§483. Tenses of the Subjunctive
The following is the general rule for the Sequence of Tenses:—1
In complex sentences a Primary tense in the main clause is followed by the Present or Perfect in the dependent clause, and a Secondary tense by the Imperfect or Pluperfect:—
PRIMARY TENSES
| rogō, | I ask, am asking | quid faciās, what you are doing. |
| rogābō, | I shall ask | quid fēceris, what you did, were doing, have done, have been doing. |
| rogāvī (sometimes), | I have asked | |
| rogāverō, | I shall have asked | quid factūrus sīs, what you will do. |
| scrībit, | he writes | ut nōs moneat, to warn us. |
| scrībet, | he will write | |
| scrībe ( scrībitō), | write | ut nōs moneās, to warn us. |
| scrībit, | he writes | quasi oblītus sit, as if he had forgotten. |
SECONDARY TENSES
| rogābam, | I asked, was asking | quid facerēs, what you were doing. |
| rogāvī, | I asked, have asked | quid fēcissēs, what you had done, had been doing. |
| rogāveram, | I had asked | quid factūrus essēs, what you would do. |
| scrīpsit, | he wrote | ut nōs monēret, to warn us. |
| scrīpsit, | he wrote | quasi oblītus esset, as if he had forgotten. |
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.