Deliberative Subjunctive

The deliberative subjunctive appears in a direct question about what action to take: quid faciam? “what am I to do?” or quid facerem? “what was I to do?” The speaker is not merely requesting information about a fact; the question places a possible course of action under consideration. Present subjunctive handles present or future deliberation, while imperfect subjunctive normally looks back to a problem in the past.

Unlike a negative command, a negative deliberative question normally uses nōn, not nē: cūr nōn maneam? “why shouldn’t I stay?” That small contrast reveals the clause type. A deliberative asks whether an action belongs in the plan; a jussive attempts to impose the plan.

The core contrast

These are independent interrogative clauses. Quid is the accusative object of respondeam; utrum ... an lays out two alternatives. Neither expression “causes” the subjunctive by itself. The mood arises because the speaker weighs an action rather than asks which fact is true.

Present deliberation

Use the present subjunctive when the decision is live at the moment of speaking or concerns a future choice. First-person forms are particularly common because speakers often deliberate about their own conduct, but second- and third-person questions are possible when someone asks what another person is supposed to do.

The time can be explicitly future even though the Latin form is present subjunctive:

Latin has no simple future subjunctive. Crās places both alternatives in the future; the present subjunctives mark current deliberation about them. English “should,” “am I to,” and sometimes “shall” are translations chosen by context, not separate Latin morphemes.

Factual question versus deliberative question

The indicative normally asks what is happening or will happen. The deliberative subjunctive asks what ought, can appropriately, or is intended to happen.

This minimal contrast is morphological: present indicative facis versus present subjunctive faciās. English often needs extra wording to show the difference. Translating both immediately as “what do you do?” erases the speaker’s framing.

The second-person deliberative can sound challenging or incredulous:

That question may genuinely invite a plan, or rhetorically suggest that no good plan exists. Tone and context decide; the morphology identifies the question as deliberative, not whether it expects an answer.

Past deliberation with the imperfect

For a predicament viewed from a past moment, Latin normally uses the imperfect subjunctive: quid facerem? “what was I to do?” The imperfect is formed from the present active infinitive plus personal endings—facere + -m → facerem, manēre + -mus → manērēmus.

The imperfect does not make the contemplated act “unreal” by itself. It relocates the deliberation into the past. The act may subsequently have happened or not; the surrounding narrative tells us. See Imperfect Subjunctive Formation for morphology.

The speaker reconstructs a past choice. A present intrem an maneam? would instead present the decision as current.

Negation with nōn

Because the clause is a question, its normal negator is nōn. This differs from hortatory and jussive directives, whose negator is nē.

The first asks whether there is any reason against truth-telling and often functions rhetorically: “of course I should tell it.” The second combines interrogative cūr with directive nē in a way that does not express the intended deliberation. Do not import the negative marker from commands simply because English uses “shouldn’t” in both.

A negative question with nōnne usually expects agreement about a proposition, not advice about an action: nōnne venit? “isn’t he coming?” That is different from deliberative cūr nōn veniat? “why shouldn’t he come?”

Deliberative versus jussive and hortatory

Compare three clauses with the same present subjunctive stem:

Punctuation represents intonation for modern readers, but syntax and discourse matter too. The hortatory supplies a proposal; the interrogative requests or dramatizes a decision. In an unpunctuated manuscript, surrounding replies, particles, and narrative context must guide the interpretation.

Deliberative versus potential subjunctive

A potential subjunctive presents an action as possible: quis hoc crēdat? can mean “who would believe this?” A deliberative asks what action is to be chosen: cui crēdam? “whom am I to believe?” The boundary can be genuinely close in rhetorical questions, and grammars sometimes label the same line differently.

Here a live choice among witnesses supports the deliberative label. In quis tantam fābulam crēdat? “who would believe so great a story?”, the speaker evaluates plausibility rather than choosing an addressee. See Potential Subjunctive for that contrast.

Rhetorical and literary uses

Deliberative questions frequently dramatize bewilderment, indignation, or refusal. A speaker may not expect practical advice. This rhetorical use is especially common in (formal) oratory and (literary) monologue, but ordinary conversation has the same logic: “What am I supposed to do?” Cicero puts the construction directly before a jury:

Vergil’s Dido asks in crisis:

The transmitted agō is indicative in form, and its compressed question can hover between self-observation and anguished deliberation. It is a useful warning: semantics alone does not manufacture a subjunctive. The immediately following alternatives develop her dilemma, but readers must still parse the visible mood. A clearer morphological deliberative is the composed quid agam? “what am I to do?”

The contrast between Vergil’s authentic indicative and pedagogical agam prevents a common circular argument: a question may be deliberative in theme without containing the construction called “deliberative subjunctive.”

Indirect deliberative questions

A direct quid faciam? can be reported as nesciō quid faciam, “I do not know what I am to do.” The subordinate clause is then also an indirect question, which independently requires the subjunctive. In past sequence, nesciēbam quid facerem means “I did not know what I was to do.”

The direct construction explains the deliberative meaning, while dependence after nesciō explains why grammars also classify it under indirect questions. Do not assume every indirect question is deliberative: quaerō ubi habitat becomes Classical quaerō ubi habitet, even when the speaker merely seeks a factual address.

Common Mistakes

1. Choosing subjunctive merely because the answer is unknown

2. Using nē in a negative deliberative

3. Using present subjunctive for a past predicament

4. Translating every subjunctive question with “would”

5. Ignoring person and clause force

Key Takeaways

The deliberative subjunctive asks what course of action should be chosen. Use the present for a live or future decision and the imperfect for a predicament viewed from the past. Negate with nōn, not directive nē. Mood alone is not enough: distinguish factual, potential, hortatory, and jussive readings by person, interrogative structure, time viewpoint, and discourse.