07.02.25: Speaking Latin on Campus (University of Dallas) [5]; notes [ii]; introduction to the subjunctive (1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMhOlxDaFCo

In his video Vincent uses a number of examples of the subjunctive:

• velim ostendere vōbīs ūnversitātem │I would like to show you the university
• Nesciō utrum sit in mediō campī │I don’t know whether it’s in the middle of the campus
• Ergō nesciō ubi sit. │ Therefore, I don’t know where it is. [I don’t know where it could / might be.]
• Volō deambulāre hīc ut omnia videam. │ I want to take a walk here to see everything [literally: so that I may see everything]
• Cūrāte ut valeātis │ Take care; literally: See to it that you may be well.

The term subjunctive has been mentioned from time to time in the group with little – if any – comment, and I wanted to give, from my own experience, my reasons for avoiding it until now.

The subjunctive:

[1] is a lengthy topic; of all the features of Latin that I studied, this one took the longest;

[2] is a bit like an algebraic equation; you can’t do algebra until you can add, subtract etc. i.e. knowing how to form the subjunctive relies on previous knowledge of other verb forms which is why it is frequently last in a Latin grammar book or textbook that is dealing with the language in depth;

[3] has multiple uses in different contexts and those uses are not always immediately obvious, especially in translation

What is the subjunctive?

Speakers of, for example, French and German will not be unfamiliar with this; in German it is known as the Konjunktiv, and in French, as conjonctif or subjonctif. That familiarity will be based on the fact that both of those languages have subjunctive forms of the verbs even if the usage does not always match the Latin.

English, on the other hand, does not have separate subjunctive forms i.e. you’re not going to find tables of English verbs with subjunctives in the same way as you find past tense forms. However, English has auxiliary verbs which it uses to convey some of the ideas of the Latin subjunctive, and so we’ll start there. Have a look at a few examples with the verbs in italics:

[i] Are you going tonight? > Yes, I’m going │I may go or I might go; ‘may’ / ‘might’ express possibility but uncertainty

• We could rearrange the time if you like.
• Were you there? │I may have been / might have been there.
• What should I do  / ought I to do? I could phone him or I might just send him an email; the speaker is deliberating but shows uncertainty.

[ii] You might have told me that you hadn’t sent the email! Here, ‘might have’ expresses an unreal situation.

• I could have helped you yesterday (but I can’t now).
• I would have preferred a different colour in the kitchen (but they painted it red).
• You should have stayed at home (but you didn’t).
• If only he were with me now (but he isn’t).

If I were rich, … (but I’m not, often with the unsaid inference that the situation will remain unreal: “I’m not rich ¦ and I’m not going to be.”)

[iii] I would love to buy that Mercedes; expressions of desire, but desiring something does not mean your ‘wish’ will be granted!

• I would like him to tell me the truth.

[iv] You must / have to / need to stay at home. │You should / ought to stay at home; suggestions, recommendations are not the same as commands i.e. you may make a suggestion but that does not imply the suggestion will be carried out.

• I recommend that he stay at home.
• I suggest that you be careful.

[v] John went to the store and bought a cake [action concluded]. │ John went to the store to buy a cake [action unconcluded]; the second sentence indicates purpose but it does not indicate that the action was fulfilled. Maybe in the end he did buy a cake but, at the moment the sentence is stated, the action remained unfulfilled.

In ‘older’ English: John went to the store so that / in order that he might buy a cake. English speakers would rarely use that now, but it does exist:

• People were bringing little children to him in order that / so that he might touch them (Vulgate transl.)

There are other examples but I think that’s enough to give you the idea of the thinking that underpins the subjunctive. The term subjunctive does not refer to a tense (the subjunctive has several tenses) but to a grammatical mood that conveys doubt / uncertainty, desire, unfulfilled / unreal / hypothetical situations, purpose.

When dealing with the subjunctive in Latin, those senses don’t necessarily jump off the page at you, but Latin is far more rigid in using the subjunctive – and in many more specific contexts – than any “equivalents” in English. Moreover, while the English examples are deliberately chosen to reflect some of the ideas of the Latin subjunctive, words such as “may”, “might”, “could” – when translating from Latin into English – may not be appropriate.

In the next post I’m going to focus only on the subjunctives which Vincent uses in the video.