Chapter 571 Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar Dickinson College Christopher Francese

Publication information

Information about the source

A substantive clause of result may serve as predicate nominative after mōs est and similar expressions:— est mōs hominum, ut nōlint eundem plūribus rēbus excellere (Brut. 84) , it is the way of men to be unwilling for one man to excel in several things.

A result clause, with or without ut , frequently follows quam after a comparative (but see § 583 . c ):— Canachī sīgna rigidiōra sunt quam ut imitentur vēritātem (Brut. 70) , the statues of Canachus are too stiff to represent nature (stiffer than that they should). perpessus est omnia potius quam indicāret (Tusc. 2.52) , he endured all rather than betray , etc. [Regularly without ut except in Livy.]

The phrase tantum abest , it is so far [from being the case], regularly takes two clauses of result with ut : one is substantive , the subject of abest ; the other is adverbial , correlative with tantum :— tantum abest ut nostra mīrēmur , ut ūsque eō difficilēs ac mōrōsī sīmus , ut nōbīs nōn satis faciat ipse Dēmosthenēs (Or. 104) , so far from admiring my own works , I am difficult and captious to that degree that not Demosthenes himself satisfies me. [Here the first ut- clause is the subject of abest (§ 569 . 2); the second, a result clause after tantum (§ 537 ); and the third, after ūsque eō .]

Rarely, a thought or an idea is considered as a result, and is expressed by the subjunctive with ut instead of the accusative and infinitive (§ 580 ). In this case a demonstrative usually precedes: praeclārum illud est, ut eōs ... amēmus (Tusc. 3.73) , this is a noble thing , that we should love , etc. vērī simile nōn est ut ille antepōneret (Verr. 4.11) , it is not likely that he preferred.

For Relative Clauses with quīn after verbs of hindering etc., see § 558 .

XML File