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How would you translate: "He asked if the the city had been captured?"

Quaerit num civitatem captum esse?

Here I am using an accusative (captum) plus infinitive (esse).

Am I right?

Thank you!

2 Answers 2

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As an indirect question in subjunctive: "Quaerit an/utrum civitas capta sit."

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    You are right !
    – NVaughan
    Oct 9, 2019 at 2:50
  • Note that this means "he asks whether the city is captured".
    – Cerberus
    Oct 12, 2019 at 4:21
  • I don't think so: "capta sit" is past perfect passive subjunctive.
    – NVaughan
    Oct 12, 2019 at 15:34
  • Then what is perfect passive subjunctive?
    – Cerberus
    Oct 12, 2019 at 20:40
  • "Perfect" is short for "past perfect". "Quaerit utrum civitas capiatur" is in present subjective passive: "He/she asks whether the city is captured". On the other hand, "Quaerit utrum civitas capta sit" is in past perfect subjunctive passive, and it means "He/she asks whether the city has been captured". (Note that "an" and "utrum" are somewhat equivalent for the purpose of making indirect questions.)
    – NVaughan
    Oct 12, 2019 at 21:35
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An indirect question always uses subjunctive (also called conjunctive) in Latin. You just write the question as if it were a normal question, and then change indicative to subjunctive.

An accusative with infinitive cannot be used for indirect questions. Unless the question contains a question word (quis, quando, or similar), an indirect question is often introduced with an or utrum.

The translation suggested by NVaughan is great.

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