Latin Fearing Clauses: timeo ne, timeo ut and ne non

After a verb of fearing, ne means that and ut means that not. Timeo ne veniat is I am afraid that he/she will come. That is the reverse of what every other ut and ne has taught you, and it catches almost every learner the first time.

The rule on one screen

The first three lines are the fearing clause proper. The last two are the other things a fear verb can take, further down the page.

Fearing clauses introduced by timeo and ne are on the OCR GCSE Latin prescribed syntax list.

Why ne means that

It is not perverse once you see where it came from. A fearing clause began as two thoughts side by side: a fear, and a wish about the thing feared.

Ne is the ordinary negative of a wish: ne veniat, may he/she not come. Wishing that someone will not come is the same as fearing that they will. Fuse the two thoughts and English turns the wish inside out: I am afraid that he/she will come.

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1. 1Timeo ne canis mordeat.

A cave canem mosaic, beware of the dog, guards the door. The visitor's thought is a fearing clause: timeo ne canis mordeat, I am afraid that the dog will bite (once: I am afraid. May the dog not bite!).

So do not translate the ne at all. Read timeo ne as one unit, I am afraid that, and the clause after it as the thing feared.

ut or ne non?

Both mean that not. The difference is habit, not meaning.

• Non timeo ne non veniat. - I am not afraid that he/she will not come.
• Timeo ne dux non redeat. - I am afraid that the leader will not come back.

The non need not sit beside the ne. And the two do not cancel out: read ne ... non as that ... not, never as a double negative.

The words of fearing

The nouns work just like the verbs: there was a fear that the enemy would come; there is a danger that the city will be captured. Vereor is deponent, so it looks passive and means I am afraid.

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.

Reading one: a worked example

Cives, cum hostes venire audivissent, timebant ne urbs caperetur.

1. Main verb timebant, a fear, past: expect ne = that and an imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive.
2. Cum ... audivissent: cum with the pluperfect subjunctive, when they had heard; inside it, hostes venire is an indirect statement.
3. Ne urbs caperetur: imperfect subjunctive passive, a fear about the future from a past viewpoint.

When the citizens had heard that the enemy were coming, they were afraid that the city would be captured.

The classic trap, and its relatives

If you are unsure which ne you are looking at, go back to the three jobs: the main verb decides.

What to do next

1. Learn timeo ne veniat and timeo ut veniat as a fixed pair.
2. Write the four tenses with timeo and timebam.
3. Then go back over purpose clauses and indirect commands, and sort every ne you find into its three jobs.