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A negative order can also use the perfect subjunctive: [8] dē mē nihil timuerīs [9] 'do not be afraid on my account' In later Latin, nē plus the present subjunctive became more common, for example in the Vulgate Bible. In the following example the first three verbs use the present subjunctive, and the third the perfect subjunctive:
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); [5] and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both hostium castra and castra hostium; the latter is more common). [6]
For other examples of this see Latin conditional clauses#Conditional clauses of comparison. In indirect questions in a historic context, an imperfect subjunctive usually represents the transformation of a present indicative. [347] In the examples below the imperfect subjunctive represents a situation which is contemporary with the main verb:
The negative gerundive usually means 'not needing to be', as in the first example above. However, sometimes the interpretation 'ought not to be' or 'it isn't possible for it to be' is more appropriate: illud enim iam nōn es admonendus nēminem bonum esse nisī sapientem (Seneca) [3]
If the person in control of the desired state of affairs is the addressee(s), the utterance is an imperative. In any other case, it is a hortative. Consider the following examples: May he live a hundred years! (optative) Sing! (imperative) Let's sing! (hortative) (1) illustrates an optative.
Examples of 'infinitive' dependent clauses - secondary past Inner Meaning Outer Meaning Paradigm Latin example English translation Comment relative past past in present 'perfect infinitive' patrem lanium fuisse, ferunt (Livy) [15] 'they say that his father was a butcher' [the fact] that x did in English
Latin is a pro-drop language; that is, pronouns in the subject are usually omitted except for emphasis, so for example amās by itself means "you love" without the need to add the pronoun tū "you". Latin also exhibits verb framing in which the path of motion is encoded into the verb rather than shown by a separate word or phrase.
A common idiom in Latin is for a conditional clause, especially one starting sī forte 'if by chance', to mean 'to see if by chance' or 'on the off chance that'. [144] This is common in contexts such as 'go to see if', 'try to see if' and 'wait to see if': In the following example, the present indicative is used: