Warned That vs Warned To
A student is doing English-to-Latin prose composition. Two sentences are set: (1) 'The consul warned the senators that the danger was great.' (2) 'The consul warned the senators to leave the city.' The student writes: (1) 'Consul senatores monuit ut periculum magnum esset.' (2) 'Consul senatores monuit periculum magnum esse.' The teacher marks both wrong and says the student has swapped the constructions. The student must work out which Latin construction belongs to which English sentence. She knows that 'moneo' can take either an accusative and infinitive or an accusative and 'ut' clause, but she cannot remember which English pattern goes with which. She also has to translate a third sentence: 'The consul ordered the senators to leave the city.' She wonders whether 'iubeo' works the same as 'moneo'. The exercise is worth six marks: two for each sentence. She has a grammar reference but only two minutes to check.
1. Correct the student's two Latin sentences and explain the rule that decides the construction.
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(1) 'The consul warned the senators that the danger was great' = 'Consul senatores monuit periculum magnum esse.' 'Moneo' + accusative + infinitive reports a statement. (2) 'The consul warned the senators to leave the city' = 'Consul senatores monuit ut urbem relinquerent.' 'Moneo' + accusative + 'ut' + subjunctive expresses a command or advice. The student swapped them: 'ut' belongs to (2), infinitive to (1). The rule: verbs of warning or advising take either an indirect statement (accusative + infinitive) or an indirect command (ut + subjunctive), depending on whether the English says 'that' or 'to'.
2. Why is 'ut' wrong in sentence (1) and missing in sentence (2)?
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'Ut' is wrong in (1) because 'that the danger was great' is a statement of fact, not a command. An 'ut' clause after 'moneo' would mean 'warned the senators to [do something]', but 'the danger was great' is not an action to be done. In (2), 'ut' is required because 'to leave' is an indirect command. The accusative + infinitive in (2) would mean 'warned that the senators were leaving', which is not the intended sense. The English 'to' is the signal for 'ut'.
3. How would you translate 'The consul ordered the senators to leave the city'? Why is it different from 'warned to'?
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'Consul senatores urbem relinquere iussit.' 'Iubeo' takes the accusative + infinitive for an order, not 'ut'. 'Moneo' takes 'ut' + subjunctive for advice or warning. The difference is lexical: 'iubeo' is a direct order, 'moneo' is a warning or recommendation. Both take the accusative of the person. If you used 'impero', you would need the dative: 'Consul senatoribus imperavit ut urbem relinquerent.' So the verb chosen controls the construction.