MORE SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
Once you’re familiar with purpose and result clauses, and with indirect questions, that’s half the battle. There are a range of other, less common, subordinate clauses which take the subjunctive, and you should aim to give these as much time as suits your own schedule and goals. Here we’ll look at four.
(i) Proviso clauses: a clause that, in English, needs “provided that” or “as long as.” “I’ll wash up provided you clean your room.” In Irish English it’s more often “as long as.” “I’ll wash up as long as you let me have the last jaffa cake.” How do they work in Latin? It’s dummodo + ut and subjunctive; negative form is dummodo + ne and subjunctive. If you spot a dummodo it’s a proviso clause. manebo dummodo maneas quoque, “I’ll stay provided you stay too.”
(ii) Indirect commands. In the same way that you can ask someone something directly and indirectly in Latin, you can also command someone directly and indirectly. We’ve seen a couple of ways of commanding someone directly, like imperatives and jussive subjunctive. To order someone indirectly in Latin you use ut or ut non with the subjunctive; the only difference between this type of clause and a result clause will be that this one will have an ordering verb at its head. hortor vos ut maneatis “I encourage you to stay”; impero tibi ut discedas “I order you to leave.” Two important points. One is that the verb of ordering can be one of many, think of hortor, impero, rogo, oro, persuadeo and more. Two is that iubeo is an important exception here: it almost always takes the infinitive. iubeo te manere “I order you to stay.”
(iii) Characteristic clauses. Relative clauses – a clause featuring some form of qui, quae, quod – take the indicative; generally no subjunctive is needed. But there is a particular type of relative clause, a relative clause of characteristic, where the subjunctive is required. You can spot these because they will always be generalising in some way, describing general characteristics rather than specific things. “There are those who say that …,” “He was the kind of man who always laughed….” Sunt qui dicant …, Erat vir qui semper rideret …. Think tactically here: assuming you’ll be translating Latin into English most of the time (and not putting English into Latin), expect the indicative after qui, quae, quod. If you find a subjunctive, it could be a characteristic clause.
(iv) Fear clauses. Here’s another variation on the result clause, but this one requires caution because it can be a little confusing. You’ll find a verb of fearing (like timeo, metuo, vereor) followed by ne or ut + the subjunctive. So far so good. The tricky thing is that these formulae work counter-intuitively. The more common form is ne + subj, which means you fear something will happen. timeo ne discedas means “I’m afraid that you’ll leave” or, if you find an old-fashioned word helpful here, “I’m afraid lest you leave.” The other version, with ut, is for when you’re afraid something won’t happen. timeo ut discedas means “I’m afraid that you won’t leave.” It’s the less common version, but you need to remember which is which. The reason for the discrepancy (grammarians think) is that these clauses were originally two independent clauses that have been mashed together. timeo. ne discedas! or “I’m afraid. Don’t go!” became “I’m afraid that you’ll go.” But that’s just if you’re interested…