'How many different meanings can 'ut' have?'

Ut can be used with either subjunctive or indicative 'normal' verbs, or without a verb altogether. With indicatives, it tends to mean 'when', so for instance 'surgit ut milites movent' would mean 'he rises when the soldiers move'. Without a verb, it usually means 'like', so 'ambulat ut leo' would mean 'he walks like a lion.
With a subjunctive, ut can introduce two types of clause, a result clause and a purpose clause. A result clause denotes a thing happening in consequence of the main clause and usually has in the primary clause a word meaning 'so great' or 'so many' (e.g. tam, tot, tantum). So if you have the sentence 'TOT milites sunt ut omnes PAVEANT' it would mean 'there are so many soldiers THAT everyone's afraid.' So in that situation, 'ut' tends to mean 'that'
A purpose clause is one that shows the purpose of the main clause, so the 'ut' usually translates as 'to' or 'in order to'. For example, 'Ad Olympiam venit ut pugnet' would mean 'He came to Olympia to fight'.

JB
Answered by John B. Latin tutor

5713 Views

See similar Latin GCSE tutors

Related Latin GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Give two examples of English words that are derived from the Latin word, 'school' and give their definitions.


How do I differentiate between the dative and ablative cases when they have the same ending?


Translate into Latin: "The girls were walking to the forum." From OCR GCSE Latin Language Paper (9-1), 2015.


What's a good method to translate a sentence from Latin into English?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences