At long last, here are the only verb forms that remain for you to learn. They are the least frequently seen of all the verb tenses. Once you have mastered these two tenses, you will have mastered all the verb tenses. There are a few more stray forms, but they are nothing to worry about.

The Present Subjunctive

No tense of the subjunctive mood has forms that are difficult to make or recognize. The present subjunctive is the most complicated because it varies from conjugation to conjugation just as the present indicative forms do. For the present subjunctive, however, there is a quick way to take care of them.

This sounds silly, but the easiest way to learn the present subjunctive is to think of a verb having a “vowel movement.” Where you expect to see an a on the present stem, you find an e. Where there would be an e on the stem, you find an a. A shortcut is to change the ī of the first principal part of a verb to the other vowel, then apply active or passive personal endings.

Table 16-3 The Present Subjunctive Active

Unfortunately, it cannot be said that all the irregular verbs fall into line with these rules. Most do, but sum and volī do not.

Table 16-4 The Present Subjunctive of sum and volō-

The Perfect Subjunctive

The least common of all verb tenses in Latin is the perfect subjunctive. You will find that you basically already know the active voice for the perfect subjunctive and could have predicted the passive voice.

Since all verbs make their perfect system tenses the same way regardless of conjugation or irregularity, one verb will suffice for an example.

Table 16-5 The Perfect Subjunctive Active ferō -, ferre, tuli-, lā tum

Table 16-6 The Perfect Subjunctive Passive of ferō -, ferre, tuli-, lā tum

The perfect subjunctive active is virtually identical to the future perfect indicative active. The only difference occurs in the first person singular, where you find -erim instead of -erī.

The perfect subjunctive passive is entirely logical. As you recall, for the indicative mood, the perfect passive is formed with the perfect passive participle (from the fourth principal part) and the present indicative of sum. Here, for the perfect subjunctive passive, you also use the perfect passive participle, but with the present subjunctive of sum.