adjectives/nouns

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spqr
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adjectives/nouns

Post by spqr »

How could I write "The man painted a red house" versus "The man painted the house red"?

mwh
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Re: adjectives/nouns

Post by mwh »

in Latin you can't very well, though you can fiddle with the word order or use a cumbersome subordinate clause for the latter ("so that it was red", "to make it red" vel sim.).

In Greek it's easy, thanks to the definite article.

I recommend you learn Greek instead. :D

Aulus
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Re: adjectives/nouns

Post by Aulus »

Not to mention using "which was red" to disambiguate the first one too.

Vir pinxit domum, quae erat rubea. ("The man painted the house, which was red".)
Vir pinxit domum ut rubeam faceret. ("The man painted the house to make it red.")

Though as mwh said, it'd be more natural to say Vir pinxit domum rubeam and leave the ambiguity to context...
Last edited by Aulus on Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

anphph
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Re: adjectives/nouns

Post by anphph »

Resuscitating an old topic thanks to this thread, but wouldn't an ablative solve it?

Vir pinxit domum rubro colore

seems to me to mean unambiguously The man painted the house red.

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