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Latin from scratch course › #19: Relative time & participles › #19.36: Relative time

Latin from scratch #19.36: Relative time

In the thirty-sixth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study —or rather we’ll make the effort to understand— relative time, which is fundamental to correctly translate participles and especially infinitives.

Contents

  • Absolute time and relative time
  • Relative time
  • Last remarks

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 15m 18s ⌛):

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Absolute time and relative time

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Absolute time is measured from the speaker and the moment of the utterance, the “now”. Simply put, absolute time is the one in main or superordinate clauses.

Caesar dicit…

Caesar dixit…

Caesar dicet…

Relative time, on the other hand, is measured according to the absolute time of the superordinate clause (because, simply put, relative time is the one in subordinate clauses).

There are three types of relative time:

  • Simultaneity: the action of the subordinate clause happens at the same time (simultaneously) as the action in the superordinate clause.
  • Anteriority: the action of the subordinate clause happens before the action in the superordinate clause.
  • Posteriority: the action of the subordinate clause happens after the action in the superordinate clause.

Relative time

Latin can express different relative times through the different infinitives and participles (present, perfect, future…). The difficulty, or rather big difference between Latin and English, is that both English infinitives and participles have lost much of the time content.

That is why quite often we will have to convert Latin non-finite verbs into English finite forms, so the English verbs express the relative time expressed by the Latin participles or infinitives.

This relative time is expressed, in infinitives and participles, by the stems/tenses:

  • anteriority: perfect
  • simultaneity: present
  • posteriority: future

Last remarks

As some kind of linguistic reflections to finish off, let’s take a look at the requirements of the expression of relative time. We have to exclude…

  • verbs such as “see”, “hear”, etc. (direct perception): one cannot have direct perception of something already happened or yet to happen, so these verbs require simultaneity
  • verbs such as “remember”, “regret”, etc.: one cannot remember or regret something that hasn’t happened yet, so these verbs require anteriority
  • subordinate clauses that themselves express relative time: final and consecutive clauses always express posteriority; causal clauses always express anteriority; manner clauses always express simultaneity…

After understanding relative time, we can go on and study participles and infinitives.

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Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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