Questions tagged [gerund]
For questions about gerunds (not to be confused with gerundives).
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Translation of the genitive gerund
I came across this sentence from Livy in Roma Aeterna, and although I believe I grasp the general meaning, I don't really understand the use of the genitive gerund 'sperandi':
Deinde, cum minus agri ...
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What's this gerundive doing here?
Metamorphoses Book V, the story of Proserpina. At this point Proserpina's mother Ceres is still looking for her daughter.
Sicaniam repetit, dumque omnia lustrat eundo,venit et ad Cyanen. ...
"...
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Can a gerund have a predicative complement?
Can a gerund have a predicative complement? By predicative complement I mean a complement which refers both to a noun or pronoun (the subject or the direct object) and to the verb, like e.g. "...
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Is the construction "a desiderando amari" correct in Latin?
In a previous question in this forum I asked how could "the desire of being loved" (as in the prayer "From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Lord"), and similar constructions, ...
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Can we use the gerund passively?
In a recent question it was pointed out that there is no passive gerund, and cupido amandi can't mean the desire of being loved. But I'm not sure that this is the case. I tend to view the gerund as ...
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How to say "desire of being loved, praised, etc." in latin?
This is the first time I ask a question here. I am trying to translate into latin the phrase "the desire of being loved (or praised, respected, etc.)". If what is desired were in active ...
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Use of gerund with ablative of means or method
A beginner's question: when using an ablative of means/method where the means/method in question is a verb, does that verb take the gerund ablative form? This is the sentence which prompted the ...
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Gerund vs infinitive
I'm currently reading Ad Alpes and came across the following sentence:
"Nonne sunt qui putent earum volatu res futuras portendi?"
Now, as I understand it the meaning of this sentence is: &...
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How does "vadis" mean "you go"?
Apparently in the Acts of Peter, it reads at one point, "Domine, quo vadis?" Meaning, "Lord, where are you going?".
However, I do not understand this form, vadis. The forms I know ...
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Were there ever gerunds for posse and esse?
As Figulus stated in a recent answer:
But passive infinitives are not the only infinitives which lack a gerund. Posse and esse also lack a gerund, and that brings to my mind the neo-Latin expression, ...
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Passive verbal noun, oblique cases
As far as I know, present infinitive is used as verbal noun for the nominative and accusative, and gerund is used as verbal noun in other oblique cases (genitive, dative and ablative).
I would like to ...
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Is "nulli nocendum" ambiguous?
In Phaedrus fables in I.26:
Nulli nocendum: si quis vero laeserit,
Multandum simili iure fabella admonet.
According to what I was able to find in 3 different translations nulli nocendum is ...
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Why is the infinitive used instead of a genitive gerund (e.g. "consilium ceperunt ex oppido profugere")?
I was wondering about the grammatical reason(s) whereby a(n expected) genitive gerund/gerundive is sometimes replaced by an infinitive. Here are some representative examples of this phenomenon:
...
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On the syntactic distribution of ablative gerund and nominative present participle
I've always taken it for granted that in Classical Latin nominative present participles cannot be replaced by ablative gerunds without a meaning change. For example, in the following case the ...
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"desinat igitur gloriando etiam insectari dolores nostros."
In Cicero Letters to Brutus we find:
desinat igitur gloriando etiam insectari dolores nostros.
Two questions:
Is gloriando here connects with desinat or with insectari. In other words, what would ...
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Can ‘per’ occur with accusative gerundium?
In my grammar (Samson Eitrem: Latinsk grammatikk, 3rd edition, by Bjørg Tosterud and Egil Kraggerud, Aschehoug, 1996), under § 146 Gerundium, he states that:
Akkusativ brukes etter preposisjonene ad ...
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Can a gerund stand alone?
In response to a question e.g. "How will you maintain order?" (= "quomodo tu disciplinam sustentabis?"), the answer could be, "By ruling." In Latin, an ablative of the ...
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Can a gerund introduce a subordinate clause?
Reading this recent question about whether the main verb introducing a purpose clause with ut can be in the passive voice, I thought about writing an answer that basically said: The main verb can be ...
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Ethics of Spinoza: producendam
Spinoza, Ethics, De Deo, Propositio 33, Scholium 1:
res aliqua impossibilis dicitur; nimirum quia vel ipsius essentia seu definitio contradictionem involvit vel quia nulla causa externa datur ad ...
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Is it possible to use a prepositional phrase with a gerundive/gerund?
can we use prepositional phrases (like "de domo") linked to a gerund or
a gerundive, can it act as an object?
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Gerundial arguments selected by verbs taking Genitive: e.g., "Memento moriendi"? "Me paenitet vivendi"?
As a follow-up of two previous questions on Latin grammar, I was wondering if examples like Memento moriendi (cf. Memento mori) and Me paenitet vivendi (cf. Me paenitet vivere) are also attested.
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Nunc est bibendum: gerund or gerundive?
When providing answers to some apparently basic questions (e.g., cf. Tom Cotton's and mine in Mihi legendum/legenda est? & Why use nominative in Coniugatio periphrastica passiva? , respectively), ...
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Is my rephrasing of this purpose clause correct?
Suppose I have a sentence:
"Hercules reliquit viam ut Megaram peteret."
If I want to rephrase the purpose clause using the gerund / gerundive; would it be correct to write the following?
"...
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What forms are the verbs in "Omnibus rebus paratis, Caesar milites naves conscendere jussit"?
In "Omnibus rebus paratis, Caesar milites naves conscendere jussit", what forms are the verbs "paratis" and "jussit", and why?
This sentence was taken from Gramática latina de Napoleão Mendes, from ...
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Is the nominative gerund attested?
I'd always heard that the gerund had no nominative, with the present active infinitive taking the place of the missing form: volāre difficile est, rather than *volāndum.
However, in the comments on ...
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Vocative Gerund
I am 99.9999% confident there is no purpose for a vocative gerund. Yet nothing seems to specifically disallow for such a construction. In theory something such as "odi te currendum" (in English, "I ...
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Translation help, especially with "cum bello cupiendo"
I found the following translation exercise online:
To say nothing of Philip, whom he rendered an enemy to the Romans,
though at a distance from him, Antiochus was the most powerful of all
kings ...
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Is 'praestandis' in this sentence a gerund (gerundium) or a gerundive (gerundivum)?
Optimis facinoribus variis in conspectu omnium praestandis rex apud populum famam pietatis ac sapientiae possedit.
Is praestandis a gerund or gerundive or both?
And does it matter for the translation?...
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When is there a U instead of an E in gerund(ive)?
Tuomo Pekkanen's Latin grammar mentions (§52.3) that the -e- added to the present stem before -nd- in the gerund and gerundive (in the third and fourth conjugations) can be replaced with a -u-.
For ...
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When and how did the distinction between the gerund and the gerundive develop?
The gerund and the gerundive look similar and have similar meanings, but they are still distinct as any Latin grammar will tell us.
But how did classical Latin come to have these two close but ...
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Am I grasping this gerund correctly? and also the talem...qualem pair?
This is actually a continuation of my last question. The following sentence is a little tricky, and I feel I may have missed a thing or two. I appreciate any feedback.
"Etiam hac hora ...
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Short vowels in lucubrando
I came across a poem from 1621 written in Sapphic stanza.
It contains this line:
pervigil Christi, lucubrando sudans
To scan that, the third word must be lŭcŭbrandŏ.
L&S ...
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Use of the gerund in the Vulgate bible
I was reading Luke 10:25 in the Vulgate bible, trying my best to translate as literally as possible. But I found it hard to translate the question that the expert of law (legisperitus) poses.
(...
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When do I use the gerundive vs. participle forms of a verb in Latin?
When do I use the gerundive vs. participle forms of a verb in Latin?
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When can the gerund take an object?
Typically the gerundive is employed when one using a gerund with an object seems possible.
For example, I have understood that aqua bibenda est and rei faciendae causa are preferable to aquam bibendum ...
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"Miserando atque eligendo"
There seem to be two schools of thought about the meaning of the motto on Pope Francis's coat of arms:
miserando atque eligendo
These words are taken from the 21st homily of the Venerable Bede, ...
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