RULE 1: Cum clauses most often take the subjunctive.

I. Grammar

A. Cum Clauses

Though the preposition cum and the subordinating conjunction cum may look alike, distinguishing them in context is easy. The cum used in subordinate clauses usually appears at the front of its clause and is followed by a subjunctive verb; it almost never has an ablative noun or adjective immediately after it. In contrast, the preposition cum may appear anywhere in a main sentence or subordinate clause and almost always has an ablative after it.

While most cum clauses in Latin take the subjunctive mood and thus we will see only those with subjunctive verbs in this class, you should be aware that in real Latin it's possible for a cum clause to use the indicative.

B. Fero (for the full forms of fero, see pp. 394-395 at the back of Wheelock)

Fero represents a composite conjugation, the use of more than one base in the conjugation of a verb; cf. English go vs. went (in origin, the past form of wend). The base fer- runs through only the present-tense system of fero, but in the perfect system the base tol- takes over. Latum comes originally from *tl-atum (*tl- is the zero-grade of the base which uses no vowel). The forms fers, fert, fertis, fer, and ferre are athematic (having no thematic vowel).

II. Vocabulary

annus: As a word for a unit of time, it's commonly seen in the ablative of time.

navis: An i-stem noun (genitive plural = navium).

aequus: Literally "level, even," it can also connote "calm" (in the mind) and "fair" (in judgment).

apud: This preposition takes the accusative case.

cum: This subordinating conjunction expects the subjunctive (but can take the indicative).

tamen: This adverb is often used in the main sentence as a signal that a cum clause is concessive: "Although (Cum) he was late, he nevertheless (tamen) finished the quiz on time." In most circumstances, tamen signals an inversion of logic or expectation.

confero: Note that the reflexive pronoun with conferre means "betake oneself, go," for example:

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