Comparison Of Adjectives

Simple Sentences

3. Rhetoric, Unreal, Impossible, Indirect Discourse

3.1 Rhetoric, Unreal, Impossible Discourses

3.1.1 Expressing pure hypothesis for the past

-> Imperfect subjunctive, 2nd person

Ista non crederes. (One would not have believed those things.)

3.1.2 A statement admitted as real temporarily which one does not believe

-> Present subjunctive (present)

Sit fur! (Let us suppose that he is a thief! But in fact he is not and we will demonstrate that.)

-> Perfect subjunctive (past)

Malus civis fuerit! (Let us supose that he has been a bad citizen! But in fact he has been a good citizen and we will demonstrate that.)

3.1.3 Wish for something impossible in the present

-> Imperfect subjunctive

Illud utinam ne vere scriberem! (Would that I were not really writing it! But unfortunately I am really writing it.)

3.1.4 Wish for something impossible in the past

-> Pluperfect subjunctive

Utinam nostri vicissent! (If only our people had won! But unfortunately they lost.)

3.1.5 Wish an event in the past without knowing whether possible or not

-> Perfect subjunctive - utinam

Utinam litteras meas acceperis! (Hopefully you received my letter! You may have received it or not.)

3.1.6 Asking about a possibility

-> Present subjunctive

Veniasne mecum? (Would you come with me? If I go, and I may actually do so.)

-> Perfect subjunctive

3.1.7 Asking questions contrary to a fact in the present

-> Imperfect subjunctive

Veniresne mecum? (Wold you come with me? If I were going, but I am not.)

3.1.8 Asking questions contrary to a fact in the past

-> Pluperfect subjunctive

Venissesne mecum? (Would you have come with me? If I had gone, but I did not.)

3.1.9 Doubt in the present or future

-> Present subjunctive

Quo me nunc vertam? Undique custodior. (Where to turn now? Guards are watching me from everywhere.)

3.1.10 Doubt about the past

-> Imperfect subjunctive

Quid tunc agerem? (What was I to do at that moment?)

3.2 INDIRECT DISCOURSE

3.2.1 The declarative sentences become accusative with infinitive.

Cicero dicebat historiam esse magistram vitae. (Cicero said that history is a teacher of life.)

3.2.2 The possibility-indicating subjunctive (present subjunctive, perfect subjunctive) becomes a future infinitive.

Dixit non facile se domum esse relicturum.(He said that he would not easily abandon his home.)

3.2.3 The unreality-indicating subjunctive (imperfect subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive) becomes a perfect infinitive of the periphrastic conjugation.

Dixit sine auxilio se non fuisse victurum. (He said that he would not have won without help.)

Source: Milena Minkova "Introduction to Latin Prose Composition", Wimbledon Publishing Company, London:2001.

　