Page 1 of 1

Unit 1 - Exercises - Latin to English

Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:00 pm
by Venabili
I managed to work out most of the sentences but a few confuse me a bit (after checking the answer key I have - I cannot work out why they are correct or mine are wrong). Can someone verify if these translations are correct (and if not - to explain why).

7. Fēminās in viīs vidēbātis, sed dē fōrma nōn clāmābātis. Poenās dabitis.

The answer key I have gives:"You used to see the women in the streets, but you did not shout about their beauty. You will be punished."

My answer: "You used to see the women in the streets but you were not shouting about beauty. You will pay the penalty."

9. Est cūra dē poenā poētae.

The answer key: "The poet is concerned about the punishment."

My answer: "There is a concern about the punishment of the poet."

I cannot see how to get to the answer key answer. Poētae is not nominative singular what is needed for est...or am I missing something?

19. Fēminae est fōrma, fāma nautae; fēminīs est fōrma, fāma nautīs.

I can see the Dative for possession but did not help much for the translation. The answer key has "A woman has beauty, a sailor fame; women have beauty, sailors fame." and I can understand how this works. I came up with:

"There is beauty for the woman, fame for the sailor; there is beauty for the women, fame for the sailors".

Is this a valid translation? I can see that the other one is smoother but... anything wrong in the one above?

20. Poena nautārum erat cūra rēgīnae.

Answer key: "The queen was concerned about the punishment of the sailors."
My answer: "The punishment of the sailors was the concern of the queen".
What am I missing in the answer key and is mine correct?

27. Vidēre taedās patriae est nautīs cūra.

AK: The sailors care about seeing the torches of the native land.
My answer: The concern of the sailors is to see the torches of the native land.
How did the noun in the sentence become a verb in the answer in the answer key (care)? I can see that the meaning here is pretty close so it might just be using proper English but is my correct and am I missing something in the answer?

Thanks in advance for any help:)

Re: Unit 1 - Exercises - Latin to English

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:39 am
by phil96
Sentence 7
You have rightly captured the continuity of action implied in clamabatis. I think "You used to see ... but did not shout..." also does that, with the continuity carrying over from one verb to the other, and sounds a bit more natural to my ears. Clearly you understand how the verbs work in the sentence: the rest is quibbling about English style :)

The Romans often leave out personal pronouns where these can be implied from the context, so "about (their) beauty".

Sentence 9
Yes. If you search the archives you find that many people have had difficulty with this one. Unit 1 doesn't seem to help much. I think the best way to understand it is to peek ahead in M&F to Unit 5E.
A common way of expressing possession is to use some part of sum and put the possessor in the dative case. For example Est nautae taeda = "There is to the sailor a torch", that is, "The sailor has a torch".
So I think this sentence is "The poet has anxiety/concern about the punishment" "The poet is concerned about ...."

Because this is such a common syntax, I suspect that someone wanting to say "There is concern about the poet's punishment" (i.e., poetae as genitive not dative) would need to structure things quite differently to avoid confusion.

Sentence 19 uses the same construction

Sentence 20
Under cura Lewis & Short list a specific phrase esse cura alicui with the meaning "to be an object of (some)one's care". (alicui just means "someone" in the dative case.) This would give "The punishment of the sailors was an object of care/concern to the queen (dative not genitive)", and the answer key has just rephrased this.
I think your answer says the same thing essentially.

Sentence 27
Yes, it's just re-phrasing from "Seeing the torches of their native land is a matter of concern to the sailors". Yours is fine.

Re: Unit 1 - Exercises - Latin to English

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:22 pm
by Venabili
Thanks.

About 9 - I saw the Dative for possession in 19 but missed it here. I know the concept - even if M&F had not got around to it yet. Now when it was pointed out, it's kinda obvious. :)