hi and help

[Hammurabi]

Hi everyone!

Well in fact I'm fact I'm studying greek but, a few days ago I ask my father for a "ancient greek grammar" book.... however he didn't find any greek grammar book, now I don't know if he gor confused or he just wanted to buy something but he brought the Wheerlock's latin grammar...

Well first I said; "this is totally useless for me", but after that I just reviewed the book and I saw latin was not that different from greek, so I said, if I'm already inside the declensions and ancient literature stuff, Why not learning both of them at the same time? Well I'm not a genius but the truth is that now I have plenty of time to learn, I dont know if within the next years I'll be able to learn latin, as I've always also wish... so I decied to start a comparated learning for latin... and greek...

Well, I just wanted to say hello to your "latin" community

and, If you can, review some the phrases I'm composing with the first two lessons vocabulary and excersices:

you ought not to praise me.
me laudare non debes.

if you love me, save me.
serve me si me amas.

fortune gives beauty to many girls
fortuna multis puellis formam dat.

erro si puellam non voco.
non amo nihil si puellam non amo.
puella me vitam meam dat.

and I need a translation for this phrase

Me philosophiae do.

Finally, and I'm sorry for the lots of questions, I have a pronunciation question... I have this word: antiqua

the nominative sin. antíqua
the gen. sin. and nom. plur. antíquae still? I mean the accent.

Thanx very much in advance for your help guys

[bellum paxque]

Hi Hammurabi,

From what I hear, learning both Greek and Latin at once can be intimidating, to say the least. I wish you the best luck, though.

You'll note that there is a separate forum devoted to Wheelock's. But you'll probably still get help with questions that you post here.

you ought not to praise me.
me laudare non debes.

Right.

if you love me, save me.
serve me si me amas.

serva me si me amas
-servo, -are is 1st conjugation, thus the imperative will end in "a"

fortune gives beauty to many girls
fortuna multis puellis formam dat.

Excellent.

erro si puellam non voco.
non amo nihil si puellam non amo.
puella me vitam meam dat.

Are you translating to Latin or from Latin? I'm guessing they're your rendering.
A couple issues:
-non amo nihil: "I don't love nothing" (?) Probably amo nihil si puellam non amo: "I love nothing if I don't love the girl."
-puella me vitam meam dat: what is the girl giving here? it looks like there are two accusatives. do usually takes a noun in the accusative (what's being given) and a noun in the dative (who's getting what's being given). Have you learned mihi? That's "to/for me."

and I need a translation for this phrase

Me philosophiae do.

Let's parse this puppy. We have the verb do - 1st person singular present tense - "I give." This verb, as explained before, takes dative and accusative. Philosophiae can be a couple of things - nom. pl. (but is there a plural verb? no), gen. sing. (but of what noun? unlikely), or dative sing. With do, quite a possibility. What about me? Accusative of the 1st pers. pronoun. Does that help? (If not, see below)

Finally, and I'm sorry for the lots of questions, I have a pronunciation question... I have this word: antiqua

the nominative sin. antíqua
the gen. sin. and nom. plur. antíquae still? I mean the accent

Yes. The rule in Latin is that, in words with more than one syllable, the accent never goes on the final syllable. It's either the penultimate (next to the last) or the antepenultimate (before the next to the last). The rules get more complicated here, but, basically, since the i in antiquus-a-um is long, and since that syllable is the penult, it will always get the accent.

Hope this helps.

Best luck,

David

Still stumped? "I give/am giving myself to philosophy."

[Hammurabi]

man you are an angel!!

thanx very much, in fact what you saw were my first two hours of studying...

lol, I've not yet learnt "mihi", but now I know!!:D

actually since my mother language is spanish and my second language is french I'm finding very amusing learing latin
because almost all of the vocabulary I already know it... and about declensions,... welll greek helped a lot...

thanx very much for your correcttions and your translation...
and no, I didnt realize that there was a wheelock's forum

and by the way... the last three phrases were composed myself


thanx I hope to recieve your help pretty soon:D

[Deudeditus]

Congratulations on an excellent first two hours of studying!

-Jon

[bellum paxque]

Yes, indeed, good work! I've studied a little French - though I'm nowhere near fluent (malheureusement) - but it has been very helpful in my study of Latin. Knowing Spanish, too, must be even more useful!

Best luck,

David

[Rindu]

Yeah good job. I remember doing those sentences. Ah, when life was simple---really I have some precious memories associated with my initiation to Latin.

[Hammurabi]

Thanx guys!... you are really nice...

well.. now I have a few more hours of study and I'm enjoying this...

I'm glad I'm having time now to do this as much as I want because I know it will be an odyssey to learn both languages at the same time... yet I'm confident on my time and my self...

plus, when I re-enter the university this august I'll "have to" learn those languages anyway... but now I'm doing it and enjoying it as a leisure.



thanx again for the warmy welcome and I'll be near you both "greek" and "latin" guys for a while from now