the original direct question would have had the perfect tense (fuistī):
In some sentences, the pluperfect subjunctive is a reflection of an original imperfect indicative, as in the following example, where the original verbs would have been mīlitābāmus and habēbāmus: [405]
In other sentences in indirect speech, the pluperfect subjunctive is a transformation of a future perfect indicative, put into historic sequence. The original words of the following sentence would have been tū, sī aliter fēcerīs, iniūriam Caesarī faciēs 'if you do (will have done) otherwise, you will be doing Caesar a disservice':
A shortened or "syncopated" form of the pluperfect subjunctive ending in -sem instead of -sissem is sometimes found, although it is not very common. [16] The following comes from Horace's well-known account of his journey to Brundisium:
Another example comes from Plautus:
In the following example, the subjunctive is used to indicate indirect speech:
The following from Virgil describes what might have been, or should have been:
R. D. Williams describes the following example as "jussive":
Like the pluperfect indicative with fueram, the pluperfect subjunctive with fuissem sometimes refers to an earlier time, which is now over. In the following example, Cicero contrasts the time when Marcus Claudius Marcellus captured Syracuse (3rd century BC) with the period when Gaius Verres was governor of Sicily (73–70 BC):
However, in the following examples, there appears to be little or no difference in meaning between the pluperfect with fuisset and that with esset, and difference is perhaps only one of style:
Because the feminine participle + fuisset makes a suitable ending for a hexameter, it is possible that in the following examples the double pluperfect is merely used for metrical convenience, rather than indicating an anterior time. In the first example, which is spoken by the ghost of Hector to Aeneas, encouraging him to flee from Troy, the tense with fuissent refers to an earlier time when Hector was still alive:
The following unfulfillable wish also uses the double pluperfect subjunctive passive:
Another example comes from Ovid, referring to the time before the Trojan War started:
In the following example Ovid describes the fate of the Athenian princess Aglauros, who was turned to stone out of envy for her sister:
The verb sum 'I am', as well as its infinitive esse 'to be', has a future infinitive fore, equivalent to futūrum esse. From this is formed a subjunctive forem. This is not used in Caesar, but is common in Livy, Sallust, and Nepos. [421] It is used especially in conditional sentences, [422] either in the protasis ('if' clause) or the apodosis (main clause), and it generally has either a potential or future-in-the past meaning. However, occasionally it seems to be simply a variation on the imperfect subjunctive essem.
One use of forem is in indirect speech after sī 'if' as the equivalent of the future indicative erit in the original direct speech:
It can also be used with a future-in-the-past meaning in sentences like the following, which are not conditional but indirect speech:
In the following sentence the imperfect is typical of letter-writing. An English writer would say 'I have no doubt that he will be...':
In other sentences, however, foret has no future meaning, but simply has the meaning of esset, as in the following example, where it appears to be used simply for metrical convenience as the equivalent of esset in the second half:
Unlike in clauses following nōn dubitō quīn, in indirect questions referring to a future time the periphrastic future subjunctive is regularly used:
In indirect statements and questions, the active periphrastic future can represent a future or periphrastic future tense of direct speech in primary sequence. In this case there is not necessarily any idea of planning or intention, although there may be: [432]
This tense can also be used in primary sequence reported speech, to represent the main clause in either an ideal conditional sentence or a simple future one (the distinction between these two disappears in indirect speech): [435]
To avoid ambiguity, the periphrastic future can also be used after nōn dubitō quīn 'I don't doubt that...' when the meaning is future, although this is not as common as in indirect questions:
The same meaning is expressed in indirect questions in a past context:
If the main verb is in past time, an imperfect version of the periphrastic future subjunctive is used:
It is also possible to form an imperfect periphrastic subjunctive with forem instead of essem (the first instance of this is in Sallust): [255]
A perfect periphrastic subjunctive can be used with a conditional meaning ('would have done') in hypothetical conditional clauses in indirect questions in primary sequence. In this case it represents a pluperfect subjunctive in the original direct speech: [442]
In an indirect question, the perfect periphrastic subjunctive can also sometimes reflect a potential imperfect subjunctive: [442]
These tenses can be compared with the similar examples with the perfect periphrastic infinitive cited below, where a conditional sentence made in imperfect subjunctives is converted to an indirect statement.
The pluperfect version of the periphrastic subjunctive can be used in a circumstantial cum clause:
It can also be used in conditional sentences after sī, as in the following sentence from an imaginary letter from Helen to Paris:
Once in Cicero it occurs in the apodosis of an unreal conditional, referring to the inevitability of fate:
It can also reflect a potential pluperfect subjunctive ('would have done') in historic sequence in an indirect question: [442]
In some authors, such as Livy and Sallust, a potential meaning can be given to the pluperfect subjunctive passive by substituting foret for esset:
In other authors, however, the same meaning is expressed using the ordinary pluperfect passive:
When used in indirect speech, sometimes this tense is the equivalent of a future perfect passive in the original speech:
In each of the above sentences, foret looks to the future, relative to a point in the past. In the following sentences, however, it has a past, not future, meaning:
An archaic form of the subjunctive of sum is siem for sim, which is very common in Plautus and Terence, but fell out of use later:
Less common is fuam, with the same meaning. This occurs occasionally in Plautus and also once in Lucretius (4.635) and once in Virgil's Aeneid, where the archaic form is presumably appropriate for the speech of the god Jupiter:
Another old subjunctive is duim, from the verb dō 'I give'. It occurs mostly in Plautus and Terence, but sometimes also in Cicero, in phrases like the following:
From tangō, attingō 'I touch' comes a subjunctive attigās used by both Plautus and Terence:
The idiomatic expression dumtaxat 'only, exactly, as far as concerns' is thought to preserve another archaic subjunctive of tango 'I touch'. [185]
In old Latin, a form of the subjunctive with -s-, known as the sigmatic aorist subjunctive, is preserved (faxim, servāssim etc.). One use of this is for wishes for the future: [14]
In Plautus this subjunctive is also used in prohibitions, when it exists: [468]
It also occurs once in Terence:
In other phrases it has a potential meaning and can be translated with 'would':
Latin speakers used subjunctive verbs to report questions, statements, and ideas. When the verb of telling or asking in the dominant clause is primary, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause must also be primary; when the verb in the dominant clause is secondary or historic, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause must also be in a historic tense. This rule can be illustrated with the following table: [473] [474]
| Main verb | Dependent verb | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary tenses | Present Future Future Perfect (Perfect) | Present subjunctive Perfect subjunctive |
| Historic tenses | Perfect Imperfect Pluperfect Historic infinitive | Imperfect subjunctive Pluperfect subjunctive |
This rule applies to all kinds of sentences where the dependent verb is put in the subjunctive mood, for example indirect speech, indirect questions, indirect commands, purpose clauses, most consecutive clauses, clauses after verbs of fearing, quīn clauses and others. It does not apply to more loosely connected dependent clauses, such as relative clauses, where the verb is in the indicative.
The perfect tense appears in both rows, depending on whether it has a present perfect meaning ('have done', primary) or past simple meaning ('did', historic). But even when it has a present perfect meaning it is often treated as a historic tense (see further below).
It may be noted that although the perfect indicative is usually treated as a historic tense, the perfect subjunctive is usually treated as a primary one (but see exceptions below).
Examples of primary sequence
Present indicative + present subjunctive:
Present subjunctive + present subjunctive:
Present imperative + periphrastic perfect subjunctive:
Present indicative + Perfect subjunctive:
Examples of historic sequence
Imperfect indicative + imperfect subjunctive:
Imperfect subjunctive + pluperfect subjunctive:
Perfect indicative + imperfect subjunctive:
Historic infinitive + imperfect subjunctive: [479]
Perfect tense main verb
When the main verb is a perfect tense, it is usually considered to be a historic tense, as in the above example. Occasionally, however, when the meaning is that of an English present perfect, the perfect in a main clause may be taken as a primary tense, for example: [481]
However, the historic sequence after a perfect with present perfect meaning is also very common, [483] [484] for example:
Historic present main verb
When the main verb is a historic present, the dependent verb may be either primary or historic, but is usually primary: [479]
Sometimes both primary and historic are found in the same sentence. In the following example the first dependent verb cūrat is primary sequence, but dīxisset is pluperfect: [484]
Exceptions
There are frequent exceptions to the sequence of tenses rule, especially outside of indirect speech. For example, in the following sentence, a historic tense is followed by a perfect subjunctive: [484]
In consecutive clauses also, a perfect tense in the main clause is often followed by a present or a perfect subjunctive: [490]
In indirect conditional sentences, the periphrastic perfect subjunctive often remains even after a historic-tense main verb: [492]
The perfect tense potuerim also can replace a pluperfect tense with the meaning 'could have' even after a historic verb: [494]
Caesar and Sallust can sometimes use a present subjunctive in historic sequence when the meaning is jussive (although this practice is not always followed): [495]
In general, in Livy, there is a tendency for a present or perfect tense of the original speech to be retained in historic sequence, while Cicero is more strict in following the historic sequence. [495]
When the main verb is primary, an imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive in a clause that is already subordinate in the original sentence may often remain:
In the following, a perfect subjunctive (a primary tense) is treated as if it were a perfect indicative (a historic tense), and so is followed by an imperfect subjunctive in the subordinate clause: [497]
There are two main infinitive tenses, present and perfect (e.g. dūcere 'to lead' and dūxisse 'to have led'). However, a number of further infinitives are made periphrastically to represent other shades of meaning, such as future and potential, in indirect speech.
The infinitive tenses are similar to the subjunctive tenses, except that there is no distinction between primary and historic tenses. Thus corresponding to the present and imperfect subjunctive tenses dūcam / dūcerem is the present infinitive dūcere; corresponding to the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive dūxerim / dūxissem is the perfect infinitive dūxisse; corresponding to the future ductūrus sim / ductūrus essem is the future infinitive ductūrus esse; and corresponding to the potential ductūrus fuerim / ductūrus fuissem is the perfect potential infinitive ductūrus fuisse.
Irregular verbs:
Examples of deponent verbs are hortārī 'to encourage', pollicērī 'to promise', sequī 'to follow', egredī 'to come out', mentīrī 'to lie (tell a lie)'
In early Latin (especially Plautus), the passive and deponent infinitive often ends in -ier: vituperārier 'to be scolded', vidērier 'to be seen', nancīscier 'to obtain', expergīscier 'to wake up' etc.
An archaic form of the perfect active infinitive, ending in -se (dīxe, dēspexe, intellexe, admisse) is sometimes found in early Latin. [16] There are also some rare archaic future infinitives ending in -ssere, e.g. oppugnāssere, impetrāssere and others.
Compound infinitives are made using a participle or gerundive, combined with esse, fuisse or fore. Since they are common in the accusative and infinitive construction, usually the participle is in the accusative case, as in most of the examples below. Occasionally, however, the participle is found in the nominative, for example with dīcitur 'he is said' or vidētur 'he seems':
The participle can also change to show gender and plurality, as in the following where factās is feminine plural:
However, the passive future infinitive (ductum īrī) is made using the supine of the verb. The -um therefore stays constant and does not change for gender or number.
The future infinitive is used only for indirect statements. [501]
Often the esse part of a compound infinitive is omitted when combined with a participle or gerundive:
The present infinitive is occasionally used in narrative as a tense in its own right. It usually describes a scene in which the same action was being done repeatedly. There are often two or more historic infinitives in succession. [505] When the subject is expressed, it is in the nominative case (distinguishing the historic infinitive from the accusative and infinitive of reported speech).
The perfect tense potuī with the infinitive can often mean 'I was able to' or 'I managed to':
However, it can also mean 'I could have done (but did not)': [510]
The pluperfect subjunctive after cum also means 'could have':
'Ought to have done' is often expressed with a past tense of dēbeō 'I have a duty to' or oportet 'it is fitting' together with a present infinitive:
Sometimes, oportēbat means 'it must be the case that...':
Sometimes, in familiar style, oportuit can be used with the perfect infinitive passive: [518]
The indirect speech form is regularly oportuisse with the present infinitive:
Indirect commands are made with two constructions: either ut (or nē) with the present or imperfect subjunctive, or the accusative and infinitive construction, using the present infinitive. The latter construction is used especially when the main verb is iubeō 'I order' or vetō 'I forbid', but also sometimes after imperō 'I command': [483]
The infinitive is very commonly used for the reported verb in indirect statements, whether dependent on a verb like dīcō 'I say', or other verbs such as putō 'I think', cognōscō 'I find out', meminī 'I remember' and so on.
Except where the main verb is passive, such as dīcitur 'he is said' or vidētur 'he seems' and the like, the subject of the quoted sentence is usually put into the accusative case and the verb into the infinitive. Thus a simple sentence such as Caesar vēnit 'Caesar has come' changes as follows:
This construction is known as the "accusative and infinitive" construction.
The rule of tense is that the present infinitive is used for any action or situation which is contemporary with the main verb, the perfect for actions or situations anterior to the main verb, and the future infinitive for actions or situations later than the main verb. [523] An exception to this rule is the verb meminī 'I remember', which when used of personal reminiscence (e.g. 'I remember being present') is usually followed by a present infinitive. [524]
The present infinitive in indirect speech is used to express an action or situation simultaneous with the verb of speaking:
The present infinitive used after meminī when describing a personal reminiscence, however, refers to the past: [527]
In indirect statements, a perfect infinitive represents an event or a situation which occurred prior to the time of the verb of speaking. The first two examples have a verb of speaking in the present tense:
In the following the main verb is in a past tense, so that in English the pluperfect is used when translating the infinitive:
The infinitive fuisse can describe a situation in the past, earlier than the time of the verb of speaking:
The perfect infinitive may also at times be translated with a continuous tense in English, representing an imperfect tense in the original speech:
Often the verb of speaking is omitted if it can be understood from the context:
Archaic perfect infinitives such as dīxe 'to have said', dēspexe 'to have looked down', intellexe 'to have understood' and others are found in Plautus: [16] These in classical Latin would be dīxisse, dēspexisse and intellexisse:
Occasionally a perfect passive infinitive is found formed with fuisse instead of esse. The meaning of the two forms is different. The perfect infinitive with esse merely refers to an event which took place before the time of the verb of speaking (e.g. ('he reported that Marcellus had been killed'). Thus there are two times involved, the time of the verb of speaking and the time of the event referred to. But when the perfect infinitive has fuisse there are three times involved: the time of the verb of the speaking, the reference time, and a time earlier still when the event took place.
Just as a perfect tense can describe a current situation (e.g. 'he has died' = 'he is dead'), so a double perfect infinitive often describes a situation that existed at the time referred to, as in the following examples:
In other examples, the double perfect infinitive describes a situation which existed earlier on, but which later changed:
It is also possible to find this infinitive in contexts not in indirect speech. In the following example the infinitive refers to an action which took place at an earlier period before the time of the imagined harvest, which is itself in the past:
The distinction between the two types of perfect infinitive is available only in passive verbs. When the verb is active, the simple perfect infinitive is used in a similar context:
Another example not in direct speech the following, in which Martial is describing a magnificent he-goat depicted on a cup, and suggests that Phrixus's sister Helle might have preferred to have been riding on this rather than the ram which she fell off:
There appear to be no examples of a deponent verb in this tense of the infinitive in classical Latin.
The active future infinitive is formed periphrastically, using the future participle, for example ductūrus esse 'to be going to lead'. The participle often occurs in the accusative case and can change for gender and number ductūrum esse, ductūram esse, etc). One verb, sum 'I am', has a non-compound future infinitive fore, equivalent to futūrum esse.
The future infinitive is used in reported speech for events or situations which are to take place later than the verb of speaking:
In a past context the future infinitive is translated with 'would' instead of 'will':
As with the perfect passive infinitive, esse is often omitted:
The irregular verbs possum 'I am able' and volō 'I want' have no future infinitive. In these verbs the present infinitive is used instead: [551] [552]
A future passive infinitive can be made using the supine of the verb combined with īrī, the passive infinitive of the verb eō 'I go'. This is comparatively rare. [551] The ending -um does not change for gender or number:
Another way of expressing the future in indirect statement is to use the phrase fore ut 'it would be the case that'. This can be used with an active or passive verb, and almost always with either the present or the imperfect subjunctive: [555]
Sometimes futūrum esse ut or futūrum ut is used instead of fore ut:
Certain archaic future infinitives ending in -āssere can be found in Plautus, for example:
To express a future perfect tense in indirect statement is possible only if the verb is passive or deponent. [562] In the following examples, a perfect participle is combined with the future infinitive fore:
Very rarely fore ut can be followed by a perfect or pluperfect subjunctive. [566] In the following example, the pluperfect subjunctive represents a future perfect indicative of direct speech:
The periphrastic perfect infinitive (or potential infinitive) is formed from the future participle with fuisse. It is used in indirect speech for representing the main verb of an unreal conditional, whether referring to a past time or present time. In the following examples the verb refers to past time, and in the original sentence would have been pluperfect subjunctive: [568]
If the introductory verb is passive, such as vidētur 'he seems', the participle is nominative:
The same tense of the infinitive can also represent the transformation into indirect statement of an imperfect potential subjunctive, referring to a hypothetical present situation: [572]
In such sentences the imperfect subjunctive in the subordinate clause (in this case faceret) is left unchanged, despite the fact that the main verb is primary.
Just as fore ut is used to make a future passive infinitive, so futūrum fuisse ut with the imperfect subjunctive can be used to make a potential passive infinitive: [576]
However this is very rare, and in fact only two instances have been noted (the other being Cicero, Tusc. 3.69). [578]
Gerundive infinitives can be formed with esse, fuisse and fore.
The present gerundive infinitive with esse is used in indirect speech to indicate something which needs to be done at the time of the verb of speaking:
The ending of the gerundive varies according to gender and number. In the following it is feminine singular:
The order of the words can be reversed:
The perfect gerundive infinitive with fuisse indicates something that was necessary at a previous time:
However, it can also refer to what ought to have been done at some time in the past: [582]
In a conditional clause in reported speech the perfect gerundive infinitive can also refer to something that would have been necessary in some hypothetical situation:
The future gerundive infinitive is made with fore. It is used in indirect statements to describe something which it is going to be necessary to do:
It can also describe what must inevitably happen at a future time:
Infinitives formed with habēre and habuisse are also possible, again with stress on the maintenance of the result. These are used in indirect speech:
The imperative mood has two tenses, present and future.
The present imperative mood is the normal tense used for giving direct orders which the speaker wishes to be carried out at once. The active form can be made plural by adding -te:
Deponent verbs such as proficīscor 'I set out' or sequor 'I follow' have an imperative ending in -re or -minī (plural):
An imperative is usually made negative by using nōlī(te) (literally, 'be unwilling!') plus the infinitive:
However, in poetry an imperative can sometimes be made negative with the particle nē:
A negative order can also use the perfect subjunctive: [597]
In later Latin, nē plus the present subjunctive became more common, for example in the Vulgate Bible. [599] In the following example the first three verbs use the present subjunctive, and the fourth the perfect subjunctive:
Latin also has a Future imperative or 2nd imperative, [600] ending in -tō(te), used to request someone to do something at a future time, or if something else happens first. This imperative is very common in early writers such as Plautus and Cato, but it is also found in later writers such as Cicero and Martial:
Some verbs have only the second imperative, for example scītō 'know', mementō 'remember'. [600] In this case the imperative sometimes has a present rather than future meaning:
There is also a future passive imperative, but it is extremely rare. It can be either 2nd or 3rd person: [608]
Related to the colloquial future imperative is the formal imperative (usually used in the 3rd person) of legal language, as in this invented law from Cicero's de Lēgibus:
According to J.G.F. Powell, appellāminō is not a genuine archaic form; in early Latin -minō is used only in deponent verbs and is 2nd or 3rd person singular. [611]
Compared to Greek, Latin is deficient in participles, having only three, as follows, as well as the gerundive. The Romans themselves [612] considered the gerundive also to be a participle, but most modern grammars treat it as a separate part of speech. [613]
The different participles of the verb dūcō are shown below:
| Active | Passive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | dūcēns, pl. dūcentēs | leading | ||
| Perfect | ductus, pl. ductī | led, having been led | ||
| Future | ductūrus, pl. ductūrī | going to lead | ||
| Gerundive | dūcendus, pl. dūcendī | needing to be led | ||
| Present | sequēns, pl. sequentēs | following | ||
| Perfect | secūtus, pl. secūtī | having followed | ||
| Future | secūtūrus, pl. secūtūrī | going to follow | ||
| Gerundive | sequendus, pl. sequendī | needing to be followed |
The participles are all verbal adjectives, and so the ending changes according to case, gender, and number.
As the table shows, there is no passive present or future participle, and no active past participle. In deponent verbs, however, the Perfect participle is active in meaning, e.g. profectus, 'having set out', cōnātus 'having tried'. In deponent verbs, the gerundive is usually used in impersonal form and with an active meaning: proficīscendum est 'it is necessary to set out', moriendum est 'it is necessary to die', cōnandum est 'it is necessary to try'; but some deponent verbs have a personal gerundive with a passive sense: hortandus 'needing to be encouraged', sequendus 'needing to be followed':
The present and future participles of deponent verbs are active in form, e.g. moriēns 'dying', moritūrus 'about to die'. Originally deponent verbs had no present participle and perfect participles such as ratus 'thinking' and veritus 'fearing' were used with a present meaning. [615]
The verb sum 'I am' has no Present or Perfect participle in classical Latin, but only the Future participle futūrus 'going to be'. The compound verbs praesum and absum, however, form the Present participles praesēns, absēns.
The verbs volō 'I want' and possum 'I am able' have no future participle. Potēns, the present participle of possum, has a limited use as an adjective meaning 'powerful'.
The 3rd and 4th conjugation gerundive in older texts such as Plautus ends with -undus: faciundum, ferundum, veniundum. [616] Such endings are sometimes found even in classical Latin. Later, -endus became usual, but in the verb eō 'I go', the gerundive is always eundum 'necessary to go'.
Like the infinitive, the tenses of the participles are not absolute but relative to the main verb of the sentence. For example, a future participle can refer to an action in the past, provided it is later than the time of the main verb; and similarly the perfect participle can refer to an action in the future, provided it is earlier than the time of the main verb.
The present participle usually describes a condition or an action which is happening at the time of the main verb:
Occasionally, a present participle can refer to an action which takes place immediately before the time of the main verb:
Present participles of deponent verbs are only very rarely found in early Latin (although Plautus is said to have written a play called Commorientēs 'Those dying together') [619] but they became common later.
The perfect participle refers to an action which took place before the time of the main verb, or to the state that something is in as a result of an earlier action:
A deponent participle such as ratus 'thinking, reckoning' or veritus 'fearing' can often be translated as if it were present:
The future participle is most commonly used in the periphrastic tenses or in indirect statements (see examples above). 'An examination of the usage of the various authors shows that the form in -ūrus did not reach the full status of a participle till the time of Livy. Up to the time of Caesar and Cicero its use was almost restricted to a combination with the verb esse, making a periphrastic future tense (Woodcock). [622] Woodcock speculates that the -ūrus ending might originally have been a verbal noun.
In later authors the future participle is sometimes used as in Greek to indicate purpose:
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