The Passive Subjunctive

The Passive Subjunctive

by William Harris
(the text is published with the permission of the author)

And of course there must exist a set of passive subjunctive- conditional forms, which we might as well face here:

The Present Passive Subjunctive

          I              II             III            IV
Sg.       amer           monear         ducar          audiar
          ameris         monearis       ducaris        audiaris
          ametur         moneatur       ducatur        audiatur

Pl.       amemur         moneamur       ducamur        audiamur
          amemini        moneamini      ducamini       audiamini
          amentur        moneantur      ducantur       audiantur

The Imperfect Passive Subjunctive

          I              II             III             IV
Sg.       amarer         monerer        ducerer         audirer
          ameris         monereris      ducereris       audireris
          amaretur       moneretur      duceretur       audiretur

Pl.       amaremur       moneremur      duceremur       audiremur
          amaremini      moneremini     duceremini      audiremini
          amarentur      monerentur     ducerentur      audirentur

Now again, recall that the Perfect conditional and pluperfect conditional will be compound forms, using the perfect passive participle or PPP, to be followed by the conditional of the verb "to be" , the very common and irregular child of an irregular parent. I think I should give you at this point just an outline of these Perfect Passive compound formations, which are simple, regular, and found a great deal in actual written Latin.

The Perfect Passive Subjunctive

Pf. Pass.    amatus sim...
Ppf. Pass.   amatus essem...

These compound passive forms use the Subjunctive of esse, so I might as well give you these unusual forms here. They actually derive from an ancient Indo-European Optative, as retained in Greek and Sanskrit, and fossilized in the Subj. of the verb volo -- velim "I would wish". Rare!

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE OF esse "be"
Sg.     sim       sis       sit 
Pl.     simus     sitis     sint

The Pluperfect Passive Subjunctive

Compare here again the Perfect Passive Subjunctive and that of the Pluperfect:

Pf. Pass.    amatus sim...
Ppf. Pass.   amatus essem...

This uses the Imperfect Subjunctive of esse as follows:

PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE OF esse "be"
Sg.     essem     esses     esset 
Pl.     essemus   essetis   essent

Note that the second element is a separate word, not fused on. The forms sim, sis, sit etc. are atypical as conditional, because they are obsolete forms left over from an old Indo- European optative, which perished in Latin except here and in a few other scattered forms (velim etc. from volo "I wish" for example).

But essem, esses, esset is straight from the regular rule: Infinitive (esse) plus personal endings, just as it is supposed to be.

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