Latin Exercises

[Pacifica]

Good.

We could perhaps move on to slightly more complex sentences, but so I know what sorts of constructions I can have you translate, I'd like you to tell me which of the following (if any) you have studied:

- Indirect statement (accusative and infinitive)
- Indirect question
- Indirect command
- Conditional sentences (present, past, future more vivid, future less vivid, present contrary to fact, past contrary to fact)
- Gerunds
- Gerundives
- Purpose clauses (with ut/ne)
- Result clauses (with ut)
- (Simple) relative clauses
- Relative clauses of purpose
- Relative clauses of result
- Concessive and causal relative clauses
- Concessive and causal cum
- Cum circumstantial
- Impersonal verbs (such as licet and oportet)

 

[R. Seltza]

We could perhaps move on to slightly more complex sentences, but so I know what sorts of constructions I can have you translate, I'd like you to tell me which of the following (if any) you have studied:

- Indirect statement (accusative and infinitive)

I've studied this a bit, but I don't have much experience with ACI construction.

- Indirect question

I haven't really studied this much at all, though I suspect it'll probably be somewhat similar to the above.

- Indirect command

Same as above.

- Conditional sentences (present, past, future more vivid, future less vivid, present contrary to fact, past contrary to fact)

I've learned about some of these when I was learning about the many uses of the subjunctive. However, my use of the subjunctive, 9 times out of 10, is for jussive commands. I rarely ever get practice with the subjunctive in most other contexts.

- Gerunds

I've had some good practice using gerunds in the past. Dantius especially taught me a good lesson here & introduced me to "the act of ___" test.

- Gerundives

I do have some practice with gerundives. I've only had practice with gerundives when gerunds must become gerundives thanks to a preposition with a PCR. For gerundives that are essentially a "creative" adjective that chain words together (such as "the having-to-be-done things"), I don't really have any practice with that.

- Purpose clauses (with ut/ne)

I could use some more practice here. I've only tried using this with infinitives. This was especially back when I had a very literal understanding of Latin.

- Result clauses (with ut)

I've had some practice with this. I didn't really approach this thinking that it was a result clause, as I just did translations using ut as a conjunction though.

- (Simple) relative clauses

I've studied & practiced this quite a bit... in English. In Latin, I haven't really practiced relative clauses much at all.

- Relative clauses of purpose

See above.

- Relative clauses of result

See above again.

- Concessive and causal relative clauses

See above once more.

- Concessive and causal cum

I've only had experience using cum in the context of translations that called for "with" or a non-interrogative "where".

- Cum circumstantial

See above.

- Impersonal verbs (such as licet and oportet)

I worked with impersonal verbs in the past, but not as much as I probably should have.


I noticed that passive voice verbs weren't listed. I have had some practice with them, but I feel like I could still use some more work on that (especially for indicative perfect, pluperfect, & future-perfect tenses, as well as any subjunctive passive voicing).

Other things that would've been nice to see on the list would be alternative tenses for infinitive verbs (both active & passive) as well as supines.

 

[Pacifica]

I've only had experience using cum in the context of translations that called for "with" or a non-interrogative "where".

"When", not "where".

OK, so... I guess I'll try introducing passive verbs and perhaps a bit of indirect statement.

It seems from your above post that you've sort of dabbled in many concepts but never really studied them properly. To remedy this, I strongly recommend that you take up some textbook and work through it from cover to cover.

Other things that would've been nice to see on the list would be alternative tenses for infinitive verbs (both active & passive) as well as supines.

I'm not sure what you mean by "alternative tenses for infinitive verbs"; do you simply mean past and future infinitives?

Are you familiar with the supine? Can you give me a summary of its uses?

 

[R. Seltza]

I'm not sure what you mean by "alternative tenses for infinitive verbs"; do you simply mean past and future infinitives?

Yes.

Are you familiar with the supine? Can you give me a summary of its uses?

As far as I know about supines, they're used as a way to express someone/something's purpose without having to use an infinitive.

 

[Pacifica]

As far as I know about supines, they're used as a way to express someone/something's purpose without having to use an infinitive.

More exactly:

The accusative supine (ending in -um) expresses purpose after verbs of motion. For example: Veni cenatum! = "Come have dinner!" Abiit piscatum = "He went away to fish."

The ablative supine (ending in -u) is used together with adjectives to denote in respect to which action something is [adjective]. Examples will make it clearer: facile factu = easy to do; horribilis visu bestia = a beast terrible to see.

Translate:

The booty was being carried off by the soldiers.

 

[R. Seltza]

It's been a while; I hope I'm not rusty.
Anyways:

“The booty was being carried off by the soldiers.”

The – Definite Article – (Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost)
Booty – Singular Noun (Sentence Subject) – Nominative Case – Praeda
Was Being– Indicates Imperfect Tense Passive Voice For a Verb – Follows Below ↓
Carried – 3rd Person Plural Passive Indicative Verb – Imperfect Tense – Portabantur
By – Preposition – Imposes Ablative PCR– ab (Really Becomes a Because Prepositional Object Starts With a Consonant)
The – Definite Article – (Becomes a Magically Implied Ghost)
Soldiers – Plural Noun (Prepositional Object) – Ablative PCR – Militibus

Praeda a militibus portabantur.

 

[Pacifica]

Your verb doesn't agree with your subject.

 

[R. Seltza]

Your verb doesn't agree with your subject.

Knew it... Had it right, but 2nd guessed myself & changed it...

 

[Pacifica]

So what do you think is the right version?

 

[R. Seltza]

Was Being– Indicates Imperfect Tense Passive Voice For a Verb – Follows Below ↓
Carried – 3rd Person Plural Singular Passive Indicative Verb – Imperfect Tense – Portabantur

Praeda a militibus portabatur.

 

[Pacifica]

Correct.

Latin-English:

Miles dicebat praedam magnam esse.

 

[Pacifica]

Actually, I've just remembered that I'd written "was being carried off" rather than just "carried", so asportabatur would be more accurate.

 

[R. Seltza]

“Miles dicebat praedam magnam esse.”

Miles – Singular Noun (Sentence Subject) – [The] Soldier
Dicebat – 3rd Person Singular Active Indicative Verb – Imperfect Tense – Was Saying
Praedam – Singular Noun (Sentence Object) – Accusative Case – [The] Booty
Magnam – Adjective – Must Agree With Praedam – Great/Big/Large
Esse – Active Infinitive Verb – Present Tense – To Be

The soldier was saying [that] the booty to be large/great/big…

This sounds a little off.
Was this supposed to mean something along the lines of “The soldier was saying that the booty will be large/big/great?

 

[Bitmap]

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

adsum! ne timeas! pro duro Iulius ense
iam tenet in tenera mollia serta manu!

 

[Bitmap]

“Miles dicebat praedam magnam esse.”


(...)

Was this supposed to mean something along the lines of “The soldier was saying that the booty will be large/big/great?

That's pretty close, but I don't know where you get the "will" from. Pacifica's sentence is the indirect speech equivalent to
Miles dicebat: "praeda magna est."

 

[Pacifica]

Take a look here, R. Seltza.

 

[R. Seltza]

Oh, so this is an indirect sentence. That makes sense now.

So this really means “The soldier was saying that the booty [is] to be large/big/great".

 

[Pacifica]

Praedam magnam esse is an indirect statement (rather than "sentence").

Miles dicebat praedam magnam esse means, word for word, "The soldier was saying the booty to be big", but the translation into normal English will be "The soldier was saying that the booty was big".

 

[Dantius]

cf. English expressions like "I consider him to be a friend", or "I know this to be the truth".

 

[R. Seltza]

Praedam magnam esse is an indirect statement (rather than "sentence").

Statements can't also be sentences (or was that just said to make a point)?