L
ATIN FOR
R
ESEARCH IN THE
H
UMANITIES
S EMINAR 14
I NDEPENDENT S UBJUNCTIVES
Subjunctives may be used in main clauses in a number of ways:
(1) The Jussive Subjunctive
As we have noted in a previous seminar, the jussive subjunctive is a form of command and can be translated as ‘ let….
’:
Ludos spectemus!
Let us watch the games!
A negative jussive statement uses ne (not non ), and ‘neither …nor…’ is expressed using neve…neve… :
Milites neve culpent neve contemnent ducem.
Let the soldiers neither blame nor despise their general .
(2) The Optative Subjunctive
The optative subjunctive is a species of wish. An optative statement is often introduced by utinam (‘if only’ or ‘would that’) and – like the jussive – it is made negative using ne . It is important to note that a specific rule governs the use of tenses in sentences involving the optative subjunctive:
Future
Present
Past
Consider the following examples: present subjunctive imperfect subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive
Beatus sis!
May you be happy!
Utinam ne quid dicisses!
If only you hadn’t said anything!
(3) The Deliberative Subjunctive
The deliberative subjunctive expresses an uncertainty as to what should be done and are commonly used to discuss possible courses of action in a given situation. Common sense governs the use of tenses.
Quid dicam?
What am I to say?
Utrum pugnemus an fugiamus?
Should we fight or run away?
1

Note that in reported deliberative questions, the deliberative verb is naturally still in the subjunctive, and it looks like any other reported question: its sense only becomes clear from the context.
(4) The Potential Subjunctive
The potential subjunctive expresses something that would or might happen in a given situation. The tense of the subjunctive in such statements obeys the same rule as for optative subjunctives, above.
Quid tu tum fecisses?
What would you have done then?
The verbs most commonly used in statements involving a potential subjunctive are velim (I should like), vellem , nolim , nollem , malim , mallem . These normally govern an infinitive – so much is only logical ( velim ire – I should like to go) – but only where there is no change of subject. If the subjunctive and the infinitive relate to different subjects, however, they have an optative subjunctive ‘half-dependent’ on them, without a conjunction such as ut . Again, this is fairly logical: compare the English sentences ‘I would like to go’ and ‘I would like them to go’ (or, to express the half-dependence of the optative more clearly, ‘I would like (that) they should go’). Note the use of tenses in the following examples, where the time referred to by the ‘half-dependent’ optative subjunctive varies:
Velim venias.
Vellem adessent.
Mallem abissent.
I should like you to come . Future time
I could wish they were here.
Present time
I would rather they had gone.
Past time
A further point to note is that when used of the past, certain verbs are most commonly used in the imperfect rather than the pluperfect: the most striking examples are the frequently rhetorical crederes and putares (you would have thought), and diceres (you would have said).
Nihil respondit: putares eum non audivisse.
He didn’t reply: you would have thought he had not heard.
Exercises
(1) Sit sermo lenis. (Cicero)
(2) Quid faciam? Invenias argentum. (Terence)
(3) Tum velim saepe ad nos scribas.
(4) Haec cum viderem, quid agerem, iudices?
(5) Epistulam statim recitet.
(6) Equitem an ambulem?
(7) Utinam ne capiatur!
2