LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Allen & Greenough · Part Second — Syntax › Syntax of the Verb

§437. Indicative Mood

The Indicative is the mood of direct assertions or questions when there is no modification of the verbal idea except that of time.

a. The Indicative is sometimes used where the English idiom would suggest the Subjunctive:—

  • longum est, it would be tedious [if, etc.]; satius erat, it would have been better [if, etc.]; persequī possum, I might follow up [in detail].

For the Indicative in Conditions, see §§ 515, 516; for the Indicative in implied Commands, see § 449. b.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.