Rule 71: Sequence of Tenses

There are four tenses of the subjunctive (present, perfect, imperfect, pluperfect), but in any given sentence, you have just two to choose from. Welcome to the concept of sequence of tenses, which exposes the relativistic nature of the subjunctive mood, where the present and imperfect subjunctive show an action happening at the same time as the main verb, while the perfect and pluperfect subjunctive show an action that is already completed when the main verb takes place. This video will teach you how to know what each tense means, and how to parse and Latin sentence to understand this relationship between the main and subordinate clase.