is to use ; 'not' must be added in English: (Plautus) 'as for the costume I've lent, I'm afraid I may not be able to get it back!' Normally a verb of fearing is followed by a fear for a later time, but it can sometimes equally be a fear for something past, in which case it will be followed by a perfect or pluperfect subjunctive: (Petronius) 'I was afraid I had let Ascyltos's double into the lodgings' Tenses in indirect speech A table of tenses When a sentence is made indirect, the verbs generally change either to the infinitive or the subjunctive mood. There are fewer tenses in the infinitive than in the indicative, so sometimes the same infinitive tense can be interpreted as a transformation of more than one indicative tense; for example, the perfect infinitive can reflect the perfect, pluperfect, or imperfect indicative. There is also no distinction between the logical future condition ('if this happens') and the ideal future condition ('if this were to happen'). Further details are given in the sections below. The following table summarises how the tense of the main verb of a quoted sentence changes when it is made indirect: The categories 'doubly past' and 'future perfect' above are only found with passive and deponent verbs. Tenses of the infinitive Contemporaneous situation A present infinitive in indirect speech usually represents a situation contemporaneous with the introductory verb, whether the main verb is present or past tense. In the following examples, the verb in direct speech would have been present tense (e.g. ): (Livy) 'it was announced that the enemy were present.' (Nepos) 'he realised that he was being sought' However, the verb 'I remember', when the sentence describes a personal reminiscence, is an exception to the rule given above, in that the present infinitive is used even though it refers to an event earlier than the introductory verb: (Cicero) 'I remember being present' Earlier event or situation If the reported sentence describes an event or situation earlier than the introductory verb, the perfect infinitive is used. This applies whether the main verb is in the present tense or one of the past tenses: (Cicero) 'Hirtius told me that he had written to him' (Servius to Cicero) 'he brought me news that Marcus Marcellus had been stabbed with a dagger and had received two wounds' (Servius to Cicero) '(he said that) he had