Latin Subjunctive verbs in English and a French equivalent of an English phrase.

[corleoned]

So I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and place this in one single entry, so hopefully this doesn't confuse people. If you only know the answer to one and not the other, feel free to comment anyhow <3

Anyhow, the first thing I was hoping someone could explain to me is Latin Subjunctive verbs in English. How do they translate? I know they

Comments

[dcseain]

The subjunctive is mostly dead aside from many Southern and Appalachian dialects in English, and is generally considered obsolete outside of those dialects, at least in North America. Present subjunctive is the root form of verb, e.g. "What you be doing?".

[dcseain]

In the pluperfect subjunctive: "If i were king, i would...", "If i were a wealth man." it curdles my blood every time i hear/see 'was' when 'were' is correct in that context based on what i grew up with in terms of English.

[sollersuk]

The subjunctive is an iffy area in English and is getting rare even in England (though from my experience it seems to be used more in Scotland). It really needs to be dealt with sentence by sentence, with the full context, just as one has to do with the imperfect.

[di_glossia]

The French would be "Non, merci, je regarde seulement". I don't know if the French influenced the English or what, but it's a perfect translation. You can also say "Je jette un coup d'oeil", which is more common, I believe.

[corleoned]

Nah, that's what I figured. I was just doubting my own French skills, as usual |D

[filialucis]

About Latin subjunctives: they don't always denote the "questionable and unreal" and there is no one general answer to your question. How to translate them depends on the context in which they appear in the Latin. If the subjunctive is there because you're dealing with a consecutive or final clause, you'd just use the indicative in English, because that is how English consecutive and final constructions work. Ditto for subordinate clauses in oratio obliqua.

[simlili]

In France, we would say "Merci, (mais) je ne fais que regarder", or "je jette juste un coup d'oeil". Actually, since the question is "Can I help you?", "je peux vous aider?", I just answer "non, merci". If they strike back with a "Vous cherchez quelque chose en particulier?" ("are you looking for something specific", or how do you say that in English), again, "non, merci" is the best polite yet effective way to get them to leave you alone :p

[corleoned]

That's what I figured, thanks. I'm heading to France this summer from Quebec, and I know there's supposedly a bit of a difference from our French to yours, so I just wanted to make sure I had it covered :)