Wheelock's FAQ chapter 12

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Wheelock's FAQ chapter 12: Questions

Questions are listed at the top of the page and are divided into several categories. Click on the links at left and you will be taken to the question and corresponding answer below.
Category: General
GEN
Do the enclitic endings -ne and -que and such affect the pronounciation?
Category: Vocabulary
VOCesse
What is the difference between fuI and eram?
VOClitterae
Litterae is already plural -- so how do you say "two letters"?
Category: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR2
"Alterius filiae" doesn't make sense.
PR3
PR 3 below had a variety of translations this time for "in hanc viam". Can anyone give the definitive translation?
PR6
why is sEnsimus translated "we felt" and not "we feel".
PR10
What part of speech is "cara"?
PR13
What case should I use for "... of that place."
PR15
PR15 says "They kept sending..." but we haven't learned a verb meaning "keep" yet. How should I translate the sentence?
Category: Sententia Antiquae (SA's)
SA5
What's the context of SA 5?
SA5
What's the difference between "vixit" and "fuit" here?
SA8
Why is "solum" masculine instead of feminine?
Category: Translations (TR's)
TR3
If she was given a multitude of wisdom why isn't sapientiam sapientias instead?
Category: Groton and May (GM's)
GM10
I'm confused by "nostrA.". "dI" seems to be the subject of both verbs and "nostrA" --> "with us".

Wheelock's FAQ chapter 12: Answers

Category: General
GEN:
Do the enclitic endings -ne and -que and such affect the pronounciation?
A:

Yes. If the final syllable of the original word is long, either by nature or by position after the enclitic has been added, then that final syllable -- now the penult -- is accented.

If the final syllable of the original word is short, and the word was previously accented on the penult, it keeps its original accent (now the antepenult).

If the final syllable of the original word is short, and the word was previously accented on the antepenult, the word keeps its original accent and adds a second, equal accent on the final syllable of the original word.

Note that the enclitic itself is never accented.

Category: Vocabulary
VOCesse:
What is the difference between fuI and eram?
A:

As with any other verb, "fui" refers to finished action; "eram" to action which may or may not be unfinished.

Fessa fui. I was tired. (And now I'm not.)
Fessa eram. I was tired. (And maybe I still am.)

VOClitterae:
Litterae is already plural -- so how do you say "two letters"?
A:

The Romans used distributives when they spoke of a number of singular-expressed-as-plural things. Distributives are numbers that mean "one by one", "two by two", "three by three," etc.

Bernd's answer:

This letter made me wonder what these distributives are, after all!

I found ...

  • singuli, -ae, -a (one-by-one; one each)
  • bini, -ae, -a (two-by-two; two each; two in a group)
  • terni (trini)
  • quaterni
  • etc.

So I guess "2 letters" translates as "binae litterae".

Meredith's answer:

*nods* They go up indefinitely, just like other numbers, always (except for "singuli", with a -ni ending in the masculine. They're declinable three-ending adjectives, masculine, feminine and neuter.

Viri singuli veniunt -- the men came one at a time.
Feminae ternae veniunt -- the women came in groups of three.
or, in the Noah's Ark story,
Animalia septena veniunt -- the animals came seven by seven.

Just to complicate matters further, Bennett's says that "uni" and "trini" would be used to modify plural form-singular meaning words instead of the more usual "singuli" and "terni".

Kirk's answer:

I would use "epistulae" for multiple postal letters, "epistula" for just one.

Category: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR2:
"Alterius filiae" doesn't make sense.
A:

David Goldfarb's answer:

"alterius filae" looks to me like a genitive case. "RatiOnEs alterius filae" == "the other daughter's reasons".

PR3:
PR 3 below had a variety of translations this time for "in hanc viam". Can anyone give the definitive translation?
A:

David Goldfarb (goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu)'s answer:

The fleeing must be done *into* the street because "in hanc viam" is accusative, denoting place to which -- if we were talking about people who were just standing around on the street, it would be the ablative "in hAc viA".

PR6:
why is sEnsimus translated "we felt" and not "we feel".
A:

David Goldfarb's answer:

Er, because it's in the perfect tense? "We feel" would be (if memory serves me right) sentimus. (Sentio, sentire, sensi, sensum.)

PR10:
What part of speech is "cara"?
A:

David Goldfarb's answer:

It could be neuter plural either nominative or accusative, or it could be feminine singular nominative. I leave it to you to look at the sentence and figure out what makes the most sense. (Hint: "fuit" is a form of "sum"; stuff being compared in this way ['X is Y'] agrees in case, number, and gender.)

PR13:
What case should I use for "... of that place."
A:

It's a possessive genitive, just as it is in English (that place's nature). Ablative of place would be used for "in that place", but not for something like this.

PR15:
PR15 says "They kept sending..." but we haven't learned a verb meaning "keep" yet. How should I translate the sentence?
A:

Joe Ireland's answer:

The imperfect tense of a verb sometimes has an "iterative" sense -- i.e. it reports something that happened on a recurring basis. The imperfect of "to send" most often means "was sending", but can also mean "used to send", or "kept sending".

Category: Sententia Antiquae (SA's)
SA5:
What's the context of SA 5?
A:

Michael's answer:

Seneca was a Stoic philosopher, presenting his ideas on what makes a life one that he (and he hopes, we) could say that was lived well. It's one thing to live and just exist; another to live life to the fullest. -- as he would interpret it.

In his essay ("Dialogus"), "de brevitate vitae" (on the brevity of life -- c. 31 pages long), he leads up to the point that only a wise man or woman can be said to have truly lived. Now, this is a normative definition of what a constitutes living a "worthwhile life". Agree with it or not, we have to accept it as his view.

Section VII, line 10 of this essay reads in its entirety:

"non est itaque quod quemquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu vixisse : non ille diu vixit, sed diu fuit. quid enim, si illum multum putes navigasse quem saeva tempestas a portu exceptum huc et illuc tulit ac vicibus ventorum ex diverso furentium per eadem spatia in orbem egit? non ille multum navigavit, sed multum iactatus est."

[Preceding this (VII, 9) he is writing about men who enjoy all the pleasures of life without a thought to the next day. They eat like men who have already had their fill of food and drink; they devour even more than they have a desire for.]

Now for the *gist* of the translation of the above Latin:

VII, 10

"You can't think that just because a man has white hair and wrinkles that he has lived a long time : he hasn't *lived* for a long time; he merely *existed* for a long time. Would you say that a man has sailed for a long time simply because a furious storm seized him as he left port, tossing him here and there and turning him in circles in the same place? He hasn't *sailed* for a long time, but he has been tossed about a lot."

Well, this metaphor made a good deal of sense to the Romans. And, if anyone wishes to correct or improve on my translation, feel free to.

The problem with presenting the line in the subject title as a stand-alone SA is, as you all have pointed out, that it lacks context.

I hope this helps.

SA5:
What's the difference between "vixit" and "fuit" here?
A:

"Vixit" here means something other than just living. While "fuit" here would mean just getting by and existing, "vixit" implies really living life to the full.

SA8:
Why is "solum" masculine instead of feminine?
A:

Eduardus' answer:

"Solum" here acts as an adverb not an adjective. There are many such accusative adverbial forms in Latin (multum, verum, etc.)

Category: Translations (TR's)
TR3:
If she was given a multitude of wisdom why isn't sapientiam sapientias instead?
A:

"Multus, -a, um" is an adjective, like any other, so it needs to agree with "sapientiam". And sapientia is singular just as wisdom is singular in English. We don't say "much wisdoms". Neither did the Romans.

Category: Groton and May (GM's)
GM10:
I'm confused by "nostrA.". "dI" seems to be the subject of both verbs and "nostrA" --> "with us".
A:

Yes, dI is the subject of both verbs. But "nostrA" is an adjective modifying "urbe". It's feminine because "urbs" is feminine. When the object of a preposition is modified by an adjective, you'll often find that adjective placed right before the preposition.


Last updated Wed Jan 28 13:02:29 EST 2004

FAQ ©2003 by its creator Gary Bisaga and Meredith Minter Dixon. Copyright to FAQ answers is retained by their authors.