Nooj wrote:1) Fugit tam celeriter ut capere eum possim.
He fled so fast that I couldn't catch him.
I'm guessing it was "non possim"? Here, since it's the present subjunctive, I think "fugit" is probably present, so "he flees so fast that I can't catch him." Result clauses, though, don't always follow the sequence of tenses, so it could be "he fled so fast that I can't catch him." stressing the present result.
2) The blue whale is so large that an elephant could stand on its tongue.
Balaenoptera musculus tantus est ut elephantus unus poni in lingua sua possit.
You don't need "unus" here, which would mean "one elephant."
3) There were so many stars in the sky that we couldn't count them all.
Sidera tot erunt in caelo ut omnes numerare possemus.
I think you had a typo for "erant" but I believe "sum" normally comes first when it means "there is" and "tot" has to come before "sidera", so "erant tot sidera..." And "non possemus."
4) So great was the power of honesty that we admired it even in the enemy.
If I understand the sequence of tenses right, this construction works:
tanta erat vis probitatis ut eam etiam in hoste diligaremus
But this doesn't?
tanta fuit vis probitatis ut eam etiam in hoste diligaverimus.
"Diligo" is of the third conjugation, so "diligeremus" and "dilexerimus". To your question, according to the sequence of tenses, that would be right, but the sequence of tense doesn't always apply with result clauses like this, you often see the perfect subjunctive after past tenses, so "dilexerimus" is possible (and I guess therefore also "non potuerimus" in the previous question). See section 485.c in Allen and Greenough, http://artfl.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philo ... 45.1996348
. But it seems to me the "textbook way" is to follow the sequence of tenses.