Latin Clauses

ARCHITECTURE OF THE LATIN SENTENCE: CLAUSES IN REVIEW

If a clause can stand alone and make sense as a sentence, it is an independent clause. Independent clauses can be linked by coordinating conjunctions, such as and, or, and but.

MAIN CLAUSES

Main clauses most often take a verb in the indicative mood, as that is the form appropriate to statements of fact, or questions of fact. Sometimes however a main clause will have a verb in the imperative mood, if the utterance is a direct command. And the subjunctive mood may be found in a main clause if the utterance describes, not a factual situation, but what the speaker or writer intends to have happen, deems a possible occurrence, or wishes would happen.

The writer’s will or intention is expressed in the jussive subjunctive, which is sometimes referred to as the hortatory subjunctive, or, in a question, the deliberative subjunctive. “Let’s go!”, “What should we do?”, and “Everybody should cooperate on this,” are examples of utterances which would be translated into Latin with a main verb in the hortatory/deliberative/jussive subjunctive. The negative associated with this subjunctive usage is the Latin ne.

Possibilities are described with the use of the potential subjunctive, which would be used in the Latin equivalent of a statement such as “It might rain tomorrow,” or “We wouldn’t do a thing like that.” The negative associated with this subjunctive usage is non.

The optative subjunctive, expressing a wish, is less common than the jussive or the potential, and is usually tipped off by an ‘utinam’ or ‘uti’; this is the kind of subjunctive that would translate an utterance like “I wish it would rain tomorrow,” or “If only we could foresee the outcomes of our actions!”

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

A subordinate clause – sometimes called dependent clause – is usually introduced by a subordinating element such as a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. Taken with that introductory element, it does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Subordinate clauses function as virtual nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

NOUN CLAUSES

A noun clause is usually the object, but sometimes the subject, of a finite verb. Types of noun clauses occurring in Latin are:

Indirect question: ‘I know where he lives,’ where the object of the main verb is the whole underlined clause (cf ‘I know his address’, where the object is simply a noun). The indirect question will start with the same kind of a question-word as any direct question – who, what, where, when, why, and the like – and will have a verb in the subjunctive mood.

Jussive noun clause, sometimes called Indirect command: ‘He told us that we should follow him,’ where the object of the main verb is the whole underlined clause (cf ‘He told us his plan,’ where the object is simply a noun – or, ‘He told us what we should do,’ where the object is an indirect question). The jussive noun clause will begin with ut or ne, and have a verb in the subjunctive mood.

Simple noun clause, much less common than the jussive noun clause: ‘It embarrasses me that I did this,’ (= ‘the fact that I did this embarrasses me,’ where the subject of the main verb is the whole underlined clause; cf ‘This situation embarrasses me,’ where the subject is a noun). The simple noun clause begins with quod and normally has an indicative verb.

Fear clause: ‘I fear that the enemy will ambush us,’ where the object of the main verb is the whole underlined clause (cf ‘I fear the enemy,’ where the object is simply a noun). The fear clause will begin with ne or ut, and have a verb in the subjunctive mood.

ADJECTIVAL CLAUSES

Adjectival clauses are introduced by the relative pronoun or an equivalent. In Latin, the relative clause is simple if it has an indicative verb; with a subjunctive verb, it may be a relative clause of purpose, a relative clause of characteristic, or a relative clause of result.

Simple relative clause: ‘That is the family which lives next door,’ where the whole underlined clause functions as an adjective limiting the sense of the noun ‘family' (cf ‘That is the nearest family,’ where the noun is modified by a simple adjective).

Relative clause of purpose: ‘He sent a man who would/was supposed to talk to us.’

Relative clause of characteristic: ‘This is a candidate who is/would be acceptable to everyone.’

Relative clauses of result cannot be translated literally into intelligible English; you have to translate as if there were an ut clause instead. ‘Hic vir tam probus est cui omnes credant,’ = ‘This man is so honest whom everyone would trust,’ = ‘This man is so honest that everybody trusts him.’ Fortunately this kind of clause is relatively rare.

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

Most subordinate clauses are adverbial in nature. They limit the sense of a verb by saying when, why, to what purpose, with what result, or under what conditions the action of that verb is performed. Common adverbial clauses are:

Temporal clauses: ‘The conference will begin when the delegates arrive,’ where the underlined clause functions as an adverb limiting the sense of the verb ‘begin’ (cf ‘The conference will begin tomorrow,’ where the verb is simply limited by an adverb). Temporal clauses are introduced by conjunctions meaning ‘when’, ‘while,’ ‘before,’ ‘after’ or the like: cum, dum, ubi, antequam or priusquam, postquam, and probably some others that I can’t bring to mind just now. The verb within the temporal clause is normally indicative, although:

Clauses beginning with cum often have a subjunctive verb, especially where you might want to translate ‘since’ or ‘although’;
Clauses beginning with dum may have a subjunctive verb where you would probably translate with ‘so long as’ instead of ‘while’ (This is sometimes called a proviso clause).
Clauses beginning with priusquam/antequam may have a subjunctive verb where the action in the clause is anticipated, rather than simply factual.

Causal clauses: Cause is expressed in clauses beginning with quia or quod (‘They ran away because they were afraid.’); the verb is normally indicative, although a subjunctive may be used where the author wishes to make it clear that the reason given is not one which he endorses.

Purpose clauses: Purpose is expressed in clauses beginning, normally, with ut or ne (‘They sandbagged the river bank in order to protect their homes.’); the verb is always subjunctive.

Result clauses: Result is expressed in clauses beginning with ut (‘He ran so fast that they couldn’t catch him.’); the verb is always subjunctive.

Conditional clauses: Conditions are expressed in clauses beginning with si or a compound of si (etsi, nisi, si quis and the like): ‘If it rains tomorrow, we’ll keep the party indoors.’

Conditional clauses may have indicative verbs, in which case the condition is called past simple (‘If he said that, he was mistaken,’), present simple (‘If he says that, he is mistaken,’) or future simple (aka future more vivid, ‘If he says/will say that, he will be mistaken,’), depending on whether the indicative verb refers to past time, present time, or future time.
Some conditional clauses have subjunctive verbs: With a present subjunctive, the condition is called future less vivid (aka should-would condition, to be translated with ‘would’: ‘If it should rain, we would move the party indoors,’); with an imperfect subjunctive, present contrary-to-fact (to be translated with ‘were’: ‘If it were raining, we would be partying indoors’,); with a pluperfect subjunctive, past contrary-to-fact (to be translated with ‘had’: ‘If it had rained, we would have moved the party indoors,’).