Consecutio Clock: the sequence of tenses
About this app
Ten real sentences by Seneca and Ovid: the sun hand and the long hand set tense group and time relation, the form in the sentence jumps and the translation follows. “Would” belongs in exactly one field of six.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
Two questions fix the subjunctive
The sequence of tenses decides which subjunctive stands in a dependent clause. Two questions are enough. Is the governing clause in a primary or a secondary tense? Does the action of the clause lie before, at the same time or after? After a primary tense come the present subjunctive, the perfect subjunctive and the form in -urus sim; after a secondary tense come the imperfect subjunctive, the pluperfect subjunctive and -urus essem. English mostly renders these forms with a plain verb. “Would” belongs only in the field posterior after a secondary tense.
What the app shows
An astronomical clock carries the six fields of the sequence. The sun hand chooses the tense group: primary tenses above, secondary tenses below. The long hand chooses the time relation: anterior on the left, simultaneous in the middle, posterior on the right. A real sentence stands beside the clock. Turn the hands and the form in the sentence jumps while the translation reshapes itself. The star marks the field of the text; all other forms are constructed for comparison. The two -urus fields are striped because Latin has no subjunctive of its own for posteriority.
What you can try
There are ten sentences to choose from, six from Seneca’s letters and four from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In five stages you identify the tense group, set the time relation, predict what becomes of the form, compare the translations and test yourself. The button “With would” shows how the sense shifts. The limits of the rule appear too: the historic present takes either group in Ovid, a purpose clause is only simultaneous, and a narrative cum does not occur with a primary tense.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the sequence of tenses in Latin?
- The sequence of tenses (consecutio temporum) fixes the tense of the subjunctive in a dependent clause. What counts is the tense group of the governing clause and the time relation: anterior, simultaneous or posterior.
- Which Latin tenses are primary and which are secondary?
- Primary tenses are the present and the future; secondary tenses are the imperfect, the perfect and the pluperfect. The perfect counts as primary when it refers to the present. The historic present can take either group.
- When does a Latin subjunctive mean “would”?
- Within the sequence of tenses only for posteriority after a secondary tense: an sapiens amaturus esset means “whether the wise man would love”. Otherwise English mostly uses a plain verb.
- What can I do in the Consecutio Clock app?
- You set tense group and time relation on a clock and watch the form change in ten real sentences by Seneca and Ovid. Each sentence has a translation for every field and a test mode with reasons.
Subject: Latin
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- Hexameter Workshop: scanning Latin verse
- Small Words Switch: ut, cum, quod and ne
- Participle Time Machine: time relation and sense
- Sentence X-ray: seeing through Latin sentences
- Geometry of Style: seeing and interpreting rhetorical figures
- Verb Form Vault: forms from three blocks
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