Latin Fear Clauses: How To Express Anxieties in Latin
Latin fear clauses are counterintuitive for many students. In fact, if you aren’t careful, you may completely misunderstand what an ancient author is saying.
The concept of a fear clause is simple: it is a group of words that expresses fear that something will, or won’t, happen.
Here is a quick English example:
I am afraid that it will rain.
“That it will rain” is the fear clause.
In Latin, we would say the following:
Vereor nē pluat.
Nē pluat is the fear clause.
But wait, you may say: doesn’t nē mean “lest” or “that . . . not”? Doesn’t it negate the following clause? Shouldn’t vereor nē pluat mean “I am afraid that it will not rain”?
Nope. Vereor nē pluat indicates that you are afraid that it WILL rain.
This is the part that is counterintuitive. If you are confused, don’t worry. I will walk you through how to recognize and understand Latin fear clauses (with lots of examples)!
Structure of Latin Fear Clauses
Clauses of fearing have a predictable structure in Latin. There are three essential components:
- Verb of fearing (timeō, vereor, metuō, paveō, etc.)
- Conjunction (usually nē, ut, or nē . . . nōn)
- Subjunctive verb
The conjunction introduces the fear clause, which contains the subjunctive verb.
This leads me to an important point: the verb in a fear clause is always in the subjunctive mood.
This makes sense when you think about it. The subjunctive is used to express wishes, potential actions, hypothetical situations, and so on. Fears for what may potentially happen in the future fit in well.
After all, “I am afraid that it will rain” (vereor nē pluat, subjunctive verb) is very different from “it will rain” (pluet, indicative verb).
“It will rain” is a statement of fact about the future, so we use the future indicative. “I am afraid that it will rain” expresses your anxieties about the future, so the subjunctive is appropriate.
🤔 Need a refresher on the subjunctive mood? This post has you covered!
Take a look at the following two examples. The fear clauses are in bold, with the conjunctions in red and the subjunctive verbs in blue. The verb of fearing is underlined.
Agricola metuēbat nē inimīcī cōnsilium audīrent. = The farmer feared that (his) enemies would hear the plan.
Verēris ut tibi pecūniam dent. = You are afraid that they will not give you money.
Nōn timeō nē mihi vēritātem nōn dīcant. = I am not afraid that they will not tell me the truth.
Now that you are familiar with the basic structure, let’s talk about when fear clauses begin with nē, when they begin with ut, and when they begin with nē . . . nōn.
Positive vs. Negative Fear Clauses
In Latin, things that you fear will NOT happen are introduced by ut or nē . . . nōn, while things that you fear WILL happen are introduced by nē.
In other words, ut (or nē . . . nōn) introduces “negative” fear clauses, while nē introduces “positive” fear clauses.
POSITIVE FEAR CLAUSE: Vereor nē Rōmānī vincant. = I am afraid that the Romans will conquer.
NEGATIVE FEAR CLAUSE: Vereor ut Rōmānī vincant. = I am afraid that the Romans will not conquer.
This usage of nē vs. ut is the exact opposite of what we see in other subjunctive clauses. Ut generally means “so that”, while nē means “so that . . . not” or “lest”.
What is going on with fear clauses, then?
To understand, we need to go back in time to consider how Latin fear clauses developed.
Clauses of fearing originated from the combination of an optative subjunctive, or subjunctive of wishing, with a verb of fearing.
STAGE 1: Vereor. (Ut) Rōmānī vincant! = I am afraid. May the Romans conquer!
STAGE 2: Vereor ut Rōmānī vincant! = I am afraid that the Romans will not conquer!
In the first stage, the expression of fear and the wish are not directly linked. The person says they are afraid, and then they wish that the Romans will conquer.
Logically, if they want the Romans to conquer, their fear is that they will not conquer.
Over time, the two separate statements joined together into one continuous sentence. This gives us Stage 2.
The underlying meaning remains the same: the person wants the Romans to win, so they are afraid that they will NOT win. That’s why ut introduces a negative fear clause.
I know that my English brain always wants to read ut as expressing a positive fear, and you may be confused at first, too. Just remember: ut is a remnant of the original positive wish.
Your wishes and your fears are opposites.
Now let’s look at nē.
STAGE 1: Vereor. Nē Hannibal vincat! = I am afraid. May Hannibal not conquer!
STAGE 2: Vereor nē Hannibal vincat! = I am afraid that Hannibal will conquer!
As we saw above, in the first stage, the fear and the wish are separated by a period. The person says they are scared, and then they use a negative wish to indicate that they do not want Hannibal to conquer.
Their wish is that Hannibal not conquer, which means that their fear is the opposite: that Hannibal will conquer.
That’s why, in Stage 2, we find nē introducing a positive fear clause.
To go back to our rain example, I think to myself, “I don’t want it to rain – may it not rain (nē pluat)!” The flip side of my wish is my fear, “I am afraid that it will rain (vereor nē pluat).”
So far so good.
Nē . . . nōn vs. ut in negative fear clauses
In addition to ut, negative fear clauses can be introduced by nē . . . nōn. In fact, in some respects this is MORE common than ut.
Nē . . . nōn is a negation of a positive fear clause. In other words, nē (first negative) introduces the positive fear clause, and then nōn (second negative) turns that positive fear clause into a negative one.
Yeah, if that last paragraph sounded like word salad to you, I don’t blame you. It confuses me too and I’m the one who wrote it.
The important point to remember is that nē . . . nōn, like ut, indicates something you fear will not happen.
Vereor nē Rōmānī nōn vincant. = Vereor ut Rōmānī vincant.
= I am afraid that the Romans will not conquer.
When do we use nē . . . nōn rather than ut?
First of all, Romans tend to use nē . . . nōn when the main verb (the verb of fearing) is negated. So if you do NOT fear that something will not happen, use nē . . . nōn.
EXAMPLE #1: Nōn vereor nē Rōmānī nōn vincant. = I am not afraid that the Romans will not conquer.
EXAMPLE #2: Agricolae nōn timēbant nē ovēs aquam nōn biberent. = The farmers did not fear that the sheep would not drink water.
In Example #1, the implication is that I want the Romans to conquer, and I think that they will conquer. Therefore, I am not worried that they will not conquer.
In Example #2, the implication is that the farmers want their sheep to drink water. They aren’t worried about the situation, though, because they think that the sheep will drink water.
Beyond this, many verbs of fearing tend to be followed by nē . . . nōn rather than ut in ALL circumstances.
Timeō, timēre, timuī is an example of this. According to Gildersleeves‘ Latin grammar (§550, note 1), it is extremely rare to find a fear clause beginning with ut after timeō.
In fact, vereor is the only verb that is routinely followed by ut in classical Latin. Nē . . . nōn dominates for all verbs from the 1st century B.C.E. onward.
We will look at some more examples of fear clauses in action soon. But first there is another important topic to address: tense!
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Tenses in Latin Fear Clauses
In fear clauses, just as with most dependent subjunctive clauses in Latin, we have to follow the sequence of tenses.
My post on the sequence of tenses has a more detailed explanation, but in short: Latin verbs like to hang out with other verbs from the same “cliques”.
A main verb of fearing in a primary tense is followed by a subjunctive verb in a primary tense. And a main verb in a secondary tense is followed by – you guessed it – a subjunctive verb in a secondary tense.
Fear clauses usually refer to potential future scenarios, so fear clauses in primary sequence will feature the present subjunctive. Fear clauses in secondary sequence will feature the imperfect subjunctive.
PRIMARY SEQUENCE: Timeō nē pluat. = I am afraid that it will rain.
SECONDARY SEQUENCE: Timēbam nē plueret. = I was afraid that it would rain.
Timeō is in the present indicative, a primary tense, so pluat is in the present subjunctive.
Timēbam is in the imperfect indicative, a secondary tense, so plueret is in the imperfect subjunctive.
PRIMARY SEQUENCE: Verear ut amīcōs in urbe inveniās. = I will fear that you won’t find (your) friends in the city.
SECONDARY SEQUENCE: Verita sum ut amīcōs in urbe invenīrēs. = I feared that you wouldn’t find (your) friends in the city.
Verear is in the future indicative, a primary tense; thus we see inveniās in the present subjunctive.
Verita sum is in the perfect indicative, a secondary tense, and that’s why invenīrēs appears in the imperfect subjunctive.
Does that make sense? It’s rather like how in English we say that we are afraid something will happen, but we were afraid that something would happen.
While much rarer, it is also possible to express fear that something has ALREADY happened in the past.
Imagine that you went on vacation and left your laundry out on the line to dry. As you are returning home, you are struck by a sudden anxiety: what if it rained while you were gone?
You are likely to say, “I hope that it has not rained!” or, in terms of fear, “I am afraid that it has rained!”
To indicate a fear that something has ALREADY happened, we use the perfect subjunctive in primary sequence and the pluperfect subjunctive in secondary sequence.
PRIMARY SEQUENCE: Timeō nē pluerit. = I am afraid that it has rained.
SECONDARY SEQUENCE: Timēbam nē pluisset. = I was afraid that it had rained.
Timeō is in the present indicative, a primary tense, so pluerit is in the perfect subjunctive.
Timēbam is in the imperfect indicative, a secondary tense, so pluisset is in the pluperfect subjunctive.
Fear Clauses in Action: Test Your Knowledge
Now that you know how fear clauses work, it is time for some practice. Study the following three examples of fear clauses from ancient authors and test your knowledge!
Remember:
- Nē introduces positive fear clauses – things that you fear WILL happen.
- Ut and nē . . . nōn introduce negative fear clauses – things that you fear will NOT happen.
- Most fear clauses feature verbs in either the present or imperfect subjunctive.
Example #1: Plautus’ Casina
The following quote comes from a comedy by Plautus and involves the elderly Lysidamus and his wife Cleostrata. As Lysidamus’ fears imply, husband and wife are not on good terms.
LYS. sed uxōrem ante aedīs eccam. ei miserō mihi,
Plautus, Casina 574-576
metuō nē nōn sit surda atque haec audīverit.
CLEOST. Audīvī ēcastor cum malō magnō tuō.
There are likely words that you don’t recognize, but that’s all right. The following section asks you some questions and guides you through identifying the grammatical structure.
When you are ready, click the + button to see each answer.
Let’s look at the full quote again.
LYS. sed uxōrem ante aedīs eccam. ei miserō mihi,
metuō nē nōn sit surda atque haec audīverit.
CLEOST. Audīvī ēcastor cum malō magnō tuō.LYS. But look, there is my wife in front of the house. Oh wretched me,
Plautus, Casina 574-576
I fear that she is not deaf and (that) she has heard these things.
CLEOST. By Castor, I have heard [them], to your great disadvantage.
Example #2: Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino
The following example comes from Cicero’s speech in defense of Sextus Roscius, who had been accused of killing his father.
Vereor nē aut molestus sim vōbīs, iudicēs, aut nē ingeniīs vestrīs videar diffīdere, sī dē tam perspicuīs rēbus diūtius disseram.
Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino 82.1
Once again, don’t worry if you don’t recognize all the vocabulary or grammatical forms. Focus on finding the fear clauses and trying to understand the overall structure.
Now that you have thought about the fear clauses a bit, let’s look at the full quote once more.
Vereor nē aut molestus sim vōbīs, iudicēs, aut nē ingeniīs vestrīs videar diffīdere, sī dē tam perspicuīs rēbus diūtius disseram.
I fear that either I will be annoying to you, judges, or that I will appear to distrust your intelligence, if I should expound further about such clear circumstances.
Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino 82.1
Example #3: Nepos’ Life of Themistocles
Our last practice sentence comes from Cornelius Nepos’ biography of the Athenian general Themistocles.
The setting is the Greco-Persian War. The Greeks have been defeated at Thermopylae and although their navy is doing pretty well, they decide to move to a new location.
hīc etsī parī proeliō discesserant, tamen eōdem locō nōn sunt ausī manēre, quod erat perīculum, nē, sī pars nāvium aduersāriorum Euboeam superāsset, ancipitī premerentur perīculō.
Nepos, Themistocles 3
This is probably the most difficult quote that I have given you, mostly because the structure of the fear clause is a little unexpected.
Ready for the full quote once more?
hīc etsī parī proeliō discesserant, tamen eōdem locō nōn sunt ausī manēre, quod erat perīculum, nē, sī pars nāvium aduersāriōrum Euboeam superāsset, ancipitī premerentur perīculō.
At this point, although they had departed from an equal battle [i.e. although the battle had proved indecisive], nevertheless they did not dare to remain in the same location, because there was a danger that, if part of the enemies’ ships had gone around Euboea, they would be pressed by a double danger.
Nepos, Themistocles 3
Fear Clauses: Final Tips
I hope that Latin fear clauses make more sense to you now. They can be counterintuitive, but when I am in doubt, it helps me to break the sentence down into the verb of fearing and the original wish.
Verentur ut librum legās.
Are they afraid that you will read the book, or that you won’t?
Well, the original wish must have been “ut librum legās!” or “may you read the book!” This means that they want you to read the book . . . so they are afraid that you will not read it.
Verentur ut librum legās.
They are afraid that you will not read the book.
Remember: wishes and fears are OPPOSITES.
Once you feel more comfortable with clauses of fearing, I highly recommend that you check out my detailed guide to the Latin subjunctive. I break this often confusing mood down into bite-sized chunks!
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In the tenses section, you state that Verear is future indicative. Isn’t it present subj?
Good question! Verear can be either future indicative or present subjunctive. This is an annoying convergence that happens with all 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs in the 1st person singular.