Fear Clauses
If the subject of an independent is/was fearful that some type of verbal action is/was going to occur, in Latin the action that they are afraid of is expressed as a dependent clause. The dependent clause is usually referred to as a fear clause.
A fear clause always depends on a main clause that contains a verb of fearing (e.g., timeō, vereor, metuō, terreor) and is introduced either by ne for a positive fear clause and ut for a negative fear clause. Note that this is the opposite of what we might expect based on purpose or result clauses: nē indicates that it is feared that the fear clause WILL happen, while ut indicates that it is feared that the fear clause WILL NOT happen.
Fear clauses always feature a subjunctive verb in the present or imperfect tense, depending on the sequence of tenses.
When translating a fear clause, we translate nē as “that” or ut as “that…not”. If the verb in the clause is in the present subjunctive, we translate it as “would verb.” If the verb is in the imperfect subjunctive, we render it as “verbed.” Below are some examples:
- Hostēs metuunt ne dux captus fugiat. (“The enemies fear that the leader who was captured would escape.”)
- Timuit ut uxor amaret. (“He was afraid that his wife did not love him.”)