16
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Why doesn't Caesar use the subjunctive consistently?
The answer is perhaps surprisingly simple: they're all indicatives! Commeant is from commeare, which is of the first conjugation: the a is part of the present stem of the verb, so the a does not ...
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15
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Use of "sit" instead of "est" in Virgil
The direct question 'What is love?' has been embedded into another sentence, forming an indirect question. An indirect question 'gives the substance of the question, adapted to the form of the ...
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15
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'fuam' and 'forem' not available in first and second person plural?
Why no fuamus?
There is an enormous difference in the frequencies of different forms of any word.
It is instructive to compare the more common versions first:
The form sit gives 6985 hits, while simus ...
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14
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Can a subjunctive verb ever be modified by οὐ? (Greek)
A subjunctive is practically never negated with οὐ.
The only systematic exception I can find -- and even this is rare -- is in Homer, where the use of the subjunctive is somewhat different from Attic;...
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11
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Why is there no future perfect subjunctive in Latin?
It's not just Latin. As far as I'm aware, the only language that has a future subjunctive is Spanish, and it's disappearing there as well. (I don't speak Spanish, so I can't say from personal ...
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11
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Subjunctive mood in Latin
The subjunctive in Latin tends to indicate potential, possible, or unreal actions. To my ears, velisne? means something like "potentially, in the future, might you want it?"
The indicative, on the ...
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10
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"..so that others may live", future subjunctive?
This is a simple purpose clause, and so you'll want to the present subjective, ut alii vivant. (Note that you'll want to turn the accusative alios into the nominative alii since it's the subject of ...
cmw♦
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10
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how to tell when to use cum temporal and when cum circumstantial
Proposal:
Stop trying to classify all subordinate clauses.
Subordinate clauses with cum can express a number of different things, and they often overlap.
Reason, circumstance, and time are very ...
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10
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'diceres vocem eius audiri posse' in 'Fabulae Syrae' in the story of Arachne (pag. 83), what is the correct translation of diceres?
The use is the so-called potential subjunctive. The relevant sections of Gildersleeve and Lodge, Latin grammar, are 257ff.
258. The Potential of the Past is the Imperfect Subjunctive, chiefly in the ...
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9
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What's the difference between coniunctivus and subiunctivus?
There's no „classical Latin“ when it comes to grammar, as Latin grammarians flourished during Late antiquity. The most famous of them all (and synonymous with „grammar“ through the Middle Ages), ...
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9
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Memento quod <subjunctive>
Let us first look at the Latin Vulgate, which had an enormous influence on medieval Latin. The exact phrase memento quod occurs 5 times (of which 4, interestingly, are in Deuteronomy) and each ...
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9
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weird pluperfect subjunctive in Eutropius
This is a quirk of conditions in indirect statement: a perfect subjunctive in the protasis of a future less vivid condition turns to pluperfect subjunctive when in indirect statement. For examples see ...
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8
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What is the optative?
Latin as we know it never had an optative mood as distinct from the subjunctive, so this answer will be largely about Proto-Indo-European (PIE), which did.
PIE had both a subjunctive mood and an ...
- 30.4k
8
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Why was the subjunctive mood 'so called because the Greek subjunctive mood is used almost exclusively in subordinate clauses'?
Can someone please expound and enlarge on this sentence? Why was the subjunctive mood 'regarded as specially appropriate to ‘subjoined’ or subordinate clauses'?
Perhaps you are looking at it the ...
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7
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Using subjunctive in relative clause linked to indirect command
The basic sentence structure can broken down into three component parts:
imperavi militi, "I ordered" - main clause, indicative
ut flores conligeret, "the soldier to collect flowers&...
cmw♦
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7
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What mood should the verb of a relative clause within a purpose clause be?
Indicative seems to be correct for both languages. It's true that Latin has a so-called "subjunctive by attraction", whereby a verb in a subordinate clause that depends on a subjunctive will itself be ...
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7
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Passive Subjunctive Translated as Active
The verb in question (minor, -ari, -atus) is a deponent verb, which means that it has a passive form but an active meaning.
There are many such verbs in Latin. Consider the following cases:
Multa ...
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7
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Why is there no future perfect subjunctive in Latin?
Latin does have something that resembles future and future perfect conjunctive (subjunctive): the periphrastic conjugation in conjunctive.
The periphrastic present forms are formed from the present ...
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7
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Why is there no future perfect subjunctive in Latin?
Alongside Joel's and Nick's answers, I'd like to call into question your English presumptions. To my ears, there's no different between "were to have" and "had", i.e. the pluperfect. Consider the ...
cmw♦
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7
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Use of subjunctinve in a North & Hillard translation exercise
You do need a subjunctive, but here the pluperfect diminutus esset rather the imperfect that you propose provides the correct sequence of tenses. Just as the English omits the auxiliary verb, so has ...
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7
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Accusative in genitive relative clause with verb finiebat
There aren't any special uses involved here; your incorrect assumption is that embolum (navis) aeneum is accusative -- in fact it's the nominative subject of finiebat. Literally, "one part of which a ...
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7
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Why would the subjunctive be used when the indicative seems to be required?
In Latin, cum is a standard way to introduce a dependent clause. These cum clauses can indicate circumstance ("when he saw it"), cause ("because he saw it"), or adversity ("...
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Why subjunctive in "Cumque transissent septem dies..."
(Disclaimer: The answer to Vulgate questions is often found in the original text. I know no Hebrew and will just attempt an answer from an inner Latin point of view.)
In historical narration, if an ...
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6
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Consecutio temporum et praesens historicum
In English, your consecutio temporum is usually called the ‘sequence of tenses’. There is a general rule that in the principal sentence (i) a primary tense is followed in the subordinate clause by a ...
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6
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Choosing conjunctive tenses in a clause subordinate to a subordinate clause
This is what Adolf V. Streng (Latinan kielioppi, 5th edition, 1936) says in §161.2:
Finnish: Toisen tahi kolmannen asteen konjunktiivinen sivulause mukautuu predikaattinsa tempuksen puolesta sitä ...
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6
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The difference between coniunctivus and imperativus when expressing commands
Hmm. My understanding is that the bare subjunctive as a positive request/command is actually rather rare in classical Latin. Woodcock's New Latin Syntax, p. 97, after a discussion of noli, nolite + ...
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6
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Can a subjunctive verb ever be modified by οὐ? (Greek)
Pretty much never.
LSJ's entry on οὐ mentions οὐ + subjunctive only once:
...with subj[unctive] in fut[ure] sense, only in Ep[ic], “οὐ γάρ τίς με βίῃ γε ἑκὼν ἀέκοντα δίηται” 7.197; “οὐκ ἄν τοι χραίς ...
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6
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Help finding the use of the subjunctive
This is an indirect command (entirely separate from indirect questions). The key is the word ut, which indirect questions don't use.
Ut in Latin can introduce four types of clauses: purpose, result, ...
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6
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Expressing English modalities of advice in Latin
One way you can do this is using the verb debeo, debere, debui, debitus, which not only means "to owe," but also "ought/should." It's relatively simple in its construction, so lets go through each ...
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Subjunctive with adverb “quam”
This is an indirect question and indirect questions always use the subjunctive (also known as conjunctive) mood.
If you want more examples and details, please the linked discussion in Allen and ...
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