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186 All these forms are subject to the general rules of the Conditional Statement §§ 234 sqq.

§ 417. —The general rule for the formation of the Conditional Statement, that the Protasis and Apodosis must not consist of forms inconsistent with each other, is subject to some exceptions.

(a) There being no Indicative of the Indefinite Second Person (§355) the Subjunctive is used instead: standum est in lĕctō sī quid dē summō pĕtās one must stand on the sofa if one wants anything from the top.

(b) The Indicative is used regularly in phrases like longum est it would be long.

(c) The Subjunctive (especially in the Secondary Tenses) is occasionally replaced by an expression in the Indicative, which means nearly the same as the Subjunctive. Thus in sīiŭssĕs, pārŭissem if you had ordered me, I should have obeyed; instead of saying I should have obeyed, which implies I did not obey, we might say I ought to have obeyed, I was going to obey, or the like.

§ 418. —(a) Some other deviations (chiefly poetical) are due to a desire to be brief or emphatic.