“if” in Latin

si, here (1) the indicative of all tenses is used when the condition is “simply assumed”: si dicit, dicebat, dixit, dixerat, dicet, dixerit [simple supposition]. (2) The subjunctive present, if it be a supposition that is assumed as one that is uncertain, indeed, now, but which will be determined by the event to be or not be. Here “if it is” = “if it should be found to be”: “should prove to be”: si quid habeat, dabit, I don’t know whether he has anything or not: if it should prove that he has, I assert confidently that he will give it. Here the consequence is usually in the future indicative. The English indicative must not mislead us. [Uncertainty with the prospect of decision.] (3) If a case, whether possible or impossible, is simply conceived by the mind, the present subjunctive is used: si exsistat ab inferis Lycurgus, etc. The present subjunctive is also used in the consequence: dies deficiat, si enumerare velim, etc. [Uncertainty without any accessory notion.] Here the imperfect subjunctive is also used in both clauses: seldom, however, in comparison of the present; those tenses having also the office of denoting what would take place, if a certain condition were realized which has not been realized. (4) The condition may be one which is not or has not been realized. [Impossibility or belief the thing is not so.] Here the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive is used in both clauses, the imperfect subjunctive being often used in one or both clauses where we should in English use the pluperfect, (Vid: Zumpt, § 525.) ☞ Si with imperfect subjunctive sometimes denotes a repeated action, the verb of the principal clause is then in imperfect, si quis prehenderetur... eripiebatur: sometimes (which holds of all the other tenses) it is an accessory clause of a sentence that is itself expressed in the subjunctive: veritus ne (si semper atomus gravitate ferretur naturali) nihil nobis liberum esset. In Latin the conditional relation is often expressed by a participial construction; e.g., non mihi, nisi admonito, in mentem venisset, if I had not been told; maximas virtutes jacere necesse est, voluptate dominante, if pleasure be our mistress. But if, sin; sin autem; si vero (☞ very rarely si autem): but if not, si non; si minus; si aliter (Zumpt, 343): if not, nisi, ni (when whole clauses are opposed); si non (merely introduces a negative supposition, the non belonging to the verb, Zumpt, 342): if indeed, si quidem; si modo (if only): if by any chance, si forte (☞ not si fortasse): if ever, si quando, si aliquando: si unquam (after negative clauses, etc. = “if ever once”): if anybody, si quis (unemphatic): si aliquis or quispiam (if any, be it who or what it may): si quisquam or ullus (if there be any, which is very improbable: also when the meaning is that the statement is true, if there be but any of the thing in question, whereas there is much or are many, etc., Pr. Intr., App., p. 193). As if, as though, quasi; tanquam si; ac si: velut si (with the subjunctive; and ☞ that the English must not mislead us: pugnat quasi contendat, he fights as if he contended, or were contending, pugnavit, quasi contenderet, etc.: ☞ not in classical writers): as carefully, as if, sic, quasi (Cic., Verr., 4, 54). After many words, especially those denoting “appearance, pretence, suspicion,” or the like, “as if” is represented in Latin by accusative and infinitive; e.g., moveo nonnullis suspicionem velle me navigare; simulat se aegrotare; also, videtur scire. If only [Vid: PROVIDED THAT].

In comparison, si; e.g., si quid generis istiusmodi me delectat, pictura delectat, if anything, it is painting, i. e., painting pleases me as much as anything.

In asseverations or entreaties, si; e.g., moriar, si quidquam fieri potest elegantius.