Afraid it has happened, afraid to act

Tenses: the sequence again

A fearing clause follows the sequence of tenses. The left column fears what may come; the right column fears what may already have happened.

• Timeo ne venerit. - I am afraid that he/she has come.
• Timebam ne veniret. - I was afraid that he/she would come.
• Timebam ne venisset. - I was afraid that he/she had come.

A fear about the future needs no -urus participle, unlike an indirect question: the present and imperfect subjunctive already face forward, because a fear is by nature about what might come.

Fear with an infinitive, fear with a noun

With an infinitive the fear stops you doing something yourself; with ne the feared thing is an event, often someone else's. English draws the same line with afraid to and afraid that. The angel's words to Joseph use the infinitive:

Ioseph fili David, noli timere accipere Mariam coniugem tuam.

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. (Matthew 1:20, Vulgate)

And the most quoted fear in Latin takes a plain accusative. Laocoon, on the wooden horse:

quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis.

Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts. (Virgil, Aeneid 2.49)

ne in three jobs, side by side

Fearing clauses share ne with two constructions where it really does mean not. Sort every ne by the main verb before you translate it.

The first two are the same clause after different verbs: he/she was afraid that he/she would be captured against he/she fled so as not to be captured.