Back in early December, I wrote a post to explain the various ways of expressing Purpose in Latin. If you would like, you can check it out here;
http://www.legonium.com/blog/2016/12/6/finding-your-purpose.
One of those methods was a Purpose Clause. Here is what I wrote;
Purpose Clause: This is very common. The little Adverb ut has a myriad of uses. Included in these is signposting the coming of a Purpose Clause. A Purpose Clause also requires a change in the Mood of the Verb, which is as simple (and as complicated) as changing tradit to tradat. Marcellus ad argentariam it ut pecuniam Augusto tradat. Marcellus is going to the bank in order to hand over money to Augustus.
This is an honest, but incomplete explanation. The Subjunctive Mood Verb tradat (which is classified as a Present Tense Subjunctive) is only appropriate when the Purpose is something that still may or may not be achieved. For example, Jessica cubiculum intrat (Present) ut sarcinam quaerat. Jessica is entering the room to search for the suitcase. Or Jessica cubiculum intrabit (Future) ut sarcinam quaerat. Jessica will enter the room to search for the suitcase.
If, however, the Purpose is no longer open to be achieved, we do not use a Present Tense Subjunctive in the Purpose Clause (such as quaerat) but an Imperfect Tense Subjunctive (such as quaereret). The grammatical terms are particularly unhelpful here, so let’s just see what this looks like. Jessica cubiculum intrabat (Imperfect) ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica was entering the room to search for the suitcase or Jessica cubiculum intravit (Perfect) ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica entered the room to search for the suitcase.
In our exploration of the Perfect Tense yesterday, we saw that Jessica cubiculum intravit could mean either Jessica entered the room or Jessica has entered the room. Look at how this comes into play when translating a Perfect Verb followed by a Purpose Clause. Jessica cubiculum intravit ut sarcinam quaereret Jessica entered the room to look for the suitcase. Jessica cubiculum intravit ut sarcinam quaerat Jessica has entered the room to look for the suitcase. The implication in the second example would be that Jessica is still in the room and still hoping to find the suitcase. Neat, hey!
The man and woman therefore exited out of the room to search the roof. Jessica meanwhile entered the room like-a-ninja [perniciter] to search for the suitcase given by the sailor.