| Latin grammar |
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A temporal clause is an adverbial clause of time, that is to say, a clause which informs the reader about the time when the action of main verb of the sentence occurred. So in a sentence such as "after I had said this, he went out", the first clause is a temporal clause. The name comes from the Latin word tempus, genitive temporis, 'time".
Typically in Latin a temporal clause has a conjunction of time such as cum "when" or postquam "after" at or near the beginning of the clause and a verb at the end. The verb in a Latin temporal clause is usually in the indicative mood, although sometimes, especially when the conjunction is cum, it is in the subjunctive. But if the clause is part of indirect speech, the verb is nearly always in the subjunctive mood. [1]
The conjunctions used to introduce temporal clauses sometimes have other, non-temporal, meanings. For example, cum can mean "when", "since", or "although"; dum can mean "while", "until", or "provided that"; ubi can mean "when" or "where", and so on.
Another possibility commonly used in Latin for expressing time is a participial phrase. For example, the temporal clauses id postquam audīvit (Nepos) [2] "after he heard this" and quod cum audīvisset (Cicero) [3] "when he heard this" both mean much the same thing as the participial phrase quō audītō (Pliny) [4] (literally, "with which heard").
Temporal clauses are very frequent in certain styles of Latin such as history, and it is not uncommon to find a sentence introduced by two or three temporal clauses, often mixed with participial phrases of time.
A common way of classifying temporal clauses is according to whether the action or situation described in the temporal clause is antecedent, contemporaneous, or subsequent to that of the main verb: [5] [6]
A. The action of the temporal clause verb is antecedent to that of the main verb:
B. The action of the temporal clause verb is contemporaneous with the main verb:
C. The action of the temporal clause is subsequent to that of the main verb:
A second way of classifying temporal clauses is whether the sentence refers to a definite time, as in the above examples, or is iterative, describing a generalisation or repeated action at an indefinite time:
A third classification is whether the main verb and hence the sentence as a whole is situated in past, present, or future time.
A fourth method of classification, followed in this article, is according to the different conjunctions used.
Roman authors differ from one another in style, and this is shown among other things by their preference for different conjunctions. The table below [7] shows the number of temporal clauses for some of the most common conjunctions in three historians of the republican period, Julius Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, and Sallust, and two poets of the following generation, Virgil and Ovid. The conjunctions are cum "when, while", postquam "after", ubi "when", ut "as, as soon as, when", simulatque "as soon as". The figures for posteāquam and simulac are included with postquam and simulatque.
| Author | cum (indic.) | cum (subj.) | postquam | ubi | ut | simulatque |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caesar | 10 | 147 | 22 | 55 | 5 | 6 |
| Nepos | 13 | 181 | 45 | 4 | 26 | 4 |
| Sallust | 22 | 24 | 90 | 119 | 0 | 0 |
| Virgil | 51 | 11 | 19 | 30 | 22 | 1 |
| Ovid | 35 | 13 | 30 | 25 | 36 | 13 |
The figures for cum here are for clauses of time only, omitting causal or concessive ones. [8]
The table shows that the narrative cum with the subjunctive is very common in Caesar and Nepos, but little used by the other three authors. Sallust used ubi more than any other of the conjunctions, but it was avoided by Nepos. Conversely, Nepos and the two poets make frequent use of ut, but it is never used by Sallust. Caesar made relatively little use of postquam compared with the other authors.
The following table [9] shows the relative use of postquam and posteāquam "after" and antequam and priusquam "before":
| Author | postquam | posteāquam | antequam | priusquam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cicero | 57 | 187 | 203 | 90 |
| Caesar | 13 | 9 | 2 | 17 |
| Nepos | 35 | 9 | 0 | 32 |
| Sallust | 89 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| Livy | 428 | 4 | 97 | 308 |
From this table it can be seen that Cicero had a clear preference for posteāquam, while the other authors preferred postquam. The conjunction antequam is more common than priusquam in Cicero, and was used to an extent by Livy, but is almost completely avoided by Caesar, Nepos, and Sallust.
The conjunctions quoad and dōnec, both meaning "until" or "as long as", also show variation. Quoad occurs 144 times in Cicero but only twice in Tacitus. [10] It is rare in poetry, occurring once in Horace and twice in Lucretius only. Conversely, dōnec is hardly found at all in writers of the republican period, but became popular under the empire; in Tacitus it occurs 140 times. [11] [12] [13]
| Author | quoad | dōnec |
|---|---|---|
| Cicero | 144 | 3 |
| Caesar | 7 | 0 |
| Sallust | 2 | 0 |
| Nepos | 11 | 0 |
| Livy 1–10 | 4 | 54 |
| Tacitus | 2 | 140 |
The tense and mood of the verb used in a temporal clause can affect the meaning. For example, cum vēnisset (pluperfect subjunctive) means "after he came", but cum vēnerat (pluperfect indicative) means "whenever he came". Or again, dum venit (present indicative) means "while he was coming", but dum venīret (imperfect subjunctive) means "until he came".
The tense and mood used in a temporal clause may also vary with the conjunction: postquam audīvit ("after he heard") uses the perfect indicative, but cum audīvisset ("when he had heard") uses the pluperfect subjunctive, although the meaning is very similar or identical. In a past context, the conjunctions postquam, ubi, ut, and simulatque tend to use the perfect or imperfect indicative, whereas cum is usually followed by the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive.
Over the three centuries between 200 BC and 100 AD, the use of the subjunctive in temporal clauses became more common. The conjunction cum mostly has the indicative in Plautus, but in Caesar the majority of cum clauses have the subjunctive. Iterative clauses (that is, those meaning "whenever...") usually have the indicative in Caesar and Cicero, but from Livy onwards the subjunctive became usual. [14] A similar increased use of the subjunctive can be seen in clauses containing dum "while / until" and priusquam "before". [15]
On the whole, temporal clauses use the indicative mood except, unless they are in indirect speech. The main exceptions are the common use of cum with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive, and clauses of the type "before X could happen" or "until such time as X might happen" which anticipate some future event.
One difference from English grammar is that in temporal clauses referring to the future (e.g. "when you receive this, write back"), the future or future perfect tense is usually used in Latin where English uses the present. Thus the Latin equivalent is "when you will have received this, write back". In such sentences, if the main verb is an imperative, the future imperative (e.g. scrībitō "write (at that time)") is used. The same tenses are used with conditional sentences starting with sī "if":
A temporal clause can come before the main clause, after it, or in the middle. It is also possible, in the case of separated prius ... quam, for the main verb to be placed in the middle of the conjunction. In the majority of cases, however, temporal clauses precede the clauses which they modify. [18] This is because the main information which the speaker wishes to communicate, or "focus" of the sentence, tends to be placed second. But if the main information is in the temporal clause (as with cum inversum clauses), they come after the main clause.
Quite frequently a topic word precedes the temporal clause conjunction. [19] The topic word sometimes comes from the temporal clause itself, for example eō and id in the following sentences:
In other sentences the topic word comes from the main clause, such as Balbum in the example below:
Sometimes several topic words can precede the temporal clause, as in the following:
The verb in the temporal clause usually comes at the end of the clause, although as the examples below show, there are occasional exceptions.
The most commonly used conjunction in temporal clauses is cum; an older spelling was quom, showing its derivation from the relative pronoun quī. The usual meaning is "when", but it can also mean "since/in view of the fact that" or "although/despite the fact that" (concessive cum). These meanings can overlap to an extent.
Grammarians usually divide the meanings into two classes: the purely temporal cum, which takes an indicative mood verb, and the circumstantial cum, which takes the subjunctive mood. The circumstantial is divided into historical, causal, and concessive uses. [24]
In the early Latin of Plautus, both types of cum were followed by the indicative mood; however, in the classical period, whenever the meaning is causal or concessive, cum is always followed by the subjunctive mood. When the meaning is purely of time, in a present or future context, the indicative is usual; in a past context, in the classical period, both subjunctive and indicative are used, but the subjunctive is much more common. [25]
When cum has the subjunctive mood, it usually expresses a fact of secondary importance. In such clauses 'the mind of the writer seems always fixed on something farther on, which is of more importance to him". [26] This is known as "circumstantial cum".
One of the most common uses of cum, often found in historical writing, is with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive, giving the circumstances in which an action took place. This is known as the "historic" or "narrative" use of cum. [27] [28]
When the tense is imperfect subjunctive, it usually describes a situation already happening when the main action took place. A common way of translating it is "while":
With the pluperfect subjunctive, it usually means "after X had happened":
Normally the verb in the main clause after a historic cum-clause will be either historic present or perfect indicative. However, sometimes the main verb is in the imperfect tense, in which case it describes a situation rather than an event. In the following sentences, the main verb does not describe a pre-existing situation, but a situation which began after the action of the temporal clause:
The following sentence, however, is ambiguous. Some translators interpret it to mean that the situation had already begun when Caesar arrived:
An alternative interpretation is that the cohorts began breaking up the bridge after Caesar arrived. In the following sentence, which has iam and the pluperfect, the situation is definitely already under way:
When both verbs are imperfect, the situations overlap in time:
Frequently, the meaning "when" shades into "since" and gives the cause of the action of the main verb. In some sentences, either interpretation (causal or temporal) is possible, while in others "seeing that" or "since" or "in view of the fact that" is better:
When cum is causal, it always takes the subjunctive even if it refers to present time: [42]
Another, less common, meaning is 'though" or "despite the fact that". The subjunctive is always used: [44]
The use of the subjunctive with the concessive meaning of cum is found even in very early Latin: [46]
Another category of cum clause argued for by some grammarians is known as "adversative", in which two situations are contrasted: [48]
Just as the relative pronoun quī followed by the subjunctive can have a generic meaning ("the sort of person who..."), so cum can also be generic (i.e. "at such a time as..."). In the following sentence the verb after cum is imperfect subjunctive: [50]
In the following, situated in future time, it is present subjunctive:
In Latin, "I heard him saying" can be expressed as "I heard him while he was saying" (or: "I heard from him while he was saying"), using a cum clause with the subjunctive. [53] This turn of phrase is used several times by Cicero:
It is also possible to use an accusative and infinitive to express this meaning:
Another way is to use a present participle:
Used with the indicative mood, the conjunction cum can mean "at that time when". [58] [59] This is known as 'temporal cum".
In the examples below, the events occur at exactly the same time, and the subjunctive could not be used:
Clauses like the above are sometimes known as "clauses of equivalent action", since the action of the temporal clause is equivalent to the action of the main clause. [62] The same grammar is used for other actions which occurred at an identical time:
In the following, the verbs describe situations which occurred co-extensively and simultaneously. The main verb is perfect indicative, the temporal clause verb is imperfect indicative:
The following has perfect in the temporal clause, and the imperfect in the main clause:
In the following, both clauses have the imperfect indicative tense:
The following has cum with the imperfect indicative, but the perfect indicative in the main clause:
In other sentences, however, the cum clause seems more circumstantial:
The following examples, where the context is similar, have cum with the subjunctive:
In the following examples, the temporal clause describes an event, while the main clause describes a situation which already existed at the time. The temporal clause verb is perfect or historic present indicative, the main clause verb is imperfect indicative:
The phrase fuit tempus cum "there was a time when" can be followed by indicative or subjunctive; but the subjunctive is more common. [53] The following example has the imperfect indicative:
While the following has imperfect subjunctive:
Another idiom using cum is the following, indicating how long a certain situation has persisted. [53] [76] The verb in both clauses is present indicative:
The length of time can also be expressed using an ordinal number:
In such sentences the cum clause can also have the perfect tense, as in the following example:
The following example shows the same type of clause situated in past time, and uses the imperfect indicative and pluperfect indicative tenses:
However, the length of time that a situation has gone on can also be expressed without using a cum clause. The main verb is present indicative:
Clauses which refer to no definite occasion, but to generalised or repeated actions ("whenever..."), usually use the indicative mood; although from Livy onwards the subjunctive mood could also be used. [86]
In present or indefinite time, if the two events are simultaneous, the present tense is used in both:
However, if the temporal clause event precedes the main clause event, the perfect indicative tense is used in the temporal clause: [89]
In a past context, if the events are contemporaneous, the imperfect indicative is used in both clauses:
But if one event is earlier than the other, the temporal clause has the pluperfect indicative, while the main clause is imperfect:
In authors from the time of Livy onwards, however, the subjunctive is sometimes used in iterative clauses:
A similar construction is also used in clauses referring to the future, whether or not they are iterative. In future sentences, where English uses a present tense in the temporal clause, the Latin idiom is to use the future tense in both clauses:
But the future perfect indicative is used if the event in the temporal clause precedes the main event, as in the famous poem of Catullus describing the number of kisses he will ask for from his mistress Lesbia:
In some sentences the circumstances are given in the main clause, while the main event is in the cum clause, which always comes second. This is known as "cum inversum" [98] or an inverted cum clause: [99] Here cum is followed by a perfect or historic present indicative:
It has been argued that the cum inversum kind of temporal clause is an innovation of Latin, not found in other early Indo-European languages. [103] In this type of sentence, there is typically an adverb such as iam "by now", vix "scarcely", or modo "just" in the main clause, and often a word such as repentē or subitō "suddenly" in the cum-clause, as in the above examples. [104]
The phrase cum prīmum means "as soon as" and it usually takes the indicative mood, just like ut or simulatque. [105] The following example has the perfect indicative:
Sometimes, however, it takes a subjunctive verb, like the ordinary historic cum. The verb inciperet below is imperfect subjunctive:
The subjunctive is also used if the clause is part of indirect speech. In the following sentence both verbs are in the historic present tense, the first one subjunctive:
Another meaning, also with the indicative, is "at that time when first":
A temporal cum clause can be used after meminī "I remember": [53]
Meminī can also be followed by an accusative and infinitive construction, combined with a temporal cum clause:
Alternatively, meminī can take an accusative and infinitive accompanied by a circumstantial cum clause with the subjunctive:
The present infinitive (perturbārī, intrāre) is used in these last two examples, since the reminiscence is a personal one. [116]
The indicative is used when the clause is more definite ("I remember that time when..."), while the subjunctive is less definite ("I remember a time when" or "I remember one of the times when...").
The combination cum ... tum sometimes introduces a temporal clause, but more often means "both ... and" or "not only ... but also" or "just as ... so also":
Another very common temporal conjunction is postquam (less commonly posteāquam or posteā quam, mainly in Cicero) "after". The most common use is when one event followed another, in which case postquam is usually followed by the perfect indicative: [105]
The usual tense used with postquam is the perfect indicative, when the length of time is given the tense is usually pluperfect: [121]
Sometimes post and quam are separated, and the time is put into the accusative case:
Rarely, quam alone stands for postquam:
Sometimes the main clause following a postquam clause is in the imperfect tense. In this case it does not represent a pre-existing situation, but a situation which began or which kept happening after the event in the postquam clause: [127]
Sometimes postquam is followed by an imperfect indicative tense. In this case the temporal clause describes not an event, but a situation which overlaps in time with the action of the main clause, as in the first example below: [105]
Such clauses often imply a spectator ("after he saw that...", "when it became clear that..."); [105] they can also be considered "quasi-causal" ("in view of the fact that..."): [131]
A situation in the temporal clause can also be expressed using a pluperfect tense:
The conjunction postquam or posteā quam can also mean "since". [131] In this case the temporal clause describes how long the situation has been going on. When the main verb is negative, the perfect tense is used in the main clause:
If the action is continuous, where English would use the perfect continuous tense, Latin uses the present tense in the main clause:
In this kind of sentence, postquam can be followed by a present tense. In one of Martial's poems, the goddess Venus describes her hold over her lover Mars:
It is even possible to have a present tense in both halves of the sentence, as in the following example from a letter to Atticus, in which Cicero complains about how few letters he's been getting since he left Rome:
Another possible translation in these sentences is "now that":
The following example, in a past context, uses the pluperfect tense in the temporal clause:
Postquam is not used of future time in most classical writers, [141] but is occasionally found in technical writers: [131]
The original meaning of ubi or ubī is "where" (it is related to ibī 'there"), and in questions it always means "where?" (the word for "when?" being quandō?); however, it can also introduce a temporal clause meaning "when" or "as soon as". In poetry, the i is usually short, but occasionally the original pronunciation ubī with a long i is found:
As with postquam, when ubi refers to a past event, it is usually followed by the perfect indicative:
A subjunctive verb after ubi may indicate indirect speech, as in the following example, where the subjunctive datum sit indicates that the words "when the signal is given" are part of the order, that is, they indicate when the shout was to be raised, not when the order was given:
The main verb following a non-iterative ubi clause in past time is almost always perfect or historic present. Very rarely, however, it can be an imperfect. In this case, as after postquam clauses, it describes a situation which is not pre-existing but which arises subsequent to the temporal clause event:
The main verb can also be a historic infinitive, representing a situation:
As with postquam, the imperfect indicative may occasionally be used after ubi, although this is not very common:
In the examples below ubi means "after" or "since" ("in view of the fact that") rather than "while":
As with other conjunctions, a perfect indicative tense after ubi may be iterative. Thus in the following example, ubi vēnī does not mean "when I came" but "whenever I come":
In a past context, a pluperfect or imperfect indicative indicates an iterative situation: [141]
From the time of Livy onwards, however, the subjunctive is also used in iterative clauses. In the following example, the tense of dīxisset is pluperfect subjunctive:
This use of the subjunctive in temporal clauses of repeated action is generally not found before Livy. [154] But Cicero uses the perfect subjunctive in the following sentence, probably because he is imagining a supposed case rather than a real one: [155]
When the verb is a generalising 2nd person singular, the subjunctive is regularly used: [14]
The other common meaning of ubi is "where". Often a word such as locus "place" or eō 'to that place" in the main clause gives the context for this meaning:
The longer form ubicumque "wherever" is nearly always used not of time but of place in classical Latin. [160]
The conjunction ut "as", "as soon as" has various meanings; when it introduces a temporal clause it is followed by an indicative mood. It is often followed by a perfect indicative such as vīdit "he saw" or vēnit "he came":
A common meaning is "as soon as", with another event following immediately:
It can also mean "as" or "while", when followed by the imperfect indicative: [131]
An ut clause with the perfect indicative can be followed by an imperfect indicative. Just as when a cum clause with the perfect indicative is followed by an imperfect, the imperfect describes a pre-existing situation:
Contrast the same tense used after a postquam or ubi clause, where the imperfect tense describes a subsequent situation (see above).
Another frequent, non-temporal, meaning of ut with the indicative is "as":
Ut is not used in sentences in future time. [141]
The word utcumque usually means "in whatever way", but there are a few places where it is used in a temporal sense to mean "whenever", as in this hymn to the Muses:
The conjunction simul atque or simul ac, also written as one word, is used in the same way as postquam or ubi. When the sentence refers to a single occasion in the past, the tense in the temporal clause is perfect indicative, as in the following examples: [105]
Sometimes simul alone is used, as in the following example: [127]
The future perfect can be used in reference to future time. Here Cicero writes to his friend Atticus:
In the following example, which describes the character of Alcibiades, the pluperfect and imperfect tenses are used in the temporal clause in an iterative sentence in past time:
When dum means "while this was happening", explaining the background circumstances of the action in the main clause, it tends to be followed by the present indicative, even in a past context: [175] [176]
In the following example, fūgit "she fled" is perfect tense, but fugit "she is fleeing", with a short u, is present tense:
However, other tenses are sometimes possible, such as the perfect in the following example:
The following has the pluperfect: [182]
In the following the imperfect indicative is used:
A clause with dum can also be iterative:
Dum with the present indicative can also be used in a future context. Pliny the Younger pleads with a sick friend to write frequently:
In republican Latin, the verb in a dum clause, just as with other temporal clauses, was changed into the subjunctive mood when in indirect speech (imperfect subjunctive in a past context, present subjunctive in a present or future context).
However, in Tacitus, there are some exceptions, when the present indicative is retained. [189]
In some authors also, such as Livy and later writers, as well as poets such as Virgil, dum can take the same construction as circumstantial cum, even when not in indirect speech, using the imperfect subjunctive: [190]
The imperfect indicative after dum usually means "as long as X was happening", referring to two situations which happened at an identical time: [192] [193]
In the above example, the perfect indicative tense fuit "it was" implies that the period of Sparta's greatness is now over. [193]
In the following, both clauses have the imperfect indicative tense:
Other tenses can be used, such as the future indicative in both halves of the following example:
The following has the present indicative in both halves:
In the following, both tenses are perfect indicative:
The conjunction dum can also mean "until". In the following, it is used with the present indicative:
More frequently in this meaning it is followed by the subjunctive. In sentences of this kind there is often an idea of "waiting for something to happen": [11] [200]
Another meaning with the subjunctive is "as long as" in the sense "provided that" (dummodō may also be used in this meaning): [206]
The negative in such provisional clauses is nē: [176]
Other conjunctions which have similar meanings to dum are dōnec and quōad. Dōnec is never used by Caesar, and almost never by Cicero, but it is very common in later writers such as Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Tacitus. [209]
The original meaning of dōnec is "until". In the following example, referring to a future situation, it is followed by a future perfect tense:
Referring to the past, the perfect indicative may be used:
As with dum, if there is some idea of waiting for something to happen, the subjunctive is used: [212]
From the Augustan period onwards [217] it can also mean "while" or "as long as":
In the above examples, the imperfect tense is used in the temporal clause, since it describes to a situation, but the perfect tense is used in the main clause, as is usual in Latin when the length of time a situation lasted is given. [220]
An early form of dōnec, but rarely used, was dōnicum (which is found in Cato, Plautus and once in Nepos). In the following example, referring to the future, dōnicum is followed by a future perfect:
Another rare form is dōnique, used four times in Lucretius and four times in Vitruvius but otherwise not found. [11] In this example it is followed by a pluperfect indicative:
The word quoad can have a non-temporal meaning ("to the extent that", "as far as"), but it can also be used in a temporal sense, meaning "as long as". [223] When referring to the past it is regularly followed by the perfect indicative tense:
Another meaning is "until":
When referring to the future, just as with cum clauses, the future or future perfect tense is used where English has a present tense:
In the following sentence, the pluperfect subjunctive is used, as if the sentence is reported speech ("I will stay until I have learned"), known as "virtual ōrātiō oblīqua": [227]
Another conjunction meaning "while" or "as long as" is quamdiū or quam diū. When referring to the past, it is frequently followed by a perfect indicative:
It can also refer to the present, with the present tense:
In the following example, the tense is future:
In the following, the imperfect indicative is used:
The original meaning is "how long?" or "how long...!", and this meaning is also found.
The adverb quotiēns means "how often" or "as often as"; but it can also be used as a conjunction meaning "whenever", as in the following example:
Cicero often writes quotiēnscumque in this meaning. In the following example, the verb is in the perfect tense:
As with other conjunctions which mean "whenever", Livy tends to use the subjunctive in iterative clauses:
The word quandō is often interrogative ("when?") but sometimes, especially in early Latin, it can be a temporal conjunction. It is usually followed by an indicative verb:
In other sentences, the meaning shades into "seeing that" or "since":
The iterative form quandōcumque is used by some authors, but it is rare:
Quandōcumque can also be an adverb meaning "one day (whenever that may be)", as if quandōcumque is short for quandōcumque erit:
The conjunctions priusquam (or prius quam) and antequam (ante quam) both mean "before". After a negative verb in the main clause, they can be translated with "until". Both are very common, although some authors prefer one (for example, Caesar almost always uses priusquam). Very rarely anteā quam is found. Another similar conjunction is prīdiē quam "on the day before".
If the main clause comes first, the conjunction is often split up, with prius or ante being placed before the verb in the main clause. This is especially so if the priority is emphasised as in the following example:
The separation is also common in negative sentences:
When referring to the past, a temporal clause with priusquam or antequam usually has the subjunctive, especially from the time of the emperor Augustus onwards. However, some sentences use the perfect indicative, especially those which are negative, such as the following: [240]
Sometimes the verb is indicative even in an affirmative sentence:
When the sentence mentions a time interval, the use of the indicative more likely: [245]
However, there are also types of sentences where the subjunctive is required even in the republican period, for example where one action is done with the hope of preventing another:
Similarly, the subjunctive is used if the meaning is "before there was a chance for something to happen":
The following has the pluperfect subjunctive:
Another reason for the subjunctive is if there is an idea of insistence ("he refused to leave before conquering..."): [253]
The subjunctive became more common, and in authors from the time of Livy onwards it is used often without any particular justification. [245] For example, in the following sentences, the relation is purely temporal:
A generalising sentence with priusquam or antequam in present time regularly has the present subjunctive, if affirmative: [253]
The following generalisation shows the present subjunctive after antequam contrasted with the present indicative after cum:
Sometimes, however, the perfect indicative may be used in a generalisation, as in the following: [259] [260]
When the main verb is negative, the perfect indicative is regular:
Referring to the future, a simple present indicative can be used in the temporal clause in sentences such as the following: [206]
The future simple is not used in these clauses. [260] However, the future perfect is used if the main verb is negative: [265]
In indirect or reported speech, the subjunctive is used in the temporal clause. However, in the following sentence the verb redīrent is understood from the context, and only an ablative absolute remains:
The subjunctive is usual if the main verb is an imperative: [253]
But the following has the indicative:
The subjunctive may also be used if the main verb is itself subjunctive, expressing a wish: [259]
However, the following wish has the present indicative in the temporal clause:
As well as temporal clauses, Latin has other ways of expressing the time of the main action in a sentence, and which can substitute for a temporal clause.
A participle phrase, or a simple participle, is often used as the equivalent of a temporal clause in Latin. Not every type of temporal clause can be replaced by a participle. The type which can be replaced are the circumstantial clauses with cum, [273] or sometimes a future indefinite cum clause.
The present participle is the equivalent of cum with the imperfect subjunctive:
The participle can be in any case, depending on whichever noun it agrees with. In the following sentence, it is in the genitive case:
Literally "he pierced with a spear the side of him (as he was) saying these things".
The perfect participle is the equivalent of cum with the pluperfect subjunctive:
When the phrase is in the ablative case, as in the example below, it is known as an ablative absolute. Such phrases most commonly use the perfect participle, but the present participle can also be used:
In view of the lack of a present participle of the verb sum "I am" in Latin, sometimes an ablative phrase alone, without a verb, can stand for a temporal clause:
A participle phrase can sometimes follow a preposition of time: [280]
Some verbal nouns, such as adventus "arrival" and reditus "return", can be used in phrases of time:
The ablative relative pronoun quō "on which" can be used to mean 'the day on which" or 'the time at which", and thus introduce a quasi-temporal clause, as in the following examples from the historian Curtius. The pluperfect subjunctive is used, as the clauses are included in a sentence of indirect speech:
The feminine quā is similarly used to refer to a night:
The cum inversum kind of temporal clause is sometimes expressed in poetry simply by two sentences joined by et, atque or -que "and", as in the following example from Virgil: [289]
Temporal clauses and participial phrases standing for temporal clauses are especially common in historical writing. Nutting [291] cites the following typical example from Julius Caesar, where a temporal clause with cum is placed between two participle phrases:
In Nepos comes this sentence with a temporal clause, an ablative absolute, and a main verb: [293]
Livy also writes sentences containing a mixture of participial and temporal clauses. The following sentence has four participles or participial phrases, a cum clause, and a postquam clause, followed by the main verb:
In the following sentence by Cicero, two different temporal clauses, with ut and cum, follow each other:
Allen and Greenough cite this sentence from Livy, which consists of two temporal clauses, and no fewer than six perfect participles: [293]
These long sentences, in which a number of subordinate clauses and participle phrases are followed by a main verb, are known as "periods". [293]
In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
The subjunctive is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that has not yet occurred; the precise situations in which they are used vary from language to language. The subjunctive is one of the irrealis moods, which refer to what is not necessarily real. It is often contrasted with the indicative, a realis mood which principally indicates that something is a statement of fact.
Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is conditional on the dependent clause. A full conditional thus contains two clauses: a dependent clause called the antecedent, which expresses the condition, and a main clause called the consequent expressing the result.
The pluperfect, usually called past perfect in English, characterizes certain verb forms and grammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "we had arrived" before the game began; "they had been writing" when the bell rang.
In French grammar, verbs are a part of speech. Each verb lexeme has a collection of finite and non-finite forms in its conjugation scheme.
The sequence of tenses is a set of grammatical rules of a particular language, governing the agreement between the tenses of verbs in related clauses or sentences.
Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, indirect discourse (US), or ōrātiō oblīqua, is the practice, common in all Latin historical writers, of reporting spoken or written words indirectly, using different grammatical forms. Passages of indirect speech can extend from a single phrase to an entire paragraph, and this style was generally preferred by Roman historians to the direct speech commonly found in Greek authors.
The conditional mood is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
In linguistics, speech or indirect discourse is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse. In fiction, the "utterance" might amount to an unvoiced thought that passes through a stream of consciousness, as reported by an omniscient narrator.
In Latin grammar, the subjunctive by attraction is a name given when the verb in a relative clause or a temporal clause which is closely dependent on a subjunctive verb becomes subjunctive itself. The name also applies to subjunctives used when a subordinate clause is "so closely connected with an infinitive as to form an integral part of" it.
Tense–aspect–mood or tense–modality–aspect is an important group of grammatical categories, which are marked in different ways by different languages.
This article discusses the conjugation of verbs in a number of varieties of Catalan-Valencian, including Old Catalan. Each verbal form is accompanied by its phonetic transcription. Widely used dialectal forms are included, even if they are not considered standard in either of the written norms: those of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. Other dialectal forms exist, including those characteristic of minor dialects such as Ribagorçan and Algherese and transitional forms of major dialects.
Portuguese verbs display a high degree of inflection. A typical regular verb has over fifty different forms, expressing up to six different grammatical tenses and three moods. Two forms are peculiar to Portuguese within the Romance languages:
Latin syntax is the part of Latin grammar that covers such matters as word order, the use of cases, tenses and moods, and the construction of simple and compound sentences, also known as periods.
The main Latin tenses can be divided into two groups: the present system, consisting of the present, future, and imperfect; and the perfect system, consisting of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect.
Conditional clauses in Latin are clauses which start with the conjunction sī 'if' or the equivalent. The 'if'-clause in a conditional sentence is known as the protasis, and the consequence is called the apodosis.
From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.
In Latin, there are different modes of indicating past, present and future processes. There is the basic mode of free clauses and there are multiple dependent modes found exclusively in dependent clauses. In particular, there is the 'infinitive' mode for reported satetements and the 'subjunctive' mode for reported questions.
From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.