Verbs of fearing

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In Latin grammar, verbs of fearing are those verbs that pertain to fear or concern (often given as timeo, metuo, and vereor). These verbs are grammatically notable because they invert the sense of a following purposive clause, at least relative to the intuition of speakers of many non-Latin languages.

A verb of fearing followed by a "ne" purposive clause means that the subject fears that the event will happen (but wishes that it would not). A verb of fearing followed by an "ut" purposive clause means that the subject fears that the event will not happen (but wishes that it would).