Questions tagged [adjective]
For questions about adjectives.
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What gender should a predicate adjective be to agree with a series of things with different genders?
I'd like the translate the following sentence into Latin:
Pompeii, Rome, and Herculaneum are visited by the boys.
However, since these three cities have different genders, I'm struggling to choose ...
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How can participles (inflected forms) be distinguished from deverbal adjectives (derived forms) in Latin?
Many modern linguistic analyses of languages like English draw a sharp theoretical distinction between participles, which are analyzed as inflected forms belonging to the paradigm of some verb, and ...
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Noun adjuncts in Latin
So this question asks about forming adjectives from nouns, but no clear answer is really given for a general method. In english, you can just use a noun as a adjective without any modification by ...
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Why do some 2nd decl. "-er" adjectives and nouns drop the "e" in the stem?
Is there any rule explaining why certain second-declension nouns and adjectives with a nominative -er ending drop the e when declined (e.g. ager, liber, pulcher), and why others keep it (e.g. puer, ...
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Comparison of omnes, cuncti, and universi
The three adjectives omnis, cunctus, and universus appear to be essentially synonymous.
They are often used in the plural.
The entries in L&S suggest very strong similarity, but I find it unlikely ...
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3
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How do you convert 'lectulus' from a noun to an adjective?
I'm thinking that a houseguest who stays on your couch should be something like hospes lectuli. But that sounds more like a guest invited by your couch, which is silly. In my non-expert understanding ...
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Is it "bene videtur" or "bonum videtur"? Adjective or adverb with verbs/copulae meaning "seem"
With verbs like "seem, appear", one sometimes uses an adverb to express how something appears ("she looked well"), at other times an adjective ("he seemed angry"). How did the Romans do it, ...
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Deriving adjectives from city names
One can often derive adjectives from city names, the most famous example probably being Romanus from Roma.
Such derivatives are typically formed with -anus or -ensis.
My impression is that -anus is ...
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3
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What is "old" in the age of a wine?
If I were to say "this man is 40 years old" in Latin, I would say hic vir 40 annos natus est.
That is, I would use the participle natus instead of any adjective meaning "old", and it is my impression ...
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Semantic difference between genitive and relational ("belong-to") adjectives
There is class of relational adjectives that their meaning is "belong to" "pertain to" like grammaticus. (maybe that distinction is somewhat artificial, as one can say that magnus ...
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What is the difference between suus and eius?
What is the difference between the possessive adjective
suus (his, hers, its, theirs)
(and its declensions)
and the genitive, possessive pronoun
eius (of her, of him, of it)?
Can these words be ...
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Could an adjective be used like an adverb in Latin?
As a general rule, could an adjective be used like an adverb in Latin?
What would be some exceptions?
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Adjectives that decline as consonant stems in the neuter plural nominative/accusative
From what I have read, most third-declension Latin adjectives other than comparatives take the i-stem endings -ī, ium and -ia in the ablative singular, genitive plural and neuter nominative/accusative ...
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Ordinal adjectives for single things modifying plural noun?
To refer to "the first and second chapters", do I say:
capitula prima et secunda
or:
capitula primum et secundum?
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1
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How to emphasize adjectives?
In English, and most modern European languages, we have one single word, "very," which is accepted as the regular way to make an adjective more extreme.
Is there a common way to do this in Latin?
Ways ...
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Aut *celer* aut *vēlōx*?
Celer and vēlōx are often treated as synonymous. I feel certain that I learned the technical distinction between them once: that celer was potential speed, while vēlōx was actual speed. So Usain Bolt ...
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Usage of adjective solus
I'm trying to translate the sentence "The whole state was thanking this man's brother alone." (that is, the brother the only one being thanked)
My try is: Tota civitas fratri huius soli gratias agebat....
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Interchange between u- and o-stem forms in suffixed derivatives (e.g. "lectus", "lectuarius")
A little while back, I asked a question about the alleged Latin word "tribalis" (which it seems was not actually used), and I mentioned that it seemed to me that it would be an irregular formation ...
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How does Latin handle "picture nouns"?
"Picture nouns" are nouns like that have their own content such as, picture, story. In English this characteristics results in ambiguity. When we say "my photo" it may mean:
A ...
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Does "plurimi" imply "vast majority" in Augustine's Enchiridion?
In Augustine's Enchiridion, §112, he writes:
Frustra itaque nonnulli, immo quam plurimi, aeternam damnatorum poenam et cruciatus sine intermissione perpetuos humano miserantur affectu, atque ita ...
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How to derive nouns from adjectives?
I know several ways to derive nouns from adjectives:
audax > audacia,
laetus > laetitia,
pius > pietas,
magnus > magnitudo.
Questions:
Are there any rules that govern which one of -ia, -itia, -tas ...
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Uter vs. Uterque
The way I learned 'uter' and 'uterque' was as follows. 'Uter' is like the Greek 'πότερος', meaning (in interrogative uses) 'which, of two?' and (in non-interrogative uses) 'either, of two'. I learned ...
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Can "per-" be applied to any adjective?
A long while ago, I came across a few dictionary entries under per-, meaning "very." I saw peracer, perbonus, and some others. But, I'm not sure if per- can be used as a prefix for any adjective. Can ...
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Formation of words like "essive" or "adessive"
In modern linguistic terminology there are grammatical cases named essive and adessive. However, from a Latinate point of view those formations look abnormal: Usually, the ending -ivus is attached to ...
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How can the use of "-aeus" as an adjective suffix in "Herculaeus" be explained?
Apparently, the English word "Herculean" has an old spelling variant "Herculæan". This seems to correspond to a Latin variant of the adjective "herculeus/Hercŭlĕus" spelled "Herculæus" (example: "...
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Are there any indeclinable adjectives?
I had until recently believed that only nouns could be "declinable" versus "indeclinable": most nouns follow set declensions patterns, while a few (mostly foreign, like Abraham from Hebrew, but some ...
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Which adjective to use for tallness of people?
If a person is tall, which adjectives can I use?
Which one of them is most common in classical Latin?
The most suitable-looking adjectives I know are altus, procerus and longus, but I found no clear ...
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2
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When are -ns words used with accusative direct objects?
In English, one common generalization is that "-ing" words only take direct objects when they are verb forms, not when they are true adjectives or true nouns. (There are only a few possible exceptions,...
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Nominalized adjective in Latin?
How to nominalize adjectives in Latin? In English, adjectives can be nominalized with a slight different in meaning: "the sick man", "the sick".
In German, it's possible to nominalize the present ...
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Can the gerundive be used like an adjective?
Can I use a gerundive like I would use an adjective as in the following example?
It sounds fine to me, but I am somewhat suspicious; my intuition has failed before.
Infans lavandus clamabat.
The ...
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0
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Etymology of "ingeniōsus" and "ingenuus"
Can someone please explain how these two words,
ingenuus
ingeniōsus
both deriving from gignō, come to mean what they respectively do?
BACKGROUND
According to Wiktionary, ingenuus is made of in- + ...
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Has "tribalis" ever been used in Latin?
I was recently looking up the etymologies of some obscure words related to the English word tribe (like the adjective tribual), and I came across a Wiktionary page that asserts that there is or was a ...
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Is the locative used with multi-part city names?
The Duolingo Latin course mentions New York a lot.
(I'd rather have it focused on the geography of ancient Italy than the modern US, but that's beside the point now.)
The locative comes up regularly: ...
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