The Latin Subjunctive: amet, amaret, sit, esset

The subjunctive is a mood, not a tense. It marks a verb as ordered, wished, intended or imagined, not stated as fact. The present subjunctive changes one vowel; the imperfect adds the endings to the infinitive.

On its own in a main clause, it gives orders and makes wishes. Inside other clauses it does far more, and the lessons that follow this one build on it.

A mood, not a tense

Latin verbs have three moods:

So a subjunctive has no fixed English translation. The same veniat is let him come on its own, and so that he may come after ut. Learn the form, then read the clause around it.

The present subjunctive: change the vowel

The first conjugation swaps its -a- for an -e-. Every other conjugation takes an -a-:

The -io verbs and the fourth conjugation keep their -i- and add the -a-: capiat, let him take; audiat, let him hear.

The endings are the ordinary ones, except -m for I instead of -o.

sum, possum, volo, eo

The common irregulars are short and worth learning as a block:

Two of them are famous on their own:

• Fiat lux. - Let there be light. (Genesis 1:3, in the Vulgate)
• Sit tibi terra levis. - May the earth lie light on you. (a Roman epitaph, so common it was carved as S T T L)

The imperfect subjunctive: infinitive plus ending

Take the present active infinitive, exactly as the dictionary prints it, and add -m, -s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt:

The irregular verbs need no rule of their own: their infinitives are the irregular part, and the trick uses them as they stand. A word that looks like an infinitive with an ending stuck on is an imperfect subjunctive.

On its own, it makes a wish about now that cannot come true:

• Utinam adesset! - If only he were here! (He is not.)

Two details

Passive forms

Put the passive endings (-r, -ris, -tur) on the same stems:

The first petition of the Lord's Prayer is one, a present passive subjunctive:

• Sanctificetur nomen tuum. - Hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9, in the Vulgate)

Sequatur is a deponent: let him follow, active as always.

On its own: let us, may he, what am I to do?

A subjunctive standing alone in a main clause does one of three jobs:

Catullus opens a poem with two of the first kind:

• Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus. - Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. (Catullus 5.1)

Church Latin still carves one on gravestones: Requiescat in pace, may he rest in peace, the R.I.P. of English graveyards.

The negative: ne, except in a question

An order to you uses the imperative instead: Noli timere, do not be afraid.

The softened statement

A fourth, gentler use turns a statement into a possibility. Recognise it; you will rarely need to write it:

• Velim venias. - I should like you to come.
• Dicat aliquis... - Someone might say...

Spotting one: one vowel

In the third conjugation, three tenses sit one vowel apart:

And one pair cannot be split at all. In the third and fourth conjugations, I in the future and I in the present subjunctive are the same word: ducam is I shall lead and let me lead; audiam is I shall hear and may I hear. Only the sentence decides.

The imperfect subjunctive, mercifully, looks like nothing else.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Say vocet, habeat, dicat, audiat until the vowel swap is automatic.
2. Build the imperfect from any infinitive you know: esse, essem; posse, possem.
3. Then meet the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive, then purpose, result and cum clauses.