25
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
Si Deus velit would be quite satisfactory, 'if God should wish [it]', but is, I think, neither as usual or as forceful as the more familiar ablative absolute form Deo volente, 'with God willing', ...
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20
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Are there examples of passive imperative forms of non-deponent verbs in ancient literature?
It is rare to find a true (i.e. non-deponent) passive imperative, because the idea of ordering someone to do something is opposed to the idea of having something done to you.
Pinkster, in Oxford Latin ...
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20
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
From Bibliander's translation of the Qur'an, surah 18, ayah 69,
Dixit Moyses, Deo uolente, me quilibet sustinentem, nec te in quoquam offendentem semper inuenies.
This is not a literal translation....
20
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
For a monotheist, Tom Cotton's answer is best; for a polytheist (like the ancient Romans), it would be in the plural, so something like dis volentibus ("with the gods willing").
Another way ...
cmw♦
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19
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What is the significance of the different declensions and conjugations?
It's pretty much arbitrary.
There are some standard patterns: first-declension nouns tend to be feminine, second-declension masculine/neuter, third-declension abstract concepts, fourth-declension ...
- 64.6k
17
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How does forem compare to essem?
For my answer, I will use material from a 1931 article written to address this very issue: "The Use of Forem and Essem" by Winnie D. Lawrence, available on JSTOR.
Abstract:
While essem was always ...
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17
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On the basis of "Veni, vidi, vici" is "Veni, bibi, oblidi" remotely correct?
Bonus questions: why are the active indicative and subjunctive so rich for "víncere", but almost nonexistent for "oblīvīscēns/oblīvīscéntis"? Can't "to forget" be active ...
cmw♦
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16
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Numbering of persons
This numbering goes back to Greek grammarians. Here is the Τέχνη Γραμματική (Art of Grammar) ascribed to Dionysius Thrax:
πρώσοπα τρία, πρῶτον, δεύτερον, τρίτον· πρῶτον μὲν ἀφ᾽ οὗ ὁ λόγος, δεύτερον ...
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13
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How To Say "-able" in Latin
As brianpck mentioned, the English suffix "-able" is borrowed from Latin. The rules for applying it in Latin are more transparent than the English alteration between "-able" and "-ible". EDIT: And are ...
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12
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Why does Ago become agit, agitis, agis, etc? [conjugate with an *i*?]
If you're asking how the third conjugation historically came to use the vowels i/u, it has to do with regular sound changes that affected the original Proto-Indo-European (PIE) endings.
The present ...
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12
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What are the future imperatives of sum?
There certainly is a future imperative of esse in Latin: see Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar:
IMPERATIVE
PRESENT SING. 2. ĕs, be thou PLUR. 2. este, be ye
FUTURE 2. estō, ...
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11
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How to translate the phrase "perfacile factu esse"?
Your translation "he proved to them that completing these efforts was done very easily" is good.
To express such things in Latin the supine is a good choice.
The supine ablative (like factu) is an ...
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11
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
C.M. Weimer has given an expectedly excellent answer to the Latin part of this question. Otherwise, it might be permitted to add that the Muslim usage is in response to an explicit Qur’anic injunction ...
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11
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
A common Christian formula is Deo iuvante, literally "with God helping", more naturally rendered in English as "with God's help" or "if God helps". It signifies that the ...
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11
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Why does the length of a vowel before verb endings change?
Most people just memorize it. There are only four patterns to learn—all first-conjugation verbs will go -ō -ās -at -āmus -ātis -ant, for example—so this tends to be enough.
From a historical-...
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10
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Was the plural future imperative ever used?
In the Perseus Project, I see many occurrences of estote; a disproportionate number of them appear to be in St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Here are two examples:
1 Maccabees 2:50, Latin Vulgate
nunc ...
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10
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Is there a latin helper word that can used with infinitives (and implies that the subsequent word may be an infinitive)?
The simplest would be going with a word which often takes a complementary infinitive, such as volo (I want) or possum (I am able). You can use it with both active and passive infinitives, too.
(volo) ...
cmw♦
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9
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How to translate the phrase "perfacile factu esse"?
Perfacile factu means "easy to do." Factu is a supine, and this construction—supines coming off of certain adjectives—is pretty much where you will always see its ablative form. Other common ...
cmw♦
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9
votes
Is "Homo sum, Deus ero" a correct way to say this?
That works fine. The Romans might have done it in a different order:
Homo sum, ero deus.
You could also say
Homo sum, deus futurus.
This would be roughly "I am a man [who] is to be a god."
...
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9
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Are there other verbs in -uō?
There is abluō, abluere, abluī, ablūtus.
And acuō, acuere, acuī, acūtus.
And arguō, arguere, arguī, argūtus.
And compluō, compluere, compluī, complūtus.
And exuō, exuere, exuī, exūtus.
And futuō, ...
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9
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How to find the stem of any word?
Unfortunately, there's no foolproof way to predict a noun stem from the nominative form.
Fortunately, you can predict the stem from the genitive form. So good Latin dictionaries will list both: your ...
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9
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Parsing "quae cum audisset"
If you read the English translation closely, you will find it actually reads “And when Jabin king of Asor had heard these things ⋯”
Quae is accusative neuter plural, and Latin uses the neuter plural ...
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8
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Technique to find first principal parts when later parts change spelling? E.g. find 'nanciscor' from 'nactus'
To be able to generate a list of candidates, one should know some common ways to produce different principal parts from a given stem.
To produce the present stem (the first principal part as you call ...
- 110k
8
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How many distinct forms does a typical Latin verb have?
Here is a count of different verb forms for a verb like amare.
Including or excluding some forms is a matter of taste, like passive imperatives which only seem common for deponent verbs.
Perhaps some ...
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8
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What is the imperative of velle?
There is no imperative of velle in Latin.
It's possible that it used to be vel, but that would have been especially archaic. From Lewis and Short:
old imperative of volo properly, "will, choose, ...
cmw♦
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8
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Was there ever dual conjugation in Latin?
PIE appears to have had dual verb forms, as can be seen from e.g. Greek ἐστόν "you two are", Sanskrit ithás "you two go", Gothic baírats "you two carry". (Anatolian, though, lacks dual forms, which ...
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8
votes
Understanding the stem(s) of 'struere'
A good question.
Assimilation (voice): * tagto > * takto. This is a common phenomenon,
cf. scribo-scripsi, veho-vixi etc. (see e.g. Weiss, p. 188, I.1);
With dico, there's nothing unusual: diksi, ...
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8
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Understanding the stem(s) of 'struere'
The form structum seems to have "c" by analogy to stems that had labiovelar consonants in Proto-Indo-European, as Alex B. says.
In frūctus (from fruor) the Indo-European present stem ended in a ...
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8
votes
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Vowel length in future perfect indicative and perfect conjunctive
short notes/quotes from professional, serious, research-based sources (I thought it was clear to everyone what kind of sources I use; will make small changes later):
The paradigm from Tronskii 1960:
...
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8
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Why is there a short ŭ in rŭtus?
Szemerényi (1980) says that the following "descriptive rule" summarizes the conjugation pattern for verbs ending in -uo:
verbs in -uo in general form their perfect in -uī, their PPP in -ūtus (even ...
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