§446. Subjunctive Mood
The Potential Subjunctive is used to suggest an action as possible or conceivable. The negative is nōn.
In this use the Present and the Perfect refer without distinction to the immediate future; the Imperfect (occasionally the Perfect) to past time; the Pluperfect (which is rare) to what might have happened.
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.