One of the most well-known images from Pompeii is CAVE CANEM (cavē canem): beware of the dog, but, in this brief note, I’ll change it to plural!
Cavē canēs: beware of the
dogs!
Three sentences from three
previous posts on the topic of the future tense:
[1]
"Sī Rōmānī
cum Sabīnīs pugnābunt [future], │ Rōmānī Sabīnōs, Sabīnī
Rōmānōs necābunt.
If the Romans fight
[present tense] with the Sabines, │ the Romans will kill [future tense] the
Sabines and the Sabines (will kill) the Romans.
[2] Ubi hī puerī adolēscentēs erunt [future tense], │ tum vērō Amūlius fātum suum sentiet [future tense].
When these boys are [present
tense] young men, │ then indeed Amulius will feel [future tense] his fate.
[3]
Cum redībit [future]
magister │ mē nōn inveniet! [future]
When the teacher returns
[present], │ he will not find [future] me.
I use a lot of excerpts from
schoolbooks – all of the texts that have reviewed the future have come from
mainly Julia – a Latin reader, and Initium. These, and others, were written in
more ‘modern’ times i.e. post-Victorian where concepts began to be introduced
more gradually.
The brief notes
given on those three words – sī, ubi, cum – are only small pieces of the
jigsaw. In previous posts on different topics, I’ve sometimes said, for
example, ‘don’t go there’ or ‘avoid side roads’ or ‘more on that later’. And
that’s based on my own experience.
Those three words and a few
others can do far more than what the three sentences might suggest. They can
take different verb forms and may have different meanings in context.
Personal opinion: we live in
an internet world where we want the “answer” now; if we can’t book a flight on
Expedia within thirty seconds we’re jumping up and down with frustration.
One of the lessons I learned
when studying this language is patience.
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