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Questions tagged [grammar-choice]

When asking which choice (case, tense, mood etc.) is grammatical in a given situation, use this tag.

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Why does Latin show some adverbs as conjunctions?

Some words in Latin are shown as being adverbs, yet they have the meaning of conjunctions, at least I guess. The word "quapropter" can be an example. I don't know if I'm mistaken, but I find ...
Manuel Cauã Rebouças's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
142 views

Chosing between the different ways to make an adverb

I was thinking of translating “That is not dead which can eternal lie” into Latin for fun, thinking it was not only applicable to Cthulhu, but to the Latin language itself :) But I got stumped trying ...
Florianus's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
126 views

Why is regenerationis genitive in lavacro regenerationis?

Context: ...quae quidem translatio post Evangelium promulgatum sine lavacro regenerationis aut eius voto fieri non potest... I understand that lavacro is in the ablative case because sine is paired ...
Glorius's user avatar
  • 173
4 votes
1 answer
80 views

Expansion of medical Latin abbreviation (ventric. later. dextr.)

I don't know enough Latin grammar to properly expand this abbreviation: ventric. later. dextr. I am aware that it means the right lateral ventricle in the brain, the lateral ventricles as a whole ...
meide's user avatar
  • 399
9 votes
2 answers
145 views

"nemo aliquid facit nisi qui" + indicative or subjunctive

In another question, a reference was given to Varro: De subus nemini ignotum, nisi qui apros non putat sues vocari. which was translated as: As to swine, everybody knows — except those who think ...
d_e's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
217 views

How do you use a numeral as a genitive substantive?

In English, you can use a bare numeral as a substantive and refer to a group as something like "The Nine." You can then say something like, "The House of the Nine." How would you ...
Adam's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why is 'cum' followed by the dative in this sentence?

Look at the following sentence from Orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata - Familia Romana (ch. 18). Consonans per se syllabam non facit, sed semper cum vocali in eadem syllaba iungitur. The word ...
Thomas Wening's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
635 views

In "I saw the women crying" would femina be accusative?

If you translate "I saw the women crying" would it be feminas with the accusative? The women are both the object of the seeing and the subject of the crying which is confusing me. I am new ...
Simd's user avatar
  • 261
3 votes
1 answer
207 views

3rd declension accusative plurals

I am being driven round the bend by people’s insistence on “playing Horace on original instruments” and I need some way out of the morass. At school the 3rd declension accusative plural ending was -es ...
Martin Kochanski's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
212 views

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 ...
d_e's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
79 views

What is it about?

I believe "liber de bellō est" would mean "the book is about/concerning war". What question would elicet that as a response? I.e. how would I say "what is the book about/...
Paulus Filius Rogeri's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
136 views

Translation of "The ant labors for the good of the nest"

I'm looking to translate "The ant labors for the good of the nest", or to rephrase, "The ant works for the benefit of the nest/hive/colony". So far I've come up with: formica ...
Caw's user avatar
  • 53
2 votes
0 answers
61 views

What numbers (e.g. 0, -1, or 1.0) are plurals in Latin?

The basic question is: With which numbers should I use a plural form of the noun? Background: English In English it seems to me that the only singular number is 1 (and maybe -1), but everything else ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
358 views

General question about nouns and adjectives (can nouns be adjectives and how to decline)

I know that in Latin, adjectives can act as nouns (substantives) e.g. Romani urbem petiverunt. The Romans attacked the city. However, can nouns act as adjectives? For example, stone (lapis, m) and ...
grumio's user avatar
  • 363
5 votes
0 answers
67 views

Why "absolute" instead of "absolutam"?

There's a famous piece of mathematics by János Bolyai, originally published in Latin, under the title Scientiam Spatii Absolute Veram Exhibens: A Veritate Aut Falsitate Axiomatis XI Euclidei, A Priori ...
Draconis's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
474 views

Analysis of sentence "hunc Dātamēs vīnctum ad rēgem dūcendum trādit Mithridātī"

I am confused by the grammar (or rather wikipedia's analysis) of the sentence Hunc Dātamēs vīnctum ad rēgem dūcendum trādit Mithridātī. (Nepos) It appears in a wikipedia article where its ...
JMC's user avatar
  • 163
3 votes
1 answer
628 views

Signing your name: vocative or nominative?

When signing your name at the end of a letter, should you use the vocative case or the nominative case?
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
94 views

Is Titus-Livy's "ab Urbe Condita" 26.1.9 an Example of Informal Indirect Speech?

Livy's "ab Urbe Condita" (26.1.9) is a complete sentence which includes three (numbered) relative "qui"-clauses: "C. Sulpicio (i) cui Sicilia evenerat duae legiones (ii) quas ...
tony's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Meaning and grammar of ‘ōrātiōnī aspergere salēs’

The phrase ‘ōrātiōnī aspergere salēs’ literally means ‘to sprinkle [grains of] salt on the oration’. The grammar in itself is simple enough: ōrātiōnī: in the dative, presumably because of the verb ...
Canned Man's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
103 views

Do we ever see the enclitic -ne multiple times in a clause?

My understanding of the -ne enclitic is that it's usually attached to whichever element is in question, or whichever element is most emphasized. For example, mē-ne amat is emphasizing the object (...
Draconis's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
87 views

Can we add the suffix ne to hortatory/jussive subjunctive?

The Hortatory Subjunctive in the first person is a polite way to urge/ask someone to do something: eamus: let's go!. I wonder if it is possible to add -ne to this subjunctive creating even-weaker ...
d_e's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
215 views

Present vs. perfect tense in potential conditions

Potential conditions, in the English speaking world also known under the name “future less vivid” (for a critique of that particular term, see here), are conditional sentences that talk about supposed ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
223 views

Ablative of Description in Cicero

I am reading Cicero, Against Verres, II.4.95, and I want to translate: Nemo Agrigenti neque aetate tam affecta neque viribus tam infirmis fuit qui ... I am reading aetate tam affecta and viribus tam ...
Stephen Perencevich's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
60 views

How is the number for a year read?

In many texts, years are written in Roman or Arabic numerals like MMIV for 2004. Should I read them cardinally or ordinally? Is there any evidence for the way to read?
Kotoba Trily Ngian's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
243 views

When should nūllus be singular vs plural?

“Nūllus” indicates a quantity of zero, so it's not obvious if it should be plural or singular, and I have seen examples of both, but I am unsure what the choice should be based on. The first pair of ...
Florianus's user avatar
  • 423
2 votes
1 answer
190 views

How to say a prayer in latin grammaticaly?

Magic, for practical all of history, was the invocation of a spirit. This is true of religion. In the old testament, there are implications that other divine beings exist (e.x. "you shall have no ...
Vtex's user avatar
  • 876
4 votes
1 answer
76 views

Are dative personal pronouns more commonly used than adjectives or genitive personal pronouns?

I'm currently reading through Latin Via Ovid, and the dative of personal pronouns was introduced with some common phrases: Quid nomen tibi est? What is the name to you / What is your name? Nomen ...
Adam's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
379 views

Can the gerund be plural

Using the Collatinus conjugator there isn't a form for plural gerund, but there is for the gerundive since the gerundive acts like an adjective. I therefore always assumed that gerunds are never ...
bobsmith76's user avatar
  • 2,239
5 votes
2 answers
159 views

Satis est: de quadam re aut cuiusdam rei?

"Satis est!" significare potest aliquid sufficere vel ob quandam causam saturatum esse ("Iam satis est! Tace!"), ut Anglice dicitur "enough!". Si autem causa exponenda ...
Nacib Neme's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
120 views

Don't pay the ferryman, until ... future perfect?

Recently I read that Charon was a portitor, i.e., a ferryman. This got me thinking about the phrase "Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side" (Chris de Burgh, 1982) and ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
115 views

How would you express 'drained of' in Latin?

I'm trying to translate the phrase 'drained of' in Latin, for example in the sentence 'I have been drained of all my energy'. All of the words for draining which I have found work more in the sense of ...
outisnemo's user avatar
  • 123
6 votes
0 answers
30 views

Preposition preceding a verb [duplicate]

i came across this sentence in Orberg's book: "Quid inest in saccis?" Or "Ecce iulius ad villam advenit." My question is that why there are aditional prepositions, namely another &...
Arminius's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
90 views

Can two nouns be used together as a single unit in Latin?

In French, especially in philosophy and mathematics, it is quite common [1] to use two nouns with a hyphen for certain concepts in order to distinguish between several definitions of the same word. ...
user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
619 views

“Hic” or “hīc”?

The pronoun hic (this) is written with short i in many places, e.g. Oxford Latin Dictionary. But in Lewis & Short: Latin-English dictionary and Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar, it is ...
Kotoba Trily Ngian's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
159 views

If you do something long enough

In my answer to this recent question, I translated "when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you" as: si diu voraginem intuitus eris, etiam vorago te intuebitur. That is, ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

What is the correct way to show the Passive Perfect Infinitive in a textbook?

I have come across the Passive Perfect Infinitive and my current textbook represents it as a nomative participle + esse (e.g. salutatus esse). However on the internet I mostly see it represented as an ...
Frendly's user avatar
  • 11
5 votes
1 answer
132 views

Why is the neuter perniciosius used in this sentence?

In Confessions (1.18.29), Augustine writes: quasi vero quemlibet inimicum hominem perniciosius sentiat quam ipsum odium quo in eum inritatur, aut vastet quisquam persequendo alium gravius quam cor ...
Expedito Bipes's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
334 views

Short form for "collige, virgo, rosas"

I've never studied Latin, so probably I'm asking a trivial question. I'm wondering if the phrase "collige, virgo, rosas" can be expressed correctly in the following short form "collige ...
gost's user avatar
  • 63
4 votes
1 answer
210 views

It was by no means in vain that I came to Rome

I wanted to ask this some time ago, but assumed that it would be dismissed as "fatuous". To my gratification, Joonas has blazed the trail with his excellent Q: Did the Romans use 'animus&...
tony's user avatar
  • 7,979
7 votes
3 answers
273 views

Is it possible to have an imperative feel without using the imperative form of a verb?

In English, we can have a sentence that doesn't include a verb but is taken as a directive. Consider the following phrase from the HBO television show, Carnivale: Every prophet in his house. In the ...
Adam's user avatar
  • 8,136
5 votes
2 answers
135 views

'Concepturus' and 'nasciturus' in legal terminology

When speaking of the rights of and refering to the one to be conceived in Law we use "concepturus" Which is the future active participle. If we wanted to correctly speak of and refer to the ...
George Ntoulos's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
328 views

How are the objects of comparatives handled grammatically?

I am doing some Latin exercises and the sentences are given as the following (by Rosetta Stone): Puer plus lactis habet quam vir. Femina plures canes habet quam vir. In the first case ("more ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
  • 5,016
7 votes
1 answer
155 views

Which preposition should be used with contrario and why?

Is it better to say argumentum a/ab contrario or e/ex contrario? It seems that both are acceptable but in most Romance languages it is a contrario. The movement out/from is not clear/explicit/graphic ...
George Ntoulos's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
854 views

Caesar's use of 'ad equum'

Caesar uses 'ad equum' to mean 'turning them into horses'. This is a famous quote used in OLD itself. Is this an idiom? There is no reference to 'converso' or 'mutatum'... just 'ad' although habiturum ...
JoshYoung's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
60 views

How would you describe someone as being completely alone?

If I wanted a very succinct way to say some person or thing was completely alone, how would I say this in Classical Latin? For example, if someone was drifting far out in the void of space where they ...
Adam's user avatar
  • 8,136
3 votes
1 answer
85 views

What is the Role of "hoc" in Cicero's de oratore 2.25.108?

In Q: Why Does Cicero use the Third-Person Singular Instead of the Plural Form?, the following extract from Cicero's de oratore 2.25.108 was studied: "...in quibus hoc praecipit ratio et ...
tony's user avatar
  • 7,979
9 votes
1 answer
614 views

Plural of axis mundi

The phrase axis mundi is used frequently in archaeology and art history to describe certain places as a "world center" or "center of the universe" in Indigenous or ancient/...
Sarah's user avatar
  • 93
6 votes
2 answers
110 views

how to express "indefinite distributive numerals" ("several dollars each")? is aliquoteni classical?

In answer to the question Quotiens? (How many times), one can respond with aliquotiens (several times). But for the question Quoteni? (How many of each), can he come up with aliquoteni? For I can't ...
d_e's user avatar
  • 9,085
3 votes
2 answers
630 views

A Latin motto for SpaceX

Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin has a motto “Gradatim Ferociter” or Step by Step Ferociously, although they seem to take a very long time to do anything. Elon Musk also runs a rocket company (SpaceX). ...
Slarty's user avatar
  • 317
4 votes
1 answer
73 views

What is the closest translation of "commeruero" to English?

My working understanding is best expressed as "I will have fully earned", with "commeruero" being the first-person singular future perfect active indicative form of commereo. If I ...
latin-noob's user avatar

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