Independent Subjunctives

Table of contents

1. Independent Uses of the Subjunctive
2. Deliberative Subjunctive
3. Potential Subjunctive
4. Optative Subjunctive
5. Summary

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Independent Uses of the Subjunctive

The subjunctive mood can be used either in independent clauses, which stand alone and communicate a complete thought, or dependent clauses, which are introduced by a subordinating conjunction or pronoun and need the context of a main clause to make sense. This unit handles three types of independent clauses that use a subjunctive verb as the main verb because the idea communicated by the main clause isn’t factual or verifiable (as verbs in the indicative mood would indicate).

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Deliberative Subjunctive

The deliberative subjunctive, as the name implies, indicates that the speaker is deliberating on, or thinking about, what course of action should be taken or should have been taken. For example:

• Should they come out of the city?
• Should they have come out of the city?

The answer to the question is a matter of subjective opinion, and the speaker is thinking about and deliberating on the action in the question. The question may even be rhetorical in nature. Because these questions don’t dwell in the realm of verifiable fact (as indicated by the helping verb “should”), we need to use the subjunctive moood for the verb in this kind of question.

The tense of the deliberative subjunctive indicates when this course of action should occur:

• the present (“should this happen right now?”) is indicated by the present subjunctive:
  • veniant ex urbe? “Should they come out of the city?”
• the past (“should this have happened in the past”, with the implication that it didn’t actually happen) is indicated by the imperfect subjunctive, even if its translation seems to sound like the perfect tense:
  • venīrent ex urbe? “Should they have come out of the city?”

You can identify the deliberative subjunctive by the use of a subjunctive verb as a main verb in a sentence that ends with a question mark.

You should translate the deliberative subjunctive with the auxiliary verb “should”, with the core of the verb changing depending on tense and voice and with the word order rearranged to indicate a question (i.e., put the “should” at the start of the sentence and let the subject come in between the “should” and the main verb). For example:

• dent nautae ducī aurum? Should the sailors give the gold to the leader? (3rd pl. present active subjunctive)
• dētur aurum ā nautīs ducī? Should the gold be given by the sailors to the leader? (3rd pl. present passive subjunctive)
• ille urbem regeret? Should that man have ruled the city? (3rd sg. imperfect active subjunctive)
• urbs ab illō regerētur? Should the city have been ruled by that man? (3rd sg. imperfect passive subjunctive)

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Potential Subjunctive

The potential subjunctive indicates something that may, might, could, or would happen, either in the future or the past, but it’s uncertain whether it will or did happen. If it were certain, then we could use the indicative mood. The subjunctive in this case adds that note of possibility or doubt.

To indicate a potential action in the future, Latin uses the present subjunctive or, rarely, the perfect subjunctive:

• nauta eōs videat. The sailor may see them.
• nauta eōs vīderit. The sailor may see them.
• equus veniat. The horse might come.
• līberī canant. The children may sing.

To indicate a potential action in the past, Latin uses the imperfect subjunctive. Note that although the translation sounds like a perfect tense, the Latin uses the imperfect:

• nauta eōs vidēret. The sailor may have seen them.

Potential subjunctives are negated with nōn:

• eam nōn audiant. They may not hear her.

Sometimes, there will be signal words like forsitan (“perhaps”) or fortasse (“perhaps”, usually with indicative but sometimes with subjunctive) to indicate the presence of a potential subjunctive:

• forsitan bona dīcat. Perhaps he may say good things.
• fortasse laetī essent. Perhaps they might have been happy.

Often, the potential is used with verbs like volō*, nōlō, mālō, and possum to indicate a note of politeness or deference:

• mālit hoc facere. He would prefer to do this.
• velit regem vidēre. She would like to see the king.

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Optative Subjunctive

The optative subjunctive expresses a wish. This wish could express something that the speaker hopes will happen in the future or something that the speaker wishes happened in the past (but didn’t).

Optative subjunctives are often introduced by an adverb like utinam (“if only,” “would that”, “I wish that”). Optatives are negated by utinam nē or simply nē (“if only … not”, “would that … not”, “I wish that … not”).

Wishes for a future action are indicated with the present subjunctive and are translated with the auxiliary verb “would [verb]”:

• utinam dīcat! If only he would speak!
• utinam nē hostēs mīlitem videant! If only the enemies would not see the soldier!

Wishes for a present action that is not coming to fruition are indicated with the imperfect subjunctive and are translated with the auxiliary verb: “were [verb]ing”:

• utinam venīret! If only he were coming!
• nē hostēs fortēs essent! If only the enemies weren’t strong!

Wishes for a past action that did not come to fruition are indicated with the pluperfect subjunctive and are translated with the auxiliary verb “had [verb]ed”:

• utinam fēmina hoc carmen cecinisset! If only the woman had sung this song!
• utinam nē id vīdisset! If only he hadn’t seen it!

Note that the latter two (present wish indicated by imperfect subjunctive and past wish indicated by pluperfect subjunctive) both express impossible situations that can’t be fulfilled – this impossibility, or contrary-to-fact nature of the verbal actions, results in the use of the subjunctive mood. For example, utinam venīret! (“If only he were coming!”) implies strongly that he is, in fact, not coming, but the speaker wishes that he were.

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Summary

In sum, the independent uses of the subjunctive are as follows:

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