Salvete,
I do not comprehend at all the use of the tenses in one of Adler’s exercises (ex Exercise 164):
In the lesson this exercise belongs to, Adler deals with subjunctive after relatives (p. 586). This sentence seems to best fit part C (“When the relative is precedded by an indefinite expression, positive or negative, or by an indefinite question involving a negation, its verb is in the subjunctive”). He also gives some examples:
- Sunt, qui dicant, censeant. There are those who say, those who suppose.
- Sunt,qui dixerint, viderint. There are those who have heard, those who have seen.
- Fuerunt, qui dicerent. There were those who said.
Still, this does not really help me. Does not the Latin sentence “Multi sunt, qui te errare (falli) dixerint” mean the following: “There ARE many who HAVE SAID that you are mistaken.” And is the alternative using “dicerent” even possible?
But Adler made a shift from past (English) in the main sentence to present in the Latin one. So, should not the Latin sentence be: “Multi fuerunt, qui te errare (falli) dicerent”?
Valete,
Carolus Raeticus