The Subjunctive and Indirect Questions!

Recently, we watched a Ted Talk that discussed the subjunctive case in various languages. Some languages, like Latin and English, have a subjunctive case while other, like Vietnamese, do not. The subjunctive case describes events that are non-factual, meaning they may or may not happen; therefore, independent subjunctive verbs are translated with may, should, could, might, or would.

The subjunctive case is sometimes used in an indirect question. Indirect questions are questions within other speech, similar to an indirect statement.

For example:

“Amici Titi cupiebant cognoscere quid in senatū ageretur, quid a principe contra incendia factum esset, qui homines praeclari iam in urbe adessent.” 

would be translated as:

The friends of Titus wished to know what was being debated in the senate, what the emperor had done about the fires, which famous people were now in the city.