Expressions of Purpose
In English, an expression of purpose tells us what is intended by a particular course of action. It answers the question, “with what intent” or “with what purpose” was the action of the main verb completed. Below are some basic examples and variations of expression of purpose (the expression of purpose is bolded):
- He got up at 9 AM to get to class on time.
- He got up at 9 AM so that he could get to class on time.
- He got up at 9 AM so as to get to class on time.
- He got up at 9 AM to not be late to class.
There are two things worth noting about expressions of purpose. First, they are dependent on a main verbal construction. For example, “so that he could get to class on time” is not a grammatically correct sentence in and of itself; it needs the main clause “he got up at 9 AM” in order to make sense. Second, the verbal action contained in the expression of purpose always happens after the verbal construction on which they are dependent. In other words, they have a sense of futurity to them.
As you will see below, Latin has a number of ways to express purpose. Almost all of them can be translated in any of the ways expressed above or described in the purpose clause section.
Purpose Clause
The most common way to express purpose in Latin is through a purpose clause. Purpose clauses are dependent clauses (i.e., they generally follow an independent clause) that have three key features:
- A subordinating conjunction (ut for a positive purpose clause or ne for a negative purpose clause)
- A subject (stated or implied)
- A verb in the present or imperfect subjunctive, depending on the sequence of tenses
How do we translate a sentence containing a purpose clause? Take the following example:
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt ut urbem peterent.
First, we break the sentence into dependent (bolded) and independent (italicized) clauses. In the case of a sentence containing a purpose clause, we can recognize the dependent clause rather easily as it begins with ut or ne.
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt ut urbem peterent.
We then translate the independent clause:
- The soldiers came to the fields ut urbem peterent.
After that, we select the appropriate translation for the purpose clause based on the nature of its subject. If the subject of the purpose clause is the same as the subject of the independent clause, we can simply translate the ut plus the verb as “to verb” or “in order to verb” (in case of ne, “to not verb”). In the case of the sentence above, this is the case and we can translate it as follows:
- The soldiers came to the fields to attack the city.
- The soldiers came to the fields in order to attack the city.
If the subject of the purpose clause is different from that of the main clause, we translate ut plus the verb as “so that [subject] could verb.” We can see this in the example below:
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt ut urbem dux peteret.
- The soldiers came to the fields so that the leader could attack the city.
Relative Clause of Purpose
A variation on the standard purpose clause is known as the relative clause of purpose. In a relative clause of purpose, the ut or nē is replaced by a relative pronoun (i.e., quī, quae, quod) or relative adverb (i.e., ubi, unde). We can differentiate a relative clause of purpose from a regular relative clause by the use of the subjunctive:
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt qui urbem peterent.
- The soldiers came to the fields to attack the city.
- The soldiers, who were to attack the city, came to the fields.
The relative clause of purpose differs from the relative clause of characteristic in that the latter tells us more about a general, indefinite, interrogative, or negative antecedent, while the former answers the question “for what purpose” or “with what intent” was the action of the main verb completed.
Gerund or GRG with Prepositions
Last semester, we learned about how gerunds or gerund-replacing gerundives / GRGs can be used to express purpose. Gerunds and GRGs can be used as the object of the prepositions ad (with the accusative) and causā/gratiā (post-positive with the genitive) to form an expression of purpose.
Thus, our example sentence can be written in the following ways as well:
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt ad petendam urbem. (The soldiers came to the fields for the purpose of attacking the city/to attack the city.)
- Ad agrōs militēs venērunt petendae urbis causā. (The soldiers came to the fields for the sake of attacking the city/to attack the city.)
Remember that GRGs take their case from their function in the sentence (here, depending on whether ad or causā/gratiā is used), but their gender and number come from their object.
Future Active Participle
As we noted a few weeks ago, participles or verbal adjectives play a large number of roles in Latin. For the future active participle, one of these roles is as a way to express purpose. The future active participle naturally indicates future intent (“about to [verb]”). When translating the future active participle as an expression of purpose, it is important to remember that participles modify nouns and, thus, it will be the noun modified by the participle that will be acting with a particular purpose in mind. If the future active participle is used to express purpose, we can use words that indicate that function in our translation: for example, “intending to [verb]” rather than simply “about to [verb].”
To follow up on our example again:
- Ad agrōs militēs petitūrī urbem venērunt. (The soldiers, intending to attack the city, came to the field.)
Supine
The last and least common way to express purpose in Latin is by using the supine. The supine is a weird verbal noun whose origin is not very well understood. However, it is very closely related to the fourth principal part and exists in only two cases: the accusative and the ablative.
We form the supine by dropping the -us from the fourth principal part and adding a -um for the accusative supine and a -ū for the ablative supine. So, amātus becomes amātum in the accusative and amātū in the ablative.
The accusative supine is used with only a verb of motion to express purpose. Here is our example sentence using the supine:
- Ad agrōs militēs petitum urbem venērunt. (The soldiers came to the fields to attack the city.)