This chapter gives you no new table: it teaches you to use the subjunctive you already know to deliberate, report a question, and set the background of a narrative. It also completes three precise uses of the genitive.
1. The question that seeks a decision
An ordinary question asks for a fact:
Quid facis? — What are you doing?
A deliberative question asks what course of action to choose:
Quid faciam? — What am I to do?
Quō eāmus? — Where are we to go?
The present subjunctive suits a decision now. In a past narrative, the imperfect carries the same uncertainty:
Lūcia sēsē interrogāvit quid faceret. — Lucia asked herself what she should do.
The question may remain unanswered. Its form expresses uncertainty, not futurity.
2. From a direct to a reported question
Compare:
Ubi est nāvis?
Nesciō ubi nāvis sit.
The first sentence asks the question directly. The second places it after nesciō: the verb in the question moves into the subjunctive.
The same movement occurs in the past:
Quis lūmen ostendēbat?
Lūcia quaesīvit quis lūmen ostenderet.
The interrogative words stay the same: quis, quid, ubi, cūr, quōmodo, utrum… an… It is the verb form that signals that the question has become part of another sentence.
3. cum does not always say the same thing
With the indicative, cum locates an event presented as definite or repeated:
Semper gaudeō cum amīcōs videō. — I am always glad when I see my friends.
With the subjunctive, cum sets the narrative background or gives the cause as the narrator presents it:
Cum ventus rapidus esset, piscātōrēs remānsērunt. — Since the wind was violent, the fishermen remained.
Look at the relationship between the two clauses. If cum simply answers “when?”, the indicative is natural. If it sets the scene or explains “in these circumstances / since”, the subjunctive becomes natural.
4. Saying how highly something is valued
With aestimāre and facere, four genitives state the value assigned:
| Latin | sense |
|---|---|
| magnī | highly, at a great value |
| parvī | little |
| plūris | more |
| minōris | less |
Salūtem plūris quam lucrum aestimō. — I value safety more than profit.
This genitive is not a price counted in coins. It expresses a judgement of worth.
5. Accusing someone of something
The accused person is in the accusative; the charge is in the genitive:
Iūdex virum fūrtī accūsat. — The judge accuses the man of theft.
The construction therefore clearly separates who is targeted from what the charge is. In this chapter, fūrtī is the model to remember.
6. nostrum and vestrum: a part within a group
Nēmō nostrum — none of us Quis vestrum? — who among you?
nostrum and vestrum denote the group from which a part is selected. They differ from nostrī and vestrī, used when the relation points towards us or you:
amor nostrī — love of us, love somebody feels for us.
The safest formula to remember is quis vestrum?
7. Compound verbs
The chapter gathers many verbs made from a prefix and a familiar verb:
- iacere → abicere, adicere;
- facere → afficere;
- licere → allicere;
- mittere → āmittere, permittere;
- dūcere → redūcere;
- rapere → ēripere, surripere.
The prefix specifies direction, but the stem vowel may change. Learn the compound as a whole word, together with its principal parts.
8. Three families of meaning
What is gained or lost: dīvitiae, lucrum, iactūra, fūrtum, beneficium, maleficium.
What passes through the mind: spēs, fēlīcitās, laetitia, trīstitia, invidia; the adjectives fēlīx and maestus describe the person experiencing them.
Movement and its result: appropinquāre, appārēre, remanēre, dēterrēre, permovēre, redūcere.
9. Two pairs not to confuse
nōtus means “known”, ignōtus “unknown”. ignārus describes not the thing but the person who does not know it:
Vir ignārus locī viam ignōtam timet.
fēlīx describes a fortunate person or outcome; fēlīcitās names happiness or success itself.
What this chapter does not yet do
A reported question about a completed event would normally require the perfect subjunctive. That tense does not arrive until capitulum XXXII. Reported questions here therefore remain in the present or imperfect. The pluperfect subjunctive will wait until XXXIII.