Purpose clauses: ut and ne

A purpose clause says what somebody was aiming at; a result clause says what actually followed. Both are ut plus the subjunctive. The negative and a signpost word tell them apart, and the main verb picks the tense.

Cum is the third conjunction that takes a subjunctive; it has its own page.

ut is not one word

Before anything else, check the mood of the verb in the ut clause.

The indicative rules out the whole subjunctive family at once. Only a subjunctive verb makes ut a purpose, a result or a reported command.

Purpose: ut and ne

A purpose clause is ut plus the subjunctive; so as not to is ne, never ut non.

English has half a dozen ways to say it (to, in order to, so as to, so that he might), and Latin has one. Write whichever English is least awkward.

Quintilian's example of a neat reversal is two purpose clauses back to back:

Non ut edam vivo, sed ut vivam edo.

I do not live to eat; I eat to live. (Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 9.3.85)

The sequence in a purpose clause

The main verb decides the tense. A present or future main verb takes the present subjunctive; a past one takes the imperfect.

The imperfect subjunctive is the infinitive plus the personal ending (servare becomes servarent), which is why -re- is the sign to look for. A perfect meaning have done can count as present (misit ut servent, he/she has sent them to guard it), but Latin writers more often treat every perfect as past.

A purpose always lies ahead of the verb that aims at it, so a purpose clause does not take the perfect or pluperfect subjunctive. The full table is on the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive page.