Latin tenses
Latin grammarians generally present Latin as having six main tenses, three non-perfect or īnfectum tenses and three corresponding perfect or perfectum tenses. These six tenses are made using two different stems: for example, from the verb faciō 'I do' the three non-perfect tenses are faciō, faciam, faciēbam and the three perfect tenses are fēcī, fēcerō, fēceram.
In addition to these six tenses of the indicative mood, there are four tenses in the subjunctive mood: present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect. To these can be added various 'periphrastic' tenses, consisting of a future participle and part of the verb sum, for example factūrus sum 'I am going to do'.
Because Latin verbal groups do not have perfect English equivalents, it is often the case that the same word can be translated in different ways depending on its context: for example, faciō can be translated as 'I did', 'I do', and 'I am doing', and fēcī can be translated as 'I have done' and 'I did'. However, occasionally Latin makes a distinction which is not made in English: for example, fuī and eram both mean 'I was' in English, but they differ in Latin.
Participles in Latin have three tenses and the imperative mood has two tenses. The infinitive has two main tenses and a number of periphrastic tenses used in reported speech.
For the most part the use of tenses in Latin is straightforward, but there are certain idioms where Latin and English use different tenses. For example, in future conditions of the type 'if anything happens, I will tell you', English uses the present tense in the subordinate clause, but Latin has the future perfect tense.
In some cases the use of tenses can be understood in terms of transformations of one tense or mood into another, especially in indirect speech. For example, in indirect questions, a present indicative of direct speech, such as est 'is', is changed first from indicative to subjunctive mood, and then, if the context is past, from the present to the imperfect tense. Another very common transformation is for the main verb in an indirect statement to be changed into the closest tense of the infinitive, so that the present tense est changes to the present infinitive esse, and the imperfect erat 'he was' and perfect fuit 'he was' both change to the perfect infinitive fuisse.
Formation of the tenses
Latin has six main tenses in the indicative mood, and four in the subjunctive mood. These are illustrated below using a 1st conjugation verb, amō 'I love', a 2nd conjugation verb moneō 'I advise', a 3rd conjugation verb, dūcō 'I lead', and a 4th conjugation verb, audiō 'I hear'.Also shown on the table are the tenses of the common irregular verbs sum 'I am', possum 'I am able', volō 'I want' and eō 'I go'.
| Present | Future | Imperfect | Perfect | Future Perfect | Pluperfect | |
| ACTIVE | I love | I will love | I was loving | I loved | I will have loved | I had loved |
| I you sg. he/she we you pl. they | amō amās amat amāmus amātis amant | amābō amābis amābit amābimus amābitis amābunt | amābam amābās amābat amābāmus amābātis amābant | amāvī amāvistī amāvit amāvimus amāvistis amāvērunt/-ēre | amāverō amāverīs amāverit amāverīmus amāverītis amāverint | amāveram amāverās amāverat amāverāmus amāverātis amāverant |
| Subjunctive | amem amēs amet amēmus amētis ament | amārem amārēs amāret amārēmus amārētis amārent | amāverim amāverīs amāverit amāverīmus amāverītis amāverint | amāssem amāssēs amāsset amāssēmus amāssētis amāssent | ||
| PASSIVE | I am loved | I will be loved | I was being loved | I was loved | I will have been loved | I had been loved |
| Indicative | amor amāris amātur amāmur amāminī amāntur | amābor amāberis amābitur amābimur amābiminī amābuntur | amābar amābāris amābātur amābāmur amābāminī amābantur | amātus sum amātus es amātus est amātī sumus amātī estis amātī sunt | amātus erō amātus eris amātus erit amātī erimus amātī eritis amātī erunt | amātus eram amātus erās amātus erat amātī erāmus amātī erātis amātī erant |
| Subjunctive | amer amēris amētur amēmur amēminī amentur | amārer amārēris amārētur amārēmur amārēminī amārentur | amātus sim amātus sīs amātus sit amātī sīmus amātī sītis amātī sint | amātus essem amātus essēs amātus esset amātī essēmus amātī essētis amātī essent | ||
| ACTIVE | I advise | I will advise | I was advising | I advised | I will have advised | I had advised |
| Indicative | moneō monēs monet monēmus monitis monent | monēbō monēbis monēbit monēbimus monēbitis monēbunt | monēbam monēbās monēbat monēbāmus monēbātis monēbant | monuī monuistī monuit monuimus monuistis monuērunt/-ēre | monuerō monuerīs monuerit monuerīmus monuerītis monuerint | monueram monuerās monuerat monuerāmus monuerātis monuerant |
| Subjunctive | moneam moneās moneat moneāmus moneātis moneant | monērem monērēs monēret monērēmus monērētis monērent | monuerim monuerīs monuerit monuerīmus monuerītis monuerint | monuissem monuissēs monuisset monuissēmus monuissētis monuissent | ||
| PASSIVE | I am advised | I will be advised | I was being advised | I was advised | I will have been advised | I had been advised |
| Indicative | moneor monēris monētur monēmur monēminī monēntur | monēbor monēberis monēbitur monēbimur monēbiminī monēbuntur | monēbar monēbāris monēbātur monēbāmur monēbāminī monēbantur | monitus sum monitus es monitus est monitī sumus monitī estis monitī sunt | monitus erō monitus eris monitus erit monitī erimus monitī eritis monitī erunt | monitus eram monitus erās monitus erat monitī erāmus monitī erātis monitī erant |
| Subjunctive | monear moneāris moneātur moneāmur moneāminī moneantur | monērer monērēris monērētur monērēmur monērēminī monērentur | monitus sim monitus sīs monitus sit monitī sīmus monitī sītis monitī sint | monitus essem monitus essēs monitus esset monitī essēmus monitī essētis monitī essent | ||
| ACTIVE | I lead | I will lead | I was leading | I led | I will have led | I had led |
| Indicative | dūcō dūcis dūcit dūcimus dūcitis dūcunt | dūcam dūcēs dūcet dūcēmus dūcētis dūcent | dūcēbam dūcēbās dūcēbat dūcēbāmus dūcēbātis dūcēbant | dūxī dūxistī dūxit dūximus dūxistis dūxērunt/-ēre | dūxerō dūxerīs dūxerit dūxerīmus dūxerītis dūxerint | dūxeram dūxerās dūxerat dūxerāmus dūxerātis dūxerant |
| Subjunctive | dūcam dūcās dūcat dūcāmus dūcātis dūcant | dūcerem dūcerēs dūceret dūcerēmus dūcerētis dūcerent | dūxerim dūxerīs dūxerit dūxerīmus dūxerītis dūxerint | dūxissem dūxissēs dūxisset dūxissēmus dūxissētis dūxissent | ||
| PASSIVE | I am led | I will be led | I was being led | I was led | I will have been led | I had been led |
| Indicative | dūcor dūceris dūcitur dūcimur dūciminī dūcuntur | dūcar dūcēris dūcētur dūcēmur dūcēminī dūcentur | dūcēbar dūcēbāris dūcēbātur dūcēbāmur dūcēbāminī dūcēbantur | ductus sum ductus es ductus est ductī sumus ductī estis ductī sunt | ductus erō ductus eris ductus erit ductī erimus dūctī eritis ductī erunt | ductus eram ductus erās ductus erat ductī erāmus ductī erātis ductī erant |
| Subjunctive | dūcar dūcāris dūcātur dūcāmur dūcāminī dūcantur | dūcerer dūcerēris dūcerētur dūcerēmur dūcerēminī dūcerentur | ductus sim ductus sīs ductus sit ductī sīmus ductī sītis ductī sint | ductus essem ductus essēs ductus esset ductī essēmus ductī essētis ductī essent | ||
| ACTIVE | I hear | I will hear | I was hearing | I heard | I will have heard | I had heard |
| Indicative | audiō audīs audit audīmus audītis audiunt | audiam audiēs audiet audiēmus audiētis audient | audiēbam audiēbās audiēbat audiēbāmus audiēbātis audiēbant | audīvī audīstī audīvit audīvimus audīstis audiērunt/-ēre | audierō audierīs audierit audierīmus audierītis audierint | audieram audierās audierat audierāmus audierātis audierant |
| Subjunctive | audiam audiās audiat audiāmus audiātis audiant | audīrem audīrēs audīret audīrēmus audīrētis audīrent | audierim audierīs audierit audierīmus audierītis audierint | audīssem audīssēs audīsset audīssēmus audīssētis audīssent | ||
| PASSIVE | I am heard | I will be heard | I was being heard | I was heard | I will have been heard | I had been heard |
| Indicative | audior audīris audītur audīmur audīminī audiuntur | audiar audiēris audiētur audiēmur audiēminī audientur | audiēbar audiēbāris audiēbātur audiēbāmur audiēbāminī audiēbantur | audītus sum audītus es audītus est audītī sumus audītī estis audītī sunt | audītus erō audītus eris audītus erit audītī erimus audītī eritis audītī erunt | audītus eram audītus erās audītus erat audītī erāmus audītī erātis audītī erant |
| Subjunctive | audiar audiāris audiātur audiāmur audiāminī audiantur | audīrer audīrēris audīrētur audīrēmur audīrēminī audīrentur | audītus sim audītus sīs audītus sit audītī sīmus audītī sītis audītī sint | audītus essem audītus essēs audītus esset audītī essēmus audītī essētis audītī essent | ||
| TO BE | I am | I will be | I was | I was/have been | I will have been | I had been |
| Indicative | sum es est sumus estis sunt | erō eris erit erimus eritis erunt | eram erās erat erāmus erātis erant | fuī fuistī fuit fuimus fuistis fuērunt/fuēre | fuerō fuerīs fuerit fuerīmus fuerītis fuerint | fueram fuerās fuerat fuerāmus fuerātis fuerant |
| Subjunctive | sim sīs sit sīmus sītis sint | essem essēs esset essēmus essētis essent | fuerim fuerīs fuerit fuerīmus fuerītis fuerint | fuissem fuissēs fuisset fuissēmus fuissētis fuissent | ||
| TO BE ABLE | I am able | I will be able | I was able | I was able/ have been able | I will have been able | I had been able |
| Indicative | possum potes potest possumus potestis possunt | poterō poteris poterit poterimus poteritis poterunt | poteram poterās poterat poterāmus poterātis poterant | potuī potuistī potuit potuimus potuistis potuērunt/-ēre | potuerō potuerīs potuerit potuerīmus potuerītis potuerint | potueram potuerās potuerat potuerāmus potuerātis potuerant |
| Subjunctive | possim possīs possit possīmus possītis possint | possem possēs posset possēmus possētis possent | potuerim potuerīs potuerit potuerīmus potuerītis potuerint | potuissem potuissēs potuisset potuissēmus potuissētis potuissent | ||
| TO WANT | I want | I will want | I was wanting | I wanted | I will have wanted | I had wanted |
| Indicative | volō vīs vult volumus vultis volunt | volam volēs volet volēmus volētis volent | volēbam volēbās volēbat volēbāmus volēbātis volēbant | voluī voluistī voluit voluimus voluistis voluērunt/-ēre | voluerō voluerīs voluerit voluerīmus voluerītis voluerint | volueram voluerās voluerat voluerāmus voluerātis voluerant |
| Subjunctive | velim velīs velit velīmus velītis velint | vellem vellēs vellet vellēmus vellētis vellent | voluerim voluerīs voluerit voluerīmus voluerītis voluerint | voluissem voluissēs voluisset voluissēmus voluissētis voluissent | ||
| TO GO | I go | I will go | I was going | I went | I will have gone | I had gone |
| Indicative | eō īs it īmus ītis eunt | ībō ībis ībit ībimus ībitis ībunt | ībam ībās ībat ībāmus ībātis ībant | iī/īvī iistī iit iimus iistis iērunt/iēre | ierō ierīs ierit ierīmus ierītis ierint | ieram ierās ierat ierāmus ierātis ierant |
| Subjunctive | eam eās eat eāmus eātis eant | īrem īrēs īret īrēmus īrētis īrent | ierim ierīs ierit ierīmus ierītis ierint | īssem īssēs īsset īssēmus īssētis īssent |
In technical language, the first three tenses are known as the īnfectum tenses, while the three perfect tenses are known as perfectum. The three perfect tenses are formed using a different stem.
Future tenses
There are three ways of forming the future tense in Latin: -bō, -bis, -bit -am, -ēs, -et ; and erō, eris, erit.Future perfect endings
In early Latin the future perfect had a short i in the persons -eris, -erimus, -eritis, while the perfect subjunctive had a long i: -erīs, -erīmus, -erītis. But Catullus pronounced the future perfect with a long i. Virgil has a short i for both tenses; Horace uses both forms for both tenses; Ovid uses both forms for the future perfect, but a long i in the perfect subjunctive.Perfect passive tenses
The perfect tense passive is formed periphrastically using a perfect participle and the verb sum. The participle changes according to gender and number: ducta est 'she was led', ductae sunt ' were led' etc. The perfect tense of deponent verbs is formed in the same way.The order of the participle and auxiliary is sometimes reversed: sunt ductī. When negative there are various possibilities: nōn est ausus, ausus nōn est, nōn ausus est 'he did not dare' all commonly occur.
A perfect participle used as part of the perfect tense passive should be distinguished from one which is merely an adjective, as in the following sentence:
Here the meaning of est dīvīsa is not 'was divided' or 'has been divided' but the participle is simply descriptive.
Perfects made with and
Perfect tenses can also be formed occasionally using fuī instead of sum, for example oblītus fuī 'I forgot', and habuī e.g. ductum habuī 'I have led'. For the meaning of these see below.Shortened endings
The 2nd person singular passive endings are often shortened by changing -is to -e, e.g. dūcēbāre for dūcēbāris 'you were being led'.The 3rd person plural perfect indicative can also be shortened: dūxēre for dūxērunt 'they led'. The shortened form of the perfect is common in poetry, but is also sometimes found in prose.
Meanings of the indicative tenses
Present indicative
There is no distinction of aspect in the present tense: faciō can mean 'I do ', 'I do, or 'I am doing'; that is, it can be perfective, habitual, or progressive in aspect.Current situation
The present tense can refer to a current situation:Habitual
The present tense can be used for habitual actions:General truths
The present, as in English, can also describe a general truth:Perfective present
It can also be used performatively to describe an event which takes place at the moment of speaking:Historic present
The present tense is often used in narrative in a historic sense, referring to a past event, especially when the writer is describing an exciting moment in the story. This is known as the 'historic present':According to Pinkster, the historic present is the most frequent tense used in narrative in both prose and poetry. It can replace not only the perfect tense, but also the imperfect tense:
After dum 'while', the present indicative also has the meaning of an imperfect tense:
In Caesar when a verb is placed initially in the sentence, as in the first example above, it is very frequently in the present tense.
Another situation where the use of the historic present is frequent is in utterance verbs, such as fidem dant 'they give a pledge' or ōrant 'they beg'. More than half the historic presents in Caesar are of this kind.
Perfect continuous meaning
The present can sometimes mean 'has been doing', referring to a situation that started in the past and is still continuing. In some sentences a length of time is given and the adverb iam 'now' is added:The present tense can also be used in this meaning when combined with a temporal clause using postquam:
Sometimes the postquam clause itself has the present tense:
Another idiom is the following using the conjunction cum:Another idiom that can be mentioned is the phrase longum est, which means 'it would take a long time' or 'it would be tedious'. It is frequently used by Cicero as well as other writers:
Future indicative
Future event or situation
The future tense can describe an event or a situation in the near or distant future:There is no distinction in the future between perfective and imperfective aspect.
Future in subordinate clauses
After cum 'when' or sī 'if' or other subordinate clauses referring to a future time, usually the future is used where English has a present tense. The simple future, not the future perfect, is used if the time of the two verbs is simultaneous:Polite requests
The future can also be used for polite requests, as when Cicero sends greetings to his friend Atticus's wife and daughter:Imperfect indicative
The imperfect indicative generally has an imperfective meaning and describes situations in the past. Often the imperfect can be translated into English as 'was doing', but sometimes the simple tense 'did' or expressions such as 'used to do', 'would do', 'kept doing', 'began to do', 'had been doing' are more appropriate.Habitual use
The imperfect tense can describe a situation that used to take place regularly or habitually:Iterative use
Similar to the above is the iterative or 'frequentative' use of the imperfect, describing what something that kept on happening or which happened on an indefinite number of occasions:Situation at a particular time
It can also describe a situation that existed at a particular moment:Often an expression such as tum 'then' or eō tempore 'at that time' is added:
Vivid description
The use of the imperfect rather than the perfect can be used to make a scene more vivid, as with this sentence of Cicero's:The passage is commented on by Aulus Gellius. He says that the use of caedēbātur rather than caesus est creates a 'drawn-out vivid description' ; that is to say, making it seem to the audience that the scene is taking place in front of them.
Geographical description
Sometimes the imperfect is used for description of the surroundings:Unfinished action
Another use is to describe an action that someone was intending to do, or about to do, but which never actually took place, or which was interrupted by another event:'Began doing'
Another meaning is inceptive, describing a situation that began at a certain moment and continued indefinitely:Pluperfect continuous meaning
When the imperfect tense is used with the adverb iam 'now' and a length of time it means 'had been doing':Epistolary imperfect
Sometimes in letters a writer imagines himself in the position of the recipient and uses a past tense to describe an event which for the writer himself is present:Potential meaning ('would be')
Sometimes the imperfect of sum is used with a potential meaning :Perfect indicative
Past event
The perfect most frequently narrates an event in the past. The usual translation is the simple English past tense with '-ed' or the equivalent:Present perfect meaning
The perfect can also be used like the English present perfect :Experiential perfect
As with the English perfect, the Latin perfect can sometimes be used to relate experiences which have happened several times in the past:Similar to this is the 'gnomic perfect', which states a general truth based on past experience:
Iterative action
In sentences which mean 'whenever X occurs, Y occurs', referring to general time, the perfect tense is used for event X if it precedes event Y. In English the present tense is often used:Length of time
The perfect, not the imperfect, is used when a situation is said to have lasted in the past for a certain length of time, but is now over:Exceptions to this rule are very rare, but they do occur, for example the following, which describes an ongoing unfinished situation:
Similarly the perfect is used for a situation which has always existed and still exists:
''Eram'' and ''fuī''
Both of these in English mean 'I was', but in Latin there is usually a difference. As with other verbs, the perfect is usually used when the length of time is mentioned:The perfect is also used when the sentence describes an event rather than a situation:
However, the perfect fuī 'I was once', 'I used to be' is sometimes used to describe a former situation, emphasising that it is no longer in existence:
The perfect is also used in sentences such as the following, which describe a permanent state, as opposed to the imperfect, which describes a temporary one:
According to Pinkster, the use of erat in these two examples would sound wrong. 'In both cases the reader would want to know "What happened next?"'
The perfect must also be used with adverbs such as semel 'once', bis 'twice', ter 'three times', which imply that the situation is now over:
For geographical description, erat is used:
There are also some types of sentences where either tense may be used indifferently, for example when describing someone's name or character:
The equivalent of these two tenses, era and fui both meaning 'I was', still exist in Spanish and Portuguese today.
''Meminī'', ''ōdī'', ''nōvī''
Certain verbs, of which the most common are meminī 'I remember', ōdī 'I hate', and nōvī 'I know', are used in the perfect tense but have the meaning of a present tense:The future perfect and pluperfect of these verbs serve as the equivalent of a future or imperfect tense: meminerō 'I will remember', memineram 'I remembered'. meminī has an imperative mementō 'remember!'
The verb nōvī usually means 'I know' but sometimes it has a past meaning 'I became acquainted with':
The perfect of cōnsuēscō, cōnsuēvī 'I have grown accustomed', is also often used with a present meaning:
Perfect with
Occasionally the beginnings can be seen of a perfect tense formed with habeo and the perfect participle, which became the regular way of forming the perfect in French and Italian:According to Gildersleeve and Lodge, this form of the perfect 'is not a mere circumlocution for the Perfect, but lays particular stress on the maintenance of the result'.
In later Latin this construction became more common, for example:
A variation with teneō 'I hold or keep' is also sometimes found, but usually with emphasis on the idea of holding:
A pluperfect can similarly be made using one of the past tenses of habeō:
Perfect passive with ''fuī''
Normally the perfect passive tenses are formed with sum, erō, and eram. Occasionally, however, they can be formed with fuī, for example captus fuī, captus fuerō, captus fueram.In these examples, the fact that the verb with fuit in each case refers to an earlier state than the verb with est is clearly a factor in the choice of tense.
In authors from Livy onwards the pluperfect with fueram and future perfect with fuerō are sometimes loosely used for the normal pluperfect with eram and future perfect with erō:
In Plautus these tenses are used several times with the deponent verb oblīvīscor 'I forget':
Future perfect indicative
Independent use
The future perfect is usually used in a sentence with 'if' or 'when' referring to future time, but it can sometimes be used on its own, as in the following sentences:Another famous passage with a future perfect is the call of the eagle-bearer to his men when their boat reached the shore of Britain in 55 BC:
There is also an idiom using the future perfect of videō, where the future perfect is almost equivalent to a command:
After ''sī'' and ''cum''
More frequently the future perfect tense is found after sī 'if' or cum 'when' in clauses referring to a future time. In such sentences English uses the present tense:Future perfect of and
The future perfect of meminī and ōdī has a simple future meaning:Pluperfect indicative
Prior event
The pluperfect can be used as in English to describe an event that had happened earlier than the time of the narrative:Often, like the imperfect tense, the pluperfect can be used to describe the situation prevailing at a certain moment:
Iterative use
In subordinate clauses of the type 'whenever...', 'whoever...' etc. in past time the pluperfect indicative is used if the event precedes the event of the main clause. Usually in English the simple past is used:In later writers such as Livy, the pluperfect subjunctive is used in a similar context.
Potential meaning ('would have')
Sometimes in a conditional clause a pluperfect indicative can have the meaning of a potential pluperfect subjunctive, when it refers to an event which very nearly took place, but did not:Pluperfect of , ,
The pluperfect of ōdī, nōvī and meminī has the meaning of an imperfect:Subjunctive mood
The subjunctive mood in Latin has four tenses, which are as shown below. Note that the meanings given here are only very approximate, since in fact each tense has a wide variety of meanings.| Active | Meaning | Passive | Meaning | |
| Present | dūcam | 'I would/should/can lead' | dūcar | 'I would/should be led' |
| Imperfect | dūcerem | 'I would/should/could lead/be leading' | dūcerer | 'I would be led' |
| Perfect | dūxerim | 'I would/could have led' | ductus sim | 'I would have been led' |
| Pluperfect | dūxissem | 'I would/could/should have led' | ductus essem | 'I would have been led' |
For the subjunctive of other verbs, see the table at the beginning of this article.
The present subjunctive of 3rd conjugation verbs resembles the future in the 1st person singular, but in other persons it differs. The subjunctive goes dūcam, dūcās, dūcat... while the future indicative goes dūcam, dūcēs, dūcet...
There is no future subjunctive tense as such, although there is a periphrastic future subjunctive, which is used for example in indirect questions.
The present subjunctive of 1st conjugation verbs ends in -em, -ēs, -et, of conjugations 2, 3, and 4 in -am, -ās, -at, and of sum, possum, volō, nōlō, mālō in -im, -īs, -it.
The imperfect subjunctive of every active verb has the same form as the infinitive with the endings -em, -ēs etc.: amārem, vidērem, audīrem etc.
In 1st conjugation verbs, the ending -āvissem is frequently contracted to -āssem.
Present subjunctive
Potential
The present subjunctive can be potential or jussive. After the word fortasse perhaps, it can mean 'may', expressing a possibility:It can also express a wish for the future :
A more usual translation for the potential subjunctive, however, is 'would'. In conditional sentences, the present subjunctive usually refers to some hypothetical situation in the future. This kind of conditional sentence is known as 'ideal':
In early Latin, a present subjunctive can also be used to make an unreal conditional referring to the present:
However, there was a gradual shift in usage, and in the classical period, and even sometimes in Plautus, the imperfect subjunctive is used in such clauses.
Historic potential
Sometimes in poetry a present subjunctive can be used to refer to a potential past event, where in prose a pluperfect subjunctive would be used in both halves of the sentence:Generalising 2nd person
When a conditional sentence expresses a generalisation, the present subjunctive is used for any 2nd person singular verb, whether in the subordinate clause or the main clause: Thus, in the subordinate clause:And in the main clause:
Jussive
When the subjunctive has a jussive meaning, it can be a suggestion or command in the 1st or 3rd person:In philosophy it can set the scene for a discussion:
Another use is concessive:
The subjunctive is also used in deliberative questions :
In dependent clauses
The present subjunctive is also used in a great variety of subordinate clauses set in present time, such as purpose clauses, indirect commands, consecutive clauses, clauses of fearing, indirect questions, and others. In some of these constructions, it can often be translated simply as if it were an ordinary present indicative, such as after causal cum:The subjunctive is also used in purpose clauses :
One of the most common uses of the subjunctive is to indicate reported speech. When a question is made indirect, the verb is always changed into the subjunctive mood. The present subjunctive can therefore represent what would be a present indicative if the question was direct:
In reported speech, the present subjunctive can also represent a present imperative or a jussive subjunctive. This type of construction is known as an indirect command:
After quīn, if the context is clearly future, a present subjunctive can sometimes represent a future tense or potential subjunctive:
Similarly in the protasis of a conditional sentence in indirect speech, a present subjunctive can represent an original future indicative:
In other examples in reported speech, the subjunctive in the 'if' clause represents an original present subjunctive with potential meaning:
Archaic subjunctives
In old Latin, a form of the subjunctive with -s-, known as the sigmatic aorist subjunctive, is preserved. This is used in wishes for the future:In Plautus this subjunctive is also used in prohibitions, when it exists:
In some phrases it has a conditional meaning:
Another archaic subjunctive is siem for sim, which is very common in Plautus and Terence, but fell out of use later:
Less common is fuam, with the same meaning. This occurs occasionally in Plautus and also once in Lucretius and once in Virgil's Aeneid, where the archaic form is presumably appropriate for the speech of the god Jupiter:
Another old subjunctive is duim, from the verb dō 'I give'. It occurs mostly in Plautus and Terence, but sometimes also in Cicero, in phrases like the following:
Imperfect subjunctive
The imperfect indicative is always imperfective in aspect ; the imperfect subjunctive is also often imperfective in meaning. However, as the examples below show, it can also sometimes be perfective, in view of the fact that it often represents the transformation into past time of a present or future tense or an imperative.Potential
The imperfect subjunctive is often used in wishes to represent an imagined or wished for situation impossible at the present time:Similarly in unreal conditional sentences, the imperfect subjunctive represents a situation which is hypothetical or imaginary, referring to the present time:
In the following sentence, the imperfect subjunctive vellem is used to wish for something that cannot now come true, while the present subjunctive velim leaves open the possibility that it may be true:
Generalising 2nd person
The 2nd person imperfect subjunctive when potential is nearly always indefinite and generalising, i.e. an imaginary 'you':Jussive
A rarer use of the imperfect subjunctive is the past jussive:This usage is quite common in Plautus but rare in later Latin. The normal prose practice is to use either a past tense of dēbeō 'I have a duty to' or oportet 'it is proper' with the infinitive, or else a gerundive with a past tense of sum.
The imperfect subjunctive can also be used in deliberative questions, that is to say, questions asking for advice, in a past time context:
In dependent clauses
The imperfect subjunctive is very commonly found in past context dependent clauses, where it can represent the transformation of a present indicative or imperative. The following example contains an indirect command reflecting an imperative in direct speech:Another very common use is the circumstantial cum-clause with the imperfect subjunctive. Here the imperfect subjunctive has the same meaning as an imperfect indicative would have if cum were omitted:
On the other hand, in result clauses after verbs meaning 'it happened that...', the imperfect subjunctive is always used even of a simple perfective action, which, if the grammatical construction did not require a subjunctive, would be expressed by a perfect indicative:
In indirect questions in a historic context, an imperfect subjunctive usually represents the transformation of a present indicative:
Similarly, in the following example after quīn, the imperfect subjunctive also represents the transformation of a present indicative:
However, when the context makes it clear that the reference is to the future, the imperfect subjunctive after quīn can have a prospective or future meaning:
An imperfect subjunctive can also have a prospective or future meaning after a verb of fearing or expecting:
It can also have a prospective or future meaning in a relative clause:
In the protasis of a conditional clause in indirect speech the imperfect subjunctive can similarly represent a future indicative:Just as the verb sum 'I am' has a future infinitive fore, short for futūrum esse, so it also has a past-potential subjunctive forem, short for futūrus essem. This is not used in Caesar, but is common in Livy and Nepos. It is used especially in conditional sentences, either in the protasis or the apodosis, and it generally has a potential or future meaning.
One common use, in combination with a perfect passive participle, is with the meaning 'would have been' in past conditional sentences:
Another use is in indirect speech after sī 'if' as the equivalent of a future indicative in the original direct speech:
It can also be used with a future meaning in sentences like the following, which are not conditional:
With a perfect participle after sī or quī, foret + the perfect participle can represent a future perfect tense of a deponent or passive verb:
However, the same future perfect meaning can be expressed with a simple participle or by an ordinary pluperfect subjunctive:
In other sentences, however, it has no future meaning, merely potential, as in the following example, where it appears to be used simply for metrical convenience as the equivalent of esset in the second half:
Similarly in the following conditional clause, it has a past, not future, meaning:
Perfect subjunctive
Independent use
In wishes, the perfect subjunctive expresses a wish for the past, leaving open the possibility that it may have happened:Sometimes the perfect subjunctive seems to refer to present or future time, and mean 'could'. For example, in the following idiom the perfect is usual:
In a conditional sentence it can mean 'would do':
In the following, it is the transference into hypothetical mood of a future perfect indicative, describing a future potential result:
In the following sentence both 'could' and 'could have' are possible:
In other examples the perfect subjunctive definitely refers to the past and means 'could have done' or 'would have done':
With the negative particle nē it can express a negative command. Here the subjunctive has a jussive use, not potential:
In dependent clauses
The perfect subjunctive is most commonly used in dependent clauses. Usually it represents what would be a perfect indicative in an independent clause. However, since there is no way of expressing an imperfect tense in primary sequence except using the perfect subjunctive, it could also sometimes represent an imperfect indicative. The perfect subjunctive is generally found when the main verb is one of the primary tenses. One common use is in indirect questions when the context is primary:Verbs in subordinate clauses in indirect speech are also always in the subjunctive mood:
It can also be used after quīn, both after a primary and after a historic verb:
It can also be used in a result clause after a historic verb as in the following:
In the following sentence it is used after quī with a causal sense :
It can also follow quī in a restrictive clause:
Pluperfect subjunctive
Independent use
In independent sentences, the pluperfect subjunctive means 'would have done', 'might have done', could have done' or 'should have done'.One common use is in conditional sentences, where the pluperfect subjunctive is used to express a hypothetical event in the past, which might have taken place, but did not. This usage is found as early as Plautus:
Another use, when it represents the transformation of the future perfect tense, is to describe a hypothetical event which is yet to take place:
It can also express a hypothetical event in the past which is wished for, but which did not take place:
In the following sentence Queen Dido contemplates what 'might have been':
Others see the pluperfect subjunctive in such sentences as a wish ; others again as jussive.
A more certain example of the jussive pluperfect is in the following example from Cicero, using the negative nē:
In dependent clauses
In dependent clauses, the most common meaning of the pluperfect subjunctive is 'had done'.In a conditional clause it describes a hypothetical situation that didn't actually happen:
Another very frequent use of the pluperfect subjunctive is after cum in a temporal clause:
Another use is in indirect speech in a past-time context, where the pluperfect subjunctive is often a transformation of a perfect indicative in direct speech. In the following example, the original direct question would have had the perfect tense :
But in some sentences, the pluperfect subjunctive is a reflection of an original imperfect indicative, as in the following example, where the original verbs would have been mīlitābāmus and habēbāmus:
In other sentences, the pluperfect is a reflection of a future perfect indicative, put into historic sequence. The original words of the following sentence would presumably have been tū, sī aliter fēcerīs, iniūriam Caesarī faciēs 'if you do otherwise, you will be doing Caesar a disservice':
The imperative mood
The imperative mood has two tenses, present and future.Present imperative
Positive commands
The present imperative mood is the normal tense used for giving direct orders which the speaker wishes to be carried out at once. The active form can be made plural by adding -te:Deponent verbs such as proficīscor 'I set out' or sequor 'I follow' have an imperative ending in -re or -minī :
Negative commands
An imperative is usually made negative by using nōlī plus the infinitive:However, in poetry an imperative can sometimes be made negative with the particle nē:
A negative order can also use the perfect subjunctive:
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:
Future imperative
Latin also has a Future imperative or 2nd imperative, ending in -tō, used to request someone to do something at a future time, or if something else happens first:This imperative is very common in early writers such as Plautus and Cato, but it is also found in later writers such as Martial:
Some verbs have only the second imperative, for example scītō 'know', mementō 'remember'.
3rd person formal imperative
Related to the colloquial future imperative is the formal imperative of legal language, as in this invented law from Cicero's de Lēgibus:According to J.G.F. Powell, appellāminō is not a genuine archaic form; in early Latin -minō is used only in deponent verbs and is 2nd or 3rd person singular.
Periphrastic tenses
A series of periphrastic tenses can be formed by combining a future participle or a gerundive with any tense of the verb sum 'I am', as follows:| Active | Meaning | Passive | Meaning | |
| Present | ductūrus sum | I am going to lead | dūcendus sum | I need to be led |
| Future | ductūrus erō | I will be going to lead | dūcendus erō | I will need to be led |
| Imperfect | ductūrus eram | I was going to lead | dūcendus eram | I needed to be led |
| Perfect | ductūrus fuī | I was going to lead | dūcendus fuī | I needed to be led |
| Future perfect | dūcendus fuerō | I will have needed to be led | ||
| Pluperfect | ductūrus fueram | I had been going to lead | dūcendus eram | I had needed to be led |
| - | - | - | ||
| Present subj. | ductūrus sim | I am going to lead | dūcendus sim | I need to be led |
| Imperfect subj. | ductūrus essem | I was going to lead | dūcendus essem | I needed to be led |
| Perfect subj. | ductūrus fuerim | I would have led | dūcendus fuerim | I needed to be led |
| Pluperfect subj. | ductūrus fuissem | I had been going to lead | dūcendus fuissem | I had needed to be led |
The passive tenses formed with the gerundive are known as the 'periphrastic conjugation of the passive'.
Although the two series are similar in appearance, they are not parallel in meaning or function. Woodcock writes of the passive form: 'But for the introduction of the idea of necessity, it would form a periphrastic future passive tense parallel to the periphrastic future active.' For this reason, examples of the gerundival periphrastic tenses are gathered in a separate section below.
Periphrastic indicative
Periphrastic future
The present version of the future periphrastic describes a person's intention at the present time:Future periphrastic future
Despite its name, the future periphrastic tense factūrus sum is really a present tense, describing a person's present intentions. For this reason, it can have a future form factūrus erō, used for example in future conditional or future temporal clauses:Imperfect periphrastic future
A past version of the periphrastic future can be made with the imperfect tense of sum, describing what someone's intentions were at a moment in the past:In a conditional sentence this tense can mean 'would have done':
Perfect periphrastic future
Although less common than the periphrastic future with eram, the perfect tense version of the periphrastic future is also found:This tense can also be potential, expressing the meaning 'would have done':
Pluperfect periphrastic future
Periphrastic subjunctive
Periphrastic present subjunctive
In indirect statements and questions, the active periphrastic future can represent a future or periphrastic future tense of direct speech in primary sequence. In this case there is not necessarily any idea of planning or intention, although there may be:This tense can also be used in primary sequence reported speech, to represent the main clause in either an ideal conditional sentence or a simple future one :
Periphrastic imperfect subjunctive
If the main verb is in past time, an imperfect version of the periphrastic future subjunctive is used:It is also possible to form an imperfect periphrastic subjunctive with foret instead of esset :
Periphrastic perfect subjunctive
A perfect periphrastic subjunctive can be used with a conditional meaning in hypothetical conditional clauses in indirect questions in primary sequence. In this case it represents a pluperfect subjunctive in the original direct speech:In an indirect question, the perfect periphrastic subjunctive can also sometimes reflect a potential imperfect subjunctive:
These tenses can be compared with the similar examples with the perfect periphrastic infinitive cited below, where a conditional sentence made in imperfect subjunctives is converted to an indirect statement.
Periphrastic pluperfect subjunctive
The pluperfect version of the periphrastic subjunctive can be used in a circumstantial cum clause:It can also be used in conditional sentences after sī, as in the following sentence from an imaginary letter from Helen to Paris:
It can also reflect a potential pluperfect subjunctive in historic sequence in an indirect question:
Gerundive tenses
Present gerundive
The gerundive of the verb can be combined with the verb sum 'I am' to make a passive periphrastic tense. This usually expresses what is needing to be done:Negative
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:Impersonal construction
Very often the passive periphrastic is used impersonally, together with a dative of the agent:The impersonal form of this tense can also be made with intransitive verbs such as eō 'I go' and verbs such as persuādeō 'I persuade' and ūtor 'I use' which do not take an accusative object:
Future gerundive
An example of a future gerundive periphrastic is the following:Imperfect gerundive
An example of the imperfect passive periphrastic is the following:Perfect gerundive
As with the active perfect periphrastic, in a conditional sentence the perfect gerundive periphrastic tense can mean 'would have done':Another meaning of the perfect passive is 'ought to have been done':
In the following result clause, this tense becomes subjunctive:
Future perfect gerundive
The active future perfect periphrastic tense is not found, but the passive occurs:Sequence of tenses rule
Latin speakers used subjunctive verbs to report questions, statements, and ideas. When the verb of telling or asking in the dominant clause is primary, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause must also be primary; when the verb in the dominant clause is historic, the subjunctive verb in the dependent clause must also be in a historic tense. This rule can be illustrated with the following table:| Main verb | Dependent verb | |
| Primary tenses | Present Future Future Perfect | Present subjunctive Perfect subjunctive |
| Historic tenses | Perfect Imperfect Pluperfect Historic infinitive | Imperfect subjunctive Pluperfect subjunctive |
This rule applies to all kinds of sentences where the dependent verb is put in the subjunctive mood, for example indirect speech, indirect questions, indirect commands, purpose clauses, consecutive clauses, clauses after verbs of fearing, quīn clauses and others. It does not apply to more loosely connected dependent clauses, such as relative clauses, where the verb is in the indicative, or to a dependent infinitive in indirect statement.
The perfect tense appears in both rows, depending on whether it has a present perfect meaning or past simple meaning. But even when it has a present perfect meaning it is often treated as a historic tense.
Examples of primary sequence
Some examples of primary sequence are the following:Present indicative + present subjunctive:
Present subjunctive + present subjunctive:
Present imperative + periphrastic perfect subjunctive:
Present indicative + Perfect subjunctive:
Examples of historic sequence
Reported Question:Imperfect subjunctive + pluperfect subjunctive:
Perfect indicative + imperfect subjunctive:
Historic infinitive + imperfect subjunctive:
Perfect tense main verb
When the main verb is a perfect tense, it is usually considered to be a historic tense, as in the above example. Occasionally, however, when the meaning is that of an English present perfect, the perfect in a main clause may be taken as a primary tense, for example:However, the historic sequence after a perfect with present perfect meaning is also very common, for example:
Historic present main verb
When the main verb is a historic present, the dependent verb may be either primary or historic, but is usually primary:Sometimes both primary and historic are found in the same sentence. In the following example the first dependent verb cūrat is primary sequence, but dīxisset is pluperfect:
Exceptions
There are frequent exceptions to the sequence of tenses rule, especially outside of indirect speech. For example, in the following sentence, a historic tense is followed by a perfect subjunctive:In consecutive clauses also, a perfect tense in the main clause is often followed by a present or a perfect subjunctive:
Another exception is that an imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive in a clause that is already subordinate in the original sentence may often remain even in primary sequence:
Conversely, in such conditional sentences, the periphrastic perfect subjunctive may remain even after a historic-tense main verb:
The perfect tense potuerim also can replace a pluperfect tense with the meaning 'could have':
In general, in Livy, there is a tendency for a present or perfect tense of the original speech to be retained in historic sequence, as in the above example, while Cicero is more strict in following the historic sequence.
Caesar and Sallust can sometimes use a present subjunctive in historic sequence when the meaning is jussive :
- respondit sī quid ab senātū petere vellent, ab armīs discēdant
The infinitive
Overview
The various tenses of the infinitive are as follows:| Active | Meaning | Passive | Meaning | |
| Present | amāre vidēre dūcere facere audīre esse posse velle nōlle mālle īre ferre | to love to see to lead to do to hear to be to be able to want to be unwilling to prefer to go to bring | amārī vidērī dūcī fierī audīrī īrī ferrī | to be loved to be seen to be led to be done to be heard – to be brought |
| Perfect | dūxisse | to have led | ductum esse | to have been led |
| Future | ductūrum esse | to be going to lead | ductum īrī | to be going to be led |
| Perfect periphrastic | ductūrum fuisse | to have been going to lead | ||
| Future perfect periphrastic | ductum fore | to be going to have been led | ||
| Gerundive present | dūcendum esse | to be needing to be led | ||
| Gerundive perfect | dūcendum fuisse | to have been needing to be led | ||
| Gerundive future | dūcendum fore | to be going to need to be led |
The present passive and deponent infinitive usually ends in -rī, but in 3rd conjugation verbs in -ī only. The passive īrī is used impersonally:
In 1st conjugation verbs, the ending -āvisse is very often shortened to -āsse, e.g. amāsse 'to have loved'.
The infinitives of sum 'I am' are esse 'to be', fuisse 'to have been', and futūrum esse 'to be going to be'. Other irregular present infinitives are posse 'to be able', and ēsse/edere 'to eat'.
The irregular verbs possum 'I am able' and volō 'I want' have no future infinitive. In these verbs the present infinitive is used instead.
In early Latin, the passive and deponent infinitive often ends in -ier: vituperārier 'to be scolded', vidērier 'to be seen', nancīscier 'to obtain', expergīscier 'to wake up' etc.
Compound infinitives
The compound infinitives are usually found in the accusative case, as shown in the table above. Occasionally, however, they are found in the nominative, for example with dīcitur 'he is said' or vidētur 'he seems':The participle can also change to show gender and plurality, as in the following where factās is feminine plural:
However, the passive future infinitive is made using the supine of the verb. The -um therefore stays constant and does not change for gender or number.
The future infinitive is used only for indirect statements.
Omission of
Very often the esse part of a compound infinitive is omitted:Historic infinitive
The infinitive is occasionally used in narrative as a tense in its own right. It usually describes a scene in which the same action was being done repeatedly. There are often two or more historic infinitives in succession:'Could have done', 'ought to have done'
The perfect tense potuī with the infinitive can often mean 'I was able to' or 'I managed to':However, it can also mean 'I could have done ':
It can also be used in unreal past conditional sentences in the sense 'could have done':
'Ought to have done' is often expressed with a past tense of dēbeō 'I have a duty to' or oportet 'it is fitting' together with a present infinitive:
Sometimes, in familiar style, oportuit can be used with the perfect infinitive passive:
Indirect statement
The infinitive is very commonly used for the main verb in indirect statements. Except with passive sentences using dīcitur 'he is said' or vidētur 'he seems' and the like, the subject of the quoted sentence is put into the accusative case and the construction is known as an 'accusative and infinitive'.The rule of tense is that the present infinitive is used for any action or situation which is contemporary with the main verb, the perfect for actions or situations anterior to the main verb, and the future infinitive for actions or situations later than the main verb. An exception to this rule is the verb meminī 'I remember', which when used of personal reminiscence is usually followed by a present infinitive.
The verbs iubeō 'I order' and volō 'I want' are always followed by the present infinitive, however. Occasionally also polliceor 'I promise' and meminī 'I threaten' can be followed by a present infinitive, if no accusative subject is added.
Present infinitive
The present infinitive is used to express an action or situation simultaneous with the verb of speaking:The present infinitive is used after meminī when describing a personal reminiscence:
It also represents a present imperative in indirect commands made with the verbs iubeō 'I order' and vetō 'I forbid':
Perfect infinitive
In indirect statement, a perfect infinitive represents any event or situation prior to the time of the verb of speaking:Often the verb of speaking is omitted:
The perfect infinitive may also at times be translated with a continuous tense in English:
Future infinitive
The future infinitive is used for events or situations in reported speech which are to take place later than the verb of speaking:As with the perfect passive infinitive, esse is often omitted:
The future passive made using the supine of the verb with īrī is comparatively rare:
The verb possum 'I am able' has no future infinitive, but can have a future meaning:Another way of expressing the future in indirect statement is to use the phrase fore ut 'it would be the case that'. This can be used with an active or passive verb, and almost always with either the present or the imperfect subjunctive:
Sometimes futūrum esse ut is used instead of fore ut:
Very rarely fore ut can be followed by a perfect or pluperfect subjunctive. In the following example, the pluperfect subjunctive represents a future perfect indicative of direct speech:
Future perfect infinitive
To express a future perfect tense in indirect statement is possible only if the verb is passive or deponent. In the following examples, a perfect participle is combined with the future infinitive fore:Periphrastic perfect infinitive
The periphrastic perfect infinitive represents a potential pluperfect subjunctive in indirect statement:If the introductory verb is passive, such as vidētur 'he seems', the participle is nominative:
The same tense of the infinitive can also represent the transformation into indirect statement of an imperfect potential subjunctive, referring to a hypothetical present situation:
In all the above examples, the imperfect subjunctive in the subordinate clause is left unchanged, despite the fact that the main verb is primary.
Just as fore ut is used to make a future passive infinitive, so futūrum fuisse ut can be used to make a potential passive infinitive:
However this is very rare, and in fact only two instances have been noted.
Gerundive infinitives
The gerundive infinitive in indirect speech indicates something which needs to be done at the time of the verb of speaking:The perfect gerundive infinitive indicates something that was necessary at a previous time:
It can also refer to what ought to have been done at some time in the past:
In a conditional clause in reported speech the perfect gerundive infinitive can also refer to something that would have been necessary in some hypothetical situation:
The future gerundive infinitive is made with fore. It is used in indirect statements to describe something which it is going to be necessary to do:
It can also describe what must necessarily happen at a future time:
An overview of the tenses in indirect speech
A characteristic of Roman historical writing is that long speeches are reported indirectly. In this practice Roman writers such as Caesar, Sallust, Livy, Curtius, and Tacitus differ from Greek writers such as Thucydides, as well as from Roman poets such as Virgil and Ovid, who write their speeches in direct speech.The rule for ōrātiō oblīqua is that the infinitive is used to represent the main verbs of statements, while all other verbs, that is, those in commands, most questions, and subordinate clauses, are put into the subjunctive mood. The writer may use primary sequence or historic, or sometimes a mixture of the two. The use of primary tenses in a historic context is known as repraesentātiō.
In some cases, the use of the subjunctive indicates that the sentence is partly in ōrātiō oblīqua. This is known as virtual ōrātiō oblīqua:
Subordinate clauses generally change their tenses less than the main clauses in reported speech. In some cases, when the main verb is 1st or 2nd person, the subordinate clause is not put in the subjunctive at all:
The following table shows the tenses used in main clauses in indirect questions and indirect statements :
| Tense of original verb | Subjunctive | Subjunctive | Infinitive |
| Present, Imperative, Jussive subjunctive | Present | Imperfect | Present |
| Imperfect, Perfect, Pluperfect | Perfect | Pluperfect | Perfect |
| Future, Potential present subjunctive | Periphrastic present, | Periphrastic imperf., | Future, Fore ut + pres/impf subj. |
| Future perfect | No examples | No examples | Perfect participle + fore, Fore ut + perf/pluperf subj. |
| Potential imperfect subjunctive | Perfect periphrastic, Imperfect | Perfect periphrastic, Imperfect | Perfect periphrastic |
| Potential pluperfect subjunctive | Perfect periphrastic, Pluperfect, Potuerit | Perfect periphrastic, , Pluperfect, Potuerit | Perfect periphrastic, Futūrum fuisse ut + pres/impf subj. |
Participles
Compared to Greek, Latin is deficient in participles, having only three, as follows, as well as the gerundive. The Romans themselves considered the gerundive also to be a participle, but most modern grammars treat it as a separate part of speech.The different participles of the verb dūcō are shown below:
| Active | Passive | |||
| Present | dūcēns, pl. dūcentēs | leading | ||
| Perfect | ductus, pl. ductī | led, having been led | ||
| Future | ductūrus, pl. ductūrī | going to lead | ||
| Gerundive | dūcendus, pl. dūcendī | needing to be led |
The participles are all verbal adjectives, and so the ending changes according to case, gender, and number.
As the table shows, there is no passive present or future participle, and no active past participle. In deponent verbs, however, the Perfect participle is active in meaning, e.g. profectus, 'having set out', cōnātus 'having tried'. In deponent verbs, the gerundive is usually used in impersonal form and with an active meaning: proficīscendum est 'it is necessary to set out', moriendum est 'it is necessary to die', cōnandum est 'it is necessary to try'; but some deponent verbs have a personal gerundive with a passive sense: hortandus 'needing to be encouraged', sequendus 'needing to be followed':
Deponent verbs also have active present and future participles, e.g. moriēns 'dying', moritūrus 'about to die'.
The verb sum 'I am' has no Present or Perfect participle in classical Latin, but only the Future participle futūrus 'going to be'.
The verbs volō 'I want' and possum 'I am able' have no future participle. Potēns, the present participle of possum, has a limited use as an adjective meaning 'powerful'.
The 3rd and 4th conjugation gerundive in older texts such as Plautus ends with -undus: faciundum, ferundum, veniundum. Such endings are sometimes found even in classical Latin. Later, -endus became usual, but in the verb eō 'I go', the gerundive is always eundum 'necessary to go'.
Like the infinitive, the tenses of the participles are not absolute but relative to the main verb of the sentence. For example, a future participle can refer to an action in the past, provided it is later than the time of the main verb; and similarly the perfect participle can refer to an action in the future, provided it is earlier than the time of the main verb.
Present participle
The present participle usually describes a condition or an action which is happening at the time of the main verb:Occasionally, a present participle can refer to an action which takes place immediately before the time of the main verb: