Optative Subjunctive
The optative subjunctive is Latin for pure wishing — utinam Clōdius vīveret, "if only Clodius were alive." No "I want that…" wrapper, no result clause: the subjunctive verb itself carries the wish, usually flagged by the particle utinam.
The one rule that does most of the work is the tense-of-wishing: present subjunctive for wishes the world might still grant (utinam adsit, "if only she's there"); imperfect for wishes already broken NOW (utinam adesset, "if only she WERE here"); pluperfect for wishes broken in the PAST (utinam adfuisset, "if only she HAD been here").
English has to swap auxiliaries — Latin just shifts the tense.
The negative is nē, not nōn — utinam nē vērē scrīberem, "would that I were not writing the truth." And watch for velim, nōlim, mālim and their imperfects: those are stock optatives meaning "I'd like / I wouldn't like / I'd rather."
The tense of the subjunctive marks how unreachable the wish is — present hopeful, imperfect broken now, pluperfect broken then.
Negative is nē, not nōn. utinam is required with imperfect/pluperfect; with the present it's optional but common.
See It In Action
— Liv. xxi. 10. 10
Present subjunctive sim = the wish is still on the table — Hannibal hasn't crossed the Alps yet, so Hanno can still hope to be wrong. "May I be" not "would that I were."
— Cic. Mil. 103
Imperfect vīveret = wish unfulfilled in PRESENT time. Cicero knows Clodius is dead — the imperfect tense itself is what marks the wish as broken now.
— Cic. Q. Fr. i. 3. 1
Pluperfect vīdissēs = wish about a window in the PAST that's already shut. Cicero, in exile, wishes his brother had seen him dead — the chance is gone, not just unrealized.
— Cic. Fam. v. 17. 3
The negative is nē, not nōn — utinam nē locks this in. Cicero is writing the bad news; he wishes the news weren't true. Imperfect because the writing is happening NOW.
"may X happen" / "if only X" — wish still POSSIBLE
utinam adsit = "if only she's there" (= may she be there)
"would that X were" / "if only X were" — wish broken NOW
utinam adesset = "if only she WERE here" (but she isn't)
"would that X had" / "if only X had" — wish broken IN THE PAST
utinam adfuisset = "if only she HAD been here" (but she wasn't)
velim + subj. = "I'd like X"; vellem + subj. = "I wish X had" (broken)
vellem vērum fuisset = "I wish it had been true" (Cic. Att. xv. 4. 4)
Both use imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive and both translate with English "would." The wish is a standalone yearning; the apodosis is the consequence of an unreal condition.
standalone yearning — "if only X"
utinam vīveret
would that he were alive
consequence of an unreal sī-clause
vīveret, sī adessēs
he would be alive, if you were here
Tip: Look for the trigger: utinam (or vellem, ō sī) → wish; a sī-clause in the same sentence → conditional. No protasis = wish.
Cicero writes utinam mē mortuum vīdissēs (Q. Fr. i. 3. 1). What does the pluperfect subjunctive vīdissēs tell you about this wish?
Study Tips
- •Read the tense first, then translate the wish: present = "may X," imperfect = "would that X were," pluperfect = "would that X had." The tense IS the unfulfillment.
- •When you see utinam in a Cicero letter, expect imperfect or pluperfect — Cicero is usually wishing about something already broken, not something still possible.
- •Memorize velim and vellem as fixed optative idioms: velim + subj. = "I'd like X to happen," vellem + subj. = "I wish X had happened (but it didn't)." Same for nōlim/nōllem and mālim/māllem.
- •Watch for poetic ut, utī, sī, and ō sī as wish-particles in Vergil and Horace — utinam is the prose default but verse spreads the inventory.