Need practice sentences

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I've just realised that on boards where post count is displayed prominently, people generally think that a high post count is a Good Thing. They admire those who have one, and aim for one themselves.

By contrast, on boards where one would have to go through special searches to find out, people are slightly embarrassed about having the numbers rack up, as it means that they Take the Internet Too Seriously. Sometimes it can even be a weapon in debate, with a high count indicating an astroturfer or at least someone with no life in their mum's basement.

OK, that may well be a generalisation from the few boards I happen to have seen, so perhaps others have had different experiences.

 

[Pacifica]

I don't really care about post count.

 

[Callaina]

You don't need to.

 

[Imperfacundus]

"Though greatly desirous to see you, I cannot bring myself to leave my sick wife alone to come to you."

Etsi multum cupio te videre, nequeo me compellere ut uxorem aegram linquam ut veniam ad te.

 

[Pacifica]

Not wrong, but magnopere might be more usual than multum with cupio.

You could also say ego tui videndi cupidissimus, tamen...

I'm not sure how idiomatic me compellere is (in this context). I know an idiom: animum inducere.

 

[Imperfacundus]

No more ?

: (

 

[Pacifica]

"When it was announced in the forum that the enemy were at the gates, Julius was the only one to remain calm in the general panic."

 

[Imperfacundus]

Cum in foro nuntiatum est hostes ad portas adesse, Julius solus fuit qui in terrore publico tranquillus manebat.

 

[Pacifica]

Manebat should rather be in the subjunctive, as it's usually the case in relative clauses after solus and the like.

I'm not too sure about that use of publicus. Perhaps it works, but I have doubts. For "in the general panic" I myself had in mind something less literal like universis trepidantibus.

 

[Pacifica]

"Publius said he was very glad that you had written to him."

 

[Imperfacundus]

Publius dixit se multum laetari te sibi scripsisse.

 

[Pacifica]

Good, though ad se would be a bit more usual.

"Julia said she had received a book which she hed liked very much."

 

[Imperfacundus]

Julia dixit se librum recepisse qui multum sibi placuisset.

 

[Pacifica]

Better accepisse for this sense of "receiving", i.e. being given something as a gift or so. Recipere is more like receiving voluntarily, as in, for example, receiving someone as a guest, or taking a duty upon oneself.

Next:

"It is said that the tree near the church was struck by lightning and entirely burned."

Would it be OK with you if I did my own translations and posted them after you've posted yours, as I've been doing in Cinefactus's thread?

 

[Imperfacundus]

Fertur arborem juxta ecclesiam fulmine percussum esse et omnino conbustum.
-

Sure, that would be interesting for reference.

 

[Pacifica]

- Arbor is fem. (yep, it has changed gender in French).

- It would be more usual in Latin to have a personal construction (fertur arbor..., like literally "the tree is said to...").

- Iuxta ecclesiam can't really modify the tree adjectivally as "near the church" does in English. Arbor iuxta ecclesiam fulmine percussa est means that a tree was struck by lightning near the church, not that the particular tree, specifically described as being near the church, was struck by lightning. In Latin you need a relative clause for this.

My version was:

Dicitur ea arbor quae est iuxta ecclesiam de caelo tacta tota combusta esse.

Next:

"Marcus, who is very fond of Vergil, is extremely angry with Publius because he has lost the copy of the Aeneid which Marcus had lent him."

 

[Imperfacundus]

- Iuxta ecclesiam can't really modify the tree adjectivally as "near the church" does in English. Arbor iuxta ecclesiam fulmine percussa est means that a tree was struck by lightning near the church, not that the particular tree, specifically described as being near the church, was struck by lightning. In Latin you need a relative clause for this.

Yes I actually knew this but when I read over my Latin sentence 'juxta ecclesiam' just seemed to refer more to 'fulmine percussum esse' and it didn't register as a mistake. Lol.

 

[Pacifica]

I see.

 

[Imperfacundus]

Somehow florem went in the opposite direction as arbor en route to French.

I will never understand.

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I never cease to wonder how these things get started. Speakers of a language have been happy to consider a word arbitrarily assigned to a gender for hundreds of years without thinking about it very much, or at all. Then suddenly someone uses a different one, and instead of laughing or tactfully saying nothing, the usual response when a fellow native speaker trips up for whatever reason, people start copying the new usage, and within a generation or so nobody can imagine it's ever been anything else.