Sequence of Tenses in Latin: Ultimate Guide for Students

When you are learning the Latin subjunctive, you will soon encounter the concept of sequence of tenses. There are two sequences, primary and secondary, and they shape the formation of subordinate clauses of all kinds.

This may sound scary, but it’s really not. Basically, sequence of tenses in Latin boils down to the following:

• All verb tenses are either primary or secondary.
• Primary tenses go with other primary tenses.
• Secondary tenses go with other secondary tenses.
• The tenses have different chronological relationships to each other.

As a professor of classical studies, I have spent years teaching students all about Latin tenses and how they fit together. In this post, we will go over everything in detail, with lots of examples.

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What is the sequence of tenses in Latin?

“Sequence of tenses” may sound like fancy grammatical jargon, but it refers to a simple phenomenon. Basically, some tenses go with one another, while other tenses go with others.

A sequence is, etymologically, a “following”. So the sequence of tense rule explains which tenses follow which other tenses.

In Latin there are two sequences: primary sequence and secondary sequence. You decide what sequence a sentence is in by looking at its main verb.

You can think of primary tenses and secondary tenses as two social groups or cliques that don’t like to mix.

To use an old high school stereotype: imagine the athletes sitting on one side of the cafeteria and the drama kids on the other. No one crosses the divide, just like primary tenses and secondary tenses don’t hang out together.

In a moment we will go over the Latin primary vs. secondary tenses and then we will look at lots of examples. But first let’s clarify how to find the main verb in a sentence . . . a necessity for determining a sentence’s sequence.

How do you tell if a Latin sentence is in primary vs. secondary sequence?

A sentence is in primary sequence if its main verb is in a primary tense, and a sentence is in secondary sequence if its main verb is in a secondary tense. But, you may ask, how do you find the main verb? What is a main verb, anyway?

The main verb is the verb of the main clause. My students like to call it the “head verb” because it is the verb that controls the sequence.

The main clause is the part of a sentence that can stand on its own.

All other clauses are subordinate or dependent. Their tenses will depend on the tense of the main verb.

Here is an example sentence involving a purpose clause (a type of subordinate clause).

Tibi vēritātem dīxī nē īrātus essēs. = I told you the truth so that you would not be angry.

The main clause (in green) can stand on its own. I can say, “I told you the truth,” and that is a complete sentence. It makes sense without further context.

But if I just say, “so that you would not be angry,” your response would likely be, “You did what so that I would not be angry?”

The purpose clause (“so that you would not be angry”) cannot be a full sentence on its own. It is thus a subordinate or dependent clause.

This handy quiz can give you more practice identifying main vs. subordinate clauses (in English).

But now, back to our focus: how do you tell if a sentence is in primary sequence or secondary sequence?

To decide what sequence a sentence is in, look at the main clause and find the verb. Here the main clause is tibi vēritātem dīxī and the verb is dīxī.

Dīxī is in the perfect indicative, a tense which – as you will soon learn – is a secondary tense. This means that the entire sentence is in secondary sequence.

In order for there to be a sequence of tenses, a sentence needs to have at least one subordinate clause. In the remainder of this post, you will see all different kinds of dependent subjunctive clauses represented.

Sequence of tenses is a concept that is fundamentally linked to the subjunctive mood, so if you aren’t sure what that is, I advise you to check out my post on essential uses of the subjunctive. The dependent uses are the ones relevant here.

Latin Primary Tenses

Latin has three primary tenses in the indicative mood:

1. Present indicative
2. Future indicative
3. Future perfect indicative

Notice that all of these tenses relate to present or future action.

Two subjunctive tenses belong to the primary sequence:

1. Present subjunctive
2. Perfect subjunctive

The present subjunctive indicates action that is incomplete – it is either happening right now or it may happen in the future.

The perfect subjunctive indicates action that has already been completed.

We will look at lots of examples below, but for now, remember this important point: a main verb in the present, future, or future perfect indicative will lead to a present or perfect subjunctive.

Latin Secondary Tenses

Latin also has three secondary tenses in the indicative mood:

1. Imperfect indicative
2. Perfect indicative
3. Pluperfect indicative

All of these tenses refer to past action. Contrast this with the primary tenses, which deal with the present and the future.

There are two secondary subjunctive tenses:

1. Imperfect subjunctive
2. Pluperfect subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive indicates action that is incomplete – perhaps the action is in progress or it might occur in the future. The imperfect subjunctive thus fulfils the same function in secondary sequence as the present subjunctive fulfils in primary sequence.

The pluperfect subjunctive, on the other hand, describes action that was already completed by the time of the action of the main verb. It is consequently equivalent to the perfect subjunctive in primary sequence.

The following chart summarizes the primary vs. secondary tenses:

Sequence	Indicative	Subjunctive
Primary	Present, future, future perfect	Present, perfect
Secondary	Imperfect, perfect, pluperfect	Imperfect, pluperfect

Primary Sequence

As I explained above, a sentence is in primary sequence if the main verb is in the present, future, or future perfect indicative.

If there is a subordinate clause that requires the subjunctive, then the subjunctive verb(s) will be in either the present or the perfect subjunctive.

The subjunctive tense shows the relationship between the action of the subordinate clause and the action of the main clause. Subjunctives express relative time, with the verb of the main clause providing the anchor.

A present subjunctive indicates that the action in the subordinate clause is incomplete at the time of the action of the main clause.

This lack of completion generally means that the subordinate clause takes place at the same time as the main clause.

Let’s look at an example of an indirect question (introduced by the interrogative quis).

Rogō quis tēcum veniat. = I ask who is coming with you. [present subjunctive]

I am asking in the present who is coming with you in the present. The arrival has not yet happened; the action of coming is incomplete.

A perfect subjunctive, on the other hand, indicates that the action of the subordinate clause is complete at the time of the action of the main clause.

In other words, the subordinate clause happened before the main clause.

Rogō quis tēcum vēnerit. = I ask who came with you. [perfect subjunctive]

I am asking in the present who already came with you in the past. The arrival has happened; the action of coming is complete.

Let’s look at another example, this one involving a cum clause.

#1: Cum domī maneās, ego ībō. = Since you remain at home, I will go. [present subjunctive]

#2: Cum domī mānserīs, ego ībō. = Since you remained at home, I will go. [perfect subjunctive]

Now our main verb is in the future indicative, so our chronological reference point shifts. In Sentence #1, I will go in the future because you remain at home in the future.

In Sentence #2, I will go in the future because you remained at home in the past. The use of the perfect, the tense of completion, implies that your action of remaining is concluded: you missed your opportunity to go out.

So far so good. But what about if you want to ask someone who will come with them in the future, after the action of the main verb? There is no future subjunctive in Latin.

It’s true that the present subjunctive expresses incomplete action and thus can refer to the future, as in purpose clauses:

Veniō ut tibi auxilium dem. = I come so that I may give you aid. [present subjunctive]

Logically, if I come in the present with the goal of giving you aid, the action of giving is currently incomplete and must happen in the future.

Most of the time the present subjunctive can do double duty, covering the range of action from the present into the future. The exception is in indirect questions, where you might want to distinguish concretely between now and later.

The Romans solved the problem of the missing future subjunctive with a compound structure called the active periphrastic.

In primary sequence, this structure combines a future active participle with the present subjunctive of the verb sum.

Mīles dīcit quot hostēs in silvīs sint. = The solder says how many enemies are in the woods. [present subjunctive]

Mīles dīcit quot hostēs in silvīs futūrī sint. = The soldier says how many enemies will be in the woods. [future participle + present subjunctive of sum]

Literally, futūrī sint means “are about to be” or “are going to be”. The soldier is saying in the present how many enemies will be around in the future.

Sequence of tenses can be confusing at first, which is why I always teach my students this concept using a timeline. Take a look at the following graphic.

The main verb is the one fixed chronological point on the timeline. The three subjunctive tenses express whether their action happens before, at the same time as, or after the action of this main verb.

In other words, subjunctive tenses help us to arrange actions into the proper chronological order. And this makes sense.

A verb tense, after all, is merely the time at which the verb’s action occurs. So the sequence of tenses reflects the order of times, or, in other words, the order in which things happen.

Secondary Sequence

A sentence is in secondary sequence if its main verb is in the imperfect, perfect, or pluperfect indicative. All subjunctives in subordinate clauses will be in either the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive.

In secondary sequence, the “future” subjunctive is expressed by a combination of the future active participle and the imperfect subjunctive of sum.

As we saw up above with regard to primary sequence, the relationships between tenses are best expressed with a timeline.

Remember: subjunctive tenses express relative time. If the main verb is in the perfect indicative, than the imperfect subjunctive also refers to past time. The pluperfect subjunctive then refers to a time even further in the past, while the active periphrastic denotes the future of the past.

The imperfect subjunctive expresses action that is incomplete or happening at the same time as the action of the main verb.

Rogābam quis tēcum venīret. = I was asking who was coming with you. [imperfect subjunctive]

I was asking in the past who was coming with you in the past. The arrival had not yet happened; the action of coming was incomplete.

Compare this to the use of the pluperfect subjunctive, which indicates that an action is complete or happened before the action of the main verb.

Rogābam quis tēcum vēnisset. = I was asking who had come with you. [pluperfect subjunctive]

I was asking in the past who had come with you in the more distant past (the past of the past, so to speak). The arrival had already occurred; the action of coming was complete.

Finally, let’s look at the compound future construction.

Rogābam quis tēcum ventūrus esset. = I was asking who would come / was going to come with you. [future active participle + imperfect subjunctive of sum]

I was asking in the past who was going to come with you in the future (the future of the past).

Sample Sentences

The best way to master the Latin sequence of tenses is to practice, practice, practice. In this section, I am going to use two types of subjunctive clause – a purpose clause and an indirect question – to show you each possible combination of tenses.

In the following sentences, the main verbs are underlined and the subjunctives are in bold.

Our first set of sentences involves a purpose clause. Purpose clauses will always take either the present or imperfect subjunctive, so we have 6 possible variations (one for each of our indicative tenses).

Our next set of example sentences involves an indirect question. Here we have many more possibilities, because the subjunctive verb in the indirect question could indicate present, past, or future time.

So we have 18 sentence variations (6 indicative tenses x 3 subjunctive options).

Whew, that was a lot of examples. But hopefully you now understand how the subjunctive tenses relate to the main verb!

Exceptions?

Remember how I said above that Latin verb tenses are cliquey? Primary tenses hang out with other primary tenses, and secondary tenses with other secondary ones.

But it turns out that there is some socializing between cliques, after all.

In other words, there are exceptions to the neat grammatical pattern that I have laid out. I will discuss one major one here.

The perfect indicative is usually considered to be a secondary tense, but occasionally it is followed by subjunctives in primary sequence.

Why? Because the Latin perfect performs two different functions: that of a simple past tense (scrīpsī, “I wrote”) and that of a present perfect (scrīpsī, “I have written”).

This second function stresses the ongoing impact of the action; it has consequences that stretch into the present. Because of this enduring relevance, the Latin perfect can be thought of as a primary tense in certain contexts.

Tot epistulās scrīpsī ut mihi dēsit ātrāmentum. = I have written so many letters that my ink is out.

The present subjunctive, dēsit, stresses that this situation endures in present time. I still don’t have any ink.

The sentence is more immediate than if we used dēesset (imperfect subjunctive). With an imperfect subjunctive, it would be unclear if I still lacked ink. Maybe, for instance, my ink was out, but I went to the store and bought more.

There are other situations like this one where a main verb may lead to a sequence that you would not expect. For a thorough discussion, I recommend that you consult §482-485 of my favorite Latin grammar.

Final Thoughts on Latin Sequence of Tenses

The most important takeaway from this post is that main verbs in primary tenses are followed by subjunctive verbs in primary tenses, while main verbs in secondary tenses are followed by subjunctive verbs in secondary tenses.

Your first step as a student should be to memorize which tenses are primary and which secondary. Then you can focus on the concept of relative time.

English and other modern languages have sequence of tenses, too, we just don’t typically use that terminology. For instance, we say “I hope that you will come”, but “I hoped that you would come.”

It sounds weird to say “I hoped that you will come”, just like it sounds weird in Latin to put a secondary tense after a primary tense main verb (or vice versa).

As you read more and more Latin, you will get used to the patterns of tenses. Maybe one day, they will be as natural to you as the verbal patterns in your native language!

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