TENSES
(duration and position in time of the action)

INDICATIVE, ACTIVE

Present: amo
-statement of fact: I love
-close-up picture: I am loving
-emphatic: I do love (the verb being put first in the sentence)
-universal present: Parents love their children.
-lively representation of the past:
-actions that are continued to the present

Imperfect: amabam
-repeated, continuing (process - the perfect tense states the result): I was loving. I used to love
-inceptive: I began to love.
-conative: I tried to love.

Future: amabo
-continuance in the future: I shall be writing. scribam.
-indefinite action in the future: I shall write. scribam.
-imperative sense: You are to say nothing. Tu nihil dices.

Perfect: amavi
-completed action in past time: I loved
-action in the past seen from the point of view of the present: I have loved.
-present state arising from past action: I have loved and therefore am done for.

Pluperfect: amaveram
-the action occurs before that of the perfect: I had loved.

Future perfect: amavero
the temporal relationship between two future events, one of which is prior to the other.
-ubi consules vocavero, sententiam dicam. - When I (shall) have called the consuls, I shall speak my mind.
-nisi puniti erunt, rei publicae nocebo. - Unlcess they are (=shall have been) punished , I shall be hurting the republic.


SUBJUNCTIVE

command
purpose
wish
result
characteristic
indirect question

(Latin Subjunctive is often translated by the auxiliary verbs: may, can, must, might, could, would, should.)