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Some Independent Uses of the Imperfect & Pluperfect Subjunctives
The present of the optative subjunctive expresses a wish that is still possible, and hence lies in the future. The imperfect subjunctive expresses a wish that is unrealizable in the present:
utinam alibī nunc essēmus! ‘Would that we were now somewhere else!’
The pluperfect subjunctive expresses a wish that was unrealized in the past:
utinam illae ex urbe effūgissent! ‘If only those women had escaped from the city!’The imperfect subjunctive used deliberatively expresses a quandary or deliberation that belongs to the past:
quid facerem? quid dīcerem?‘What was I to do? What was I to say?
The present and perfect subjunctives may refer (without distinction) to what is possible in the future. The first person singular is used to ‘tone down’ the effect of an assertion:
pāce tuā dīxerim …‘With your pardon, I would say …’haud sciam …‘I would hardly know …’
The imperfect of the potential subjunctive (indefinite second person) expresses what one might have thought or said in the past:
eōs victōs crederēs‘You would have thought them defeated.’
The imperfect and pluperfect of the hortatory subjunctive expresses what should or should not have been done in the past:
illī eōdem tempore mortem obīrent.‘They should have died at the same time.’ nē rogāvissēs …‘You should not have asked… .’
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