Mnemonics to stop mixing up subjunctives?

interprete

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Hello,

I’m using a generally very good Latin texbook, except I think it goes a bit too fast in introducing the four types of subjunctive. As a result I constantly have to go back to the tables whenever I try to write anything in Latin involving the subjunctive, because I keep mixing up the imperfect, perfect and pluperfect (only the present subjunctive is effortless for me). Does anyone have any tips to help remember which is which? Not in terms of when to use each, but rather which one has which endings.

Thanks!
 
 

cinefactus

Censor

  • Censor

  • Patronus

Location:
litore aureo
They are all the same aren't they between conjugations?
The perfect is almost identical to the future perfect indicative, except for erim for 1st person and and the long I in erīs
imperfect is all rem -res -ret -remus -retis -rent
and the pluperfect issem -es -et -emus -etis -ent
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
It's worth noting that imperfect is the present act. infinitive + some endings (amare-m) and the pluperfect is the perfect act. infinitive + some endings (amavisse-m). From a historical linguistics standpoint that's not actually what they are, but it may help remember those two.
 

kizolk

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Bourgogne, France
The perfect is almost identical to the future perfect indicative
True, but I prefer thinking that it's very close to the pluperfect indicative precisely because it provides some sort of mnemonic: the perfect and plup. subjunctive are kind of the reverse of what you'd expect, with the perfect looking like the pluperfect indicative, and the pluperfect looking like the perfect -- more precisely, like the perfect active infinitive (+endings) as Dantius pointed out.
 

Clemens

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

Location:
Maine, United States.
If you use the infinitive + ending method, you have to remember to make the final e long in front of the endings which don't shorten a preceding vowel.
 

interprete

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Thanks everyone! As I read you all, I realize that I even confuse the names of those tenses, so that’s an added difficultly for me.
I guess the easiest for me to remember at this stage is that when I want to talk about a prior action in the subjunctive, then it’s infinitive + ending. So by elimination the simultaneous actions are either the basic present subjunctive which I’m ok with, and the surprising -erim one.
 

interprete

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Thanks everyone! As I read you all, I realize that I even confuse the names of those tenses, so that’s an added difficultly for me.
I guess the easiest for me to remember at this stage is that when I want to talk about a prior action in the subjunctive, then it’s infinitive + ending. So by elimination the simultaneous actions are either the basic present subjunctive which I’m ok with, and the surprising -erim one.
Oops, I’m reading my texbook now and I realize I got confused again!
So amarem is imperfect and amavissem is pluperfect, so all I need to remember is that the infinitive + endings are for past-tense main clauses. That’s even more straightforward this way. I just hope it’s true :)
 

interprete

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

From a historical linguistics standpoint that's not actually what they are, but it may help remember those two.
What are they actually?
 
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