Questions tagged [infinitivus]
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37
questions
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1answer
10 views
Sentence with gerund or gerundive and infinitive
I'm trying to translate the following:
[...] quem autem valorem aliter nisi appropinquando cognoscere non datur.
Which comes from Euler (De Serie Lambertina/e). But I'm having trouble sorting out ...
5
votes
1answer
158 views
Flee or chase, the meaning of fugere?
In reading Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles, I find the following passage:
Dum tamen ea geruntur, Argonautae nōn intermissō remigandī labōre mox ē
cōnspectū hostium auferēbantur, neque prius fugere ...
4
votes
1answer
120 views
Usage of perfect infinitive (“Res mihi nondum comperta est, itaque sufficiat leviter admonuisse alios de hac quarta causa”)
In Kepler's Strena, seu de Nive Sexangula we read:
Res mihi nondum comperta est, itaque sufficiat leviter admonuisse alios de hac quarta causa.
which I translate as: This thing is not yet ...
7
votes
1answer
384 views
What form is 'numerārī'?
In chapter X of Orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata there is this sentence: Piscēs numerārī nōn possunt.
From the context I would translate this as an infinitive. But the infinitive should be ...
1
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1answer
38 views
How should this infinitive clause and this ut clause translate?
The sentence from Euler's De Serie Lambertina I'm working on now has the following form:
Praesenti autem forma hanc seriem exhibere est visum, ut litterae A et B inter se permutabiles evaderent, ita ...
2
votes
2answers
66 views
On the formation of perfect passive infinitives
I Think I understand why the passive infinitive of " amo " is not " esse amatus" : "being loved" is not perfect ( without any play on words).
So we need something else ...
4
votes
2answers
321 views
Meaning of “Videre Sed Non Videri”
What is the meaning of “Videre Sed Non Videri”?
I already search on Google on pages like:
mymemory.translated
But results are confusing me, and my knowledge on Latin language is zero.
Thanks in ...
4
votes
1answer
198 views
Is expiari an alternate form of the infinitive expiare?
I take the following sentence from Fabules Faciles:
...hōc enim ūnō modō tantum scelus expiārī potuit
as "...only in this way could he atone for such a great crime." literally, "...
3
votes
1answer
82 views
Future infinitive active in indirect discourse
The future infinitive active can be used as an active periphrastic, but within an indirect discourse, of which the subject is an accusative and the main verb an infinitive, can it also have a future ...
6
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1answer
210 views
Is spargier a valid passive present infintive of spargo?
I noticed that ignoro has the passive present infinitives ignōrārī, ignōrārier. This made me wonder if other verbs has the second -er version. The wiktionary page for spargo does not list a second one,...
3
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2answers
165 views
Infinitival impersonal passives
The impersonal passive is a familiar construction:
Pugnatur. "There is fighting / people are fighting / etc."
Pugnatum est. "There was fighting / etc."
Here a finite passive verb is being used ...
6
votes
1answer
310 views
Is 'volo' ever used with a future infinitive?
One can certainly use volo with an infinitive to express a wish:
Volo amari!
I want to be loved!
A future sense is often implied, as one would probably interpret that I'm not loved now if I wish ...
3
votes
1answer
233 views
The usage of present passive infinitive
In Augustine confessions we read:
"quid tibi sum ipse, ut amari te iubeas a me et, nisi faciam, irascaris mihi et mineris ingentes miserias?" (book I, cap. V)
I can't understand the usage of the ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
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.
...
3
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0answers
70 views
What do I do when “ait” fails me?
In a separate answer, I was trying to use ait in an English sentence:
If the Lex Julia can ait its wording…
…but I ran into a problem. Even ignoring my bastard mixture of English and Latin, "can ...
3
votes
2answers
91 views
Using genitive and infinitive to describe characteristics
Answering this question, I recalled a somewhat rare construction used to express that an action is characteristic of someone.
Pekkanen's Ars Grammatica (§77.1) gives two examples:
Cuiusvis hominis ...
2
votes
1answer
211 views
Nominativus cum infinitivo
Can somebody please tell me if my translation for the sentence: "It seems that the slave is carrying a letter." is correct?
Videtur servus epistulam portare.
videtur - 3rd person present passive
...
4
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0answers
99 views
When did the infinitive in -ier fall out of use?
At one point, the Latin passive infinitive was formed with a suffix -(r)ier, as in agier "to be driven", amārier "to be loved".
Allen and Greenough call this an "ancient form[…] found chiefly in ...
7
votes
1answer
76 views
How to resolve ambiguities with the infinitive
In the Vulgata, Titus 3:8 reads as follows:
Fidelis sermo est: et de his volo te confirmare: ut curent bonis
operibus præesse qui credunt Deo. Hæc sunt bona, et utilia hominibus.
In particular, ...
12
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1answer
227 views
Third conjugation passive infinitive: why -i and not -eri?
The active infinitive is uniform (-re from -se by rhotacism) across the regular Latin conjugations, but the passive one is not: the third conjugation loses the consonant.
We have amare/amari, habere/...
10
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1answer
364 views
Where did the passive infinitive come from?
The etymology of the present active infinitive seems well-documented. Proto-Italic had an infinitive-like suffix *-si, so *dōnā- + *-si = *dōnāsi > dōnāre by regular sound changes (s → z → r between ...
6
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1answer
98 views
Use of Infinitive
Moreland has this adapted paragraph from Cicero's De Senectute. I'm slightly confused about the use of infinitive over here.
Moriens Cyrus maior haec dicit: "nolite arbitrari, o mihi carissimi
...
2
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1answer
62 views
How to make sense of this articular phrase in Aur 1.17.3? (Greek)
I learned from my textbook (From Alpha to Omega, Groton) about articular infinitives, in which a definite article is coupled with an infinitive, to form a phrase of many uses. At first glance, that ...
6
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1answer
407 views
Fore or not Fore?
North & Hillard Ex. 230 includes the line: "By his advice the confederates bound themselves to resist to the death,".
This, translated, in the Answer Book, as: "euis autem consilio socii se ...
4
votes
1answer
307 views
Primum non culpare?
I was thinking of how you could alter the medical dictum Primum non nocere to mean "First, CYA." My first thought: Primum non culpare, which I would literally translate as "First, don't get blamed."
...
6
votes
1answer
147 views
In an indirect statement, could there be two infinitives in the dependent clause for different purposes?
The sentence is "The sailor realized that he himself ought to give the money back to the girl."
My translation is "Nauta intellexit se debere dare pecuniam retro puellae."
(If there are any errors ...
3
votes
1answer
527 views
Is there a passive infinitive?
If I say something can be changed, for example, how would I say that in Latin? Would I say id X potest, or is there some other construction for this? The context doesn't really matter, but it's for my ...
8
votes
1answer
527 views
Jenney's Second Year Latin, Lesson 12, exercise E: Ut clauses and how to translate English infinitives
I'd like some clarification on the possible translations of "to see you." I'm teaching Jenney's Second-Year Latin (1990, Prentice-Hall edition).
In the introduction to Lesson 12 (page 138), the book ...
5
votes
1answer
139 views
Can the articular infinitive be a dative of means? (Greek)
I am translating this sentence from English to classical Greek.
There is great danger that the students may harm themselves by not taking care of themselves. Let us decide how to help them.
My ...
7
votes
1answer
166 views
How to translate this line from Xenophon? (Const. Lac. 9.1)
I'm working on this line from Xenophon, and I'm having a little trouble with the second clause.
ἄξιον δὲ τοῦ Λυκούργου καὶ τόδε ἀγασθῆναι, τὸ κατεργάσασθαι ἐν τῇ πόλει αἱρετώτερον εἶναι τὸν καλὸν ...
3
votes
1answer
207 views
Infinitive ' habere ' usage in this sentence
How to understand a meaning of the infinitive 'habere' here, is it here as a subject (The Infinitive as a Subject, Gildersleeve & Lodge, page 275)?
Nam cum posse existere potentia sit, sequitur ...
15
votes
1answer
512 views
What did the Romans consider the “basic” form of a verb?
Many of us are used to using the (active present) infinitive form of a verb as a "label" or "basic form" or "representative" of the verb.
By this I refer to uses like dictionary entries or grammatical ...
7
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2answers
207 views
“To be” and a commentator on Aquinas
Father David Burrell, a well-known philosopher and theologian who has written on Thomas Aquinas, has discussed Aquinas' view of God, or at least of what could or could not be properly said about God. ...
6
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2answers
109 views
How to make sense of this standalone infinitive? (Metamorphoses 1.601—603)
For starters, I haven't finished translating this short passage yet, so I would be grateful if you refrain from giving the full translation. (And if it's hard to answer the question without doing so, ...
13
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5answers
418 views
How do you show an infinitive for reason?
For instance, if you say, "I came here to eat," or "We want something good to eat," you are using the infinitive "to eat" to express reason or purpose. How do translate something like this in Latin?
15
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3answers
1k views
Is “esse est percipi” grammatical, even with infinitives?
According to the Crash Course Philosophy video today, George Berkeley summarized his empirical philosophy with the phrase "esse est percipi", to be is to be perceived. However, it feels somewhat ...
10
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1answer
2k views
Contracted perfect and historical infinitive
The present infinitive is sometimes used as a predicate in a past tense sentence.
The use context is similar to praesens historicum.
My grammar gives two examples:
Nihil Galli respondere, sed in ...
