666 * Ἄν marks the action of a verb as more or less uncertain, either (1) as contingent on circumstances not yet realized, or (2) as itself merely supposed. The first use is seen in the hypothetical indicative and optative (461, 467, 479); in the second use ἄν stands (or may stand) with most classes of subordinate subjunctives (616 a, 618 a, 620, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631, 632, 636 a, 638 c, 644, 650). ἄν is not used with subordinate μή clauses nor with quoted dubitative subjunctives, because it was not used with the simple subjunctive sentences from which these subordinate clauses arose; it nearly dropt out of purpose clauses, though ὅπως and ὡς clauses often retain it.