Latin Exercises

[Pacifica]

Pharaohs were ruling Egypt in ancient times.

That's correct.

Note that if you wanted to produce a translation that reflected the emphasis of the original more accurately, you could turn the construction into the passive and say "In ancient times, Egypt was ruled by pharaohs". This translation is more suitable in a situation where Egypt is the theme of the sentence, as it clearly is in the Latin by Aegyptum coming first.

Your translation is fine at this stage because you're still at a level where you have to consolidate your understanding of what is the subject and what is the object etc., but I'm saying this so you can perhaps keep it in a back-corner of your brain for the future: word order conveys nuances that are sometimes best rendered by an at-first-sight-less-literal translation.

 

[Pacifica]

Translate:

In ancient times, the Roman people elected two consuls every year.

 

[R. Seltza]

“In ancient times, the Roman people elected two consuls every year.”

In – Preposition – Indeclinable – In (With Ablative PCR)
Ancient – Adjective – Must Agree With “Times” – Also Falls Under PCR – Antiquis
Times – Plural Noun – Prepositional Noun – Falls Under Ablative PCR - Temporibus
,
The – Definite Article – Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost in Latin, lol
Roman – Adjective – Must Agree With “People” - Romanus
People – Singular Noun (Sentence Subject) – Nominative Case – Populus
Elected – Transitive Verb – 3rd Person Active Indicative – Perfect - Elegit
Two – Number – Acts as an Adjective – Must Agree With “Consuls” - Duo
Consuls – Plural Noun (Direct Object) – Accusative Case – Consilia
Every – (In This Case) Adjective – Must Agree With “Year” - Omnis
Year – Singular Noun - Annus

So the translation would be in temporibus anitiquis, populus romanus consilia duo elegit annus omnis.

I know I probably did something pretty wrong with “every year”. I wasn’t sure about that phrase’s part of speech & the inflection is probably wrong too.

 

[Pacifica]

- "Time at which" is usually expressed by the ablative alone, without preposition, so you don't need the in before temporibus antiquis.

- Consilium can mean, among other things, "advice" or "counsel", not "consul". "Consul" is, well, consul (gen. consulis), masc.

- The imperfect would be more likely than the perfect, because the sentence is about a habitual action in the past.

- Omnis annus is in the wrong case. The nominative is used for the subject of a verb. Is omnis annus the subject, i.e. what elected the consuls? No, so it has nothing to do in the nominative. "Every year", like "in ancient times", denotes the "time at which" the action happened, so the ablative omni anno would be grammatically correct. However, it wouldn't be very idiomatic; the usual way of saying "every year" is quotannis.

 

[R. Seltza]

the usual way of saying "every year" is quotannis.

Doesn't this also mean "every month" as well as "every year"?

 

[Dantius]

No. quot mensibus appears to be attested for "every month", but it's rare. quotannis (or quot annis) just means "every year".

 

[Pacifica]

Translate next:

Julius gave his girlfriend an expensive ring.

 

[R. Seltza]

So the actual translation would really be temporibus anitiquis, populus romanus consules duo elegit quotannis.

 

[Pacifica]

- The imperfect would be more likely than the perfect, because the sentence is about a habitual action in the past.

So better eligebat than elegit. For the rest, yes.

 

[Pacifica]

anitiquis

Antiquis.

 

[R. Seltza]

“Julius gave his girlfriend an expensive ring.”

Julius – A Guy’s Name – Singular Noun (Sentence Subject) – Nominative Case - Julius
Gave – 3rd Person Singular Active Indicative Verb - Perfect Tense - Dedit
His – Singular Possessive Pronoun – Describes Julius, Who’s a Guy, So Masculine – Case Must Still Agree With Object - Suo
Girlfriend – Singular Noun – Indirect Object – Dative Case - Amatrici
An – Indefinite Article – (Disappears & Becomes Magically Implied)
Expensive – Adjective – Must Agree With “Ring” – Sumptuosum
Ring – Singular Noun (Sentence Object) – Accusative Case - Anulum

So, the translation would be Juilus anulum sumptuosum dedit amatrici suo.

 

[Pacifica]

Suus, like meus, tuus, noster and vester, is an adjective that agrees with the thing possessed in gender, number and case. So here it should be suae.

Well done on not mixing up the direct and indirect objects.

Translate:

Marce, Marce, veni cito: Iulius gladio tuo sese interficere vult.

 

[Dantius]

 

[R. Seltza]

Suus, like meus, tuus, noster and vester, is an adjective that agrees with the thing possessed in gender, number and case. So here it should be suae.

So suus isn’t actually represented in accordance to the gender of the person it’s referring to?

Translate:

Marce, Marce, veni cito: Iulius gladio tuo sese interficere vult.

“Marce, Marce, veni cito: Iulius gladio tuo sese interficere vult.”

Marce – Singular Noun (A Guy’s Name) – Vocative Case – “Marcus”
,
Marce – See Above
,
Veni – 2nd Person Present Imperative – Singular – “Come”
Cito – Adverb – Indeclinable – “Quickly/Fast”
: (Did you mean to use “;” or even "!" instead of “:”?)

Julius – Singular Noun (Another Guy’s Name) – Nominative Case – “Julius” (Of Course)
Gladio – Singular Noun – Ablative – “By/With Sword”
Tuo – Possessive Pronoun – Ablative – “By Your”
Sese – Reflexive Pronoun – Singular – Accusative - “Himself”
Interficere – Present Active Infinitive Verb – “To Kill”
Vult – 3rd Person Singular Present Active Indicative Verb – “Wishes”

“Marcus, Marcus, come quickly(;/!) Julius wishes to kill himself by/with your sword.”

 

[Dantius]

: (Did you mean to use “;” or even "!" instead of “:”?)

The second part explains why Marcus should come quickly.

 

[Dantius]

Anyway, your translation is otherwise correct.

 

[R. Seltza]

What source is that partial screenshot from?

 

[Dantius]

The first result when you google "use of colon". But every result, including from the MLA style center and Oxford Dictionaries, says something similar.

But also, it seems to me that traditional punctuation for Latin texts uses colons a lot more than we do in English. Not sure why, but it happens.

 

[Pacifica]

Translate:

The monkey will break the nut with a stone.

 

[R. Seltza]

“The monkey will break the nut with a stone.”

The – Definite Article – (Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost)
Monkey – Singular Noun (Sentence Subject) – Nominative Case - Simius
Will – Indicates Future Tense For a Verb– Follows Below ↓
Break – 3rd Person Singular Active Indicative Verb – Future Tense - Dirumpet
The – Another Definite Article – (Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost)
Nut – Singular Noun (Sentence Object) – Accusative Case - Nucem
With – Preposition – Ablative of Means (So This Just Disappears)
A – Indefinite Article - (Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost)
Stone – Prepositional Object – Singular Noun – Ablative Case – Saxo

Simius nucem saxo dirumpet.