Language Learners' Library

Still easy. Rye!

nyce, nyce, veri nyce.

… not to mention every adverb derived from adjectives.

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How about this one: are they any words with ae in that aren’t from Latin?

Superscript alright for you?

  1. Apud ¹ Cinnam ¹ magnus ² clamor ² est.

  2. Gripus ¹ enim clamat ¹ : “Ego mercator ² honestus ² sum. Et quid servi sunt? Nihil!”

  3. Per Romam currunt, nihil agunt dominos ¹ suos non audiunt ¹ .

  4. "Cuncti ¹ servi homines ¹ mali ¹ sunt. "

  5. Sed unus ¹ ex hospitibus ¹ claris ¹ Gripum ² reprehendit ² :

  6. “Quantus ¹ clamor ¹ est hic! Tace! Tu ² homo ² es ² , non deus. Tu ceteris ¹ hospitibus ¹ clamore ¹ tuo iam satis molestus ³ fuisti ³ !”

Geography Challenge

Just write a paragraph or few about the geography of your target country and its neighbours.

bugcat's Latin paragraphs

Please tell me if all my uses of esse are wrong. I sort of guessed at what an infinitive is.

Esse tria continentia: Eurōpa, Āfrica, Āsiaque. Mediterrāneānum hic dīvitur. Urbs Rōmae esse in Italiā; hic esse terra pulchra. In aquilōnem esse Gallia et Germānia. Hic esse in Imperium Rōmānum. Ultrā Galliam esse duae īnsulae magnae: Brittania et Hibernia. Ultrā Brittaniam esse frīgus terra Thūlēs.

In oriēns esse Graecus, cum īnsulae multae. In oriēns longe esse terra Persārum. Hic calda esse nimis. Libya esse mare austrī. Hic inter parietinae Carthāginis, barbarī miserī bubulcātis.

The Sea: Japanese

  1. 鮫、さめ(sano)、shark

  2. 鱝、えい(ei)、ray

  3. 鰻、うなぎ(unagi)、eel

  4. 蟹、かに(kani)、crab

  5. 海老、えび(ebi)、lobster

  6. 海豚、いるか(iruka)、dolphin

  7. 鯨、くじら(kujira)、whale

  8. 海月、くらげ or クラゲ(kurage)、jellyfish

  9. 鰯、いわし(iwashi)、sardine

in bold face the more often used in written form.

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I just learned some Latin today from this webcomic

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Literature challenge

Translate the first half-verse of the greatest English poem:

From the hag and hungry goblin
That into rags would rend ye,
The spirit that stands by the naked man
In the Book of Moons defend ye,

If you’re feeling confident, then make it rhyme :stuck_out_tongue:

  1. Apud ¹ Cinnam ¹ magnus ² clamor ² est.
Solution

Cinnam alone, accusative triggered by apud. magnus clamor both nom.sg.m, together “great shouting”. “At Cinna’s there was a great ruckus”

  1. Gripus ¹ enim clamat ¹ : “Ego mercator ² honestus ² sum. Et quid servi sunt? Nihil!”
Solution

Gripus nom.sg.m agrees with clamat 3.sg.ind.act.present. ego 1.sg.nom. agrees with mercator nom.sg.m, honestus nom.sg.m. quid nom.sg.n. is predicative to servi nom.pl.m., sunt 3.pl.ind.act.present. "For Gripus is shouting: “I am an honest merchant! And what are slaves? Nothing!”

You might have heard about subject, object, and predicates. Now, when you’ve got to be as predicate to a sentence, that’s only half a predicate. You need to supplement the something that is being been. So, to I am an honest merchant, I is the subject, am an honest merchant is a predicate in two parts, namely am and an honest merchant.

  1. Per Romam currunt, nihil agunt dominos ¹ suos non audiunt ¹ .
Solution

Romam acc.sg.f, triggered by per ‘through’. currunt 3.pl.ind.act.present. nihil* acc.sg.n, direct object to agunt 3.pl.in.act.present. dominos suos both acc.pl.m, object to non audiunt, 3.p.i.a.pr. The subject to these three clauses is implied by the ending -unt.
“They run through Rome, do nothing, and do not listen to their masters.”
When doing lists, you either put et after every element, or you put no et at all.

  1. "Cuncti ¹ servi homines ¹ mali ¹ sunt. "
Solution

cuncti nom.pl.m, servi nom.pl.m, homines nom.pl.m mali nom.pl.m sunt 3.p.i.a.pr.
“All slaves are bad persons.”

  1. Sed unus ¹ ex hospitibus ¹ claris ¹ Gripum ² reprehendit ² :
Solution

unus nom.s.m, reprehendit 3.s.i.a.pr., hospitibus claris abl.p.m triggered by ex, Gripum acc.sg.m.
“But one of the famous guests rebukes Gripus.”

  1. “Quantus ¹ clamor ¹ est hic! Tace! Tu ² homo ² es ² , non deus. Tu ceteris ¹ hospitibus ¹ clamore ¹ tuo iam satis molestus ³ fuisti ³ !”
Solution

quantus, clamor, hic: nom.sg.m. est 3.s.i.a.pr. tace 2.s.imperative.active.present. tu 2.sg.nom. homo, deus nom.s.m, es 2.sg.indicative.a.pr. ceteris hospitibus dat.pl.m. clamore tuo abl.sg.m. iam ‘now, already’ satis ‘enough’. molestus nom.s.m. fuisti 2.sg.i.a.perfect.

“How much noise is this! Be silent! You are a man, not a god. You have been bothersome to the other guests with your shouting [quite] enough, now!.”

What do you want to know, exactly? This text, as it stands, looks like an exercise, where the student is supposed to turn the infinitive into the proper conjugated form. An infinitive is the verbal action per se, without any statement about person, number, or mood. Only voice and tense: esse ‘to be’, fuisse ‘to have been’. delere ‘to destroy’, delevisse ‘to have destroyed’, deleturus/a/um esse ‘to be about to destroy’, deleri ‘to get destroyed’ deletus/a/um esse ‘to be destroyed’.

There’s a litte style error. You say Europa, Africa, Asia without -que here. I’m not sure if your hic here is supposed to mean ‘here’ or ‘this’. If it’s ‘this’, you have to agree it in number, case and gender with whatever it applies to. (cf. French cet homme, cette femme or German dieser Mann, diese Frau, dieses Kind).
By the way, names of countries are feminine, regardless of their grammatical ending.

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い (i) after え (e) sound usually means long vowel
same as with う (u) after お (o) sound

せんせい
sensei - sensē - [sèńséꜜè]
Everyone outside of Japan pronounce this romaji wrong
so it became just loanword :frowning:

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I don’t really understand, how is sensei pronounced in Japan? I don’t get what your square-bracketed format means.

Well, what I was trying to say was this:

There are three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They are separated by the Mediterranean Sea. The city of Rome is in Italy, which is a beautiful country. In the north are Gaul and Germania. They are in the Roman Empire. Beyond Gaul are two large islands: Britannia and Hibernia. Beyond Britannia is a cold land called Thule. In the east is Greece, with many islands. Further east is the country of the Persians. It is uncomfortably hot. Libya is south of the sea. Here, miserable barbarians drive cattle amongst the ruins of Carthage.

What I was wanting to know about esse is: is it the correct word for statements about things that are permanent, like “there are three continents”? Or do I need a different version of sum? Or should I abandon my Anglic way of thinking and find some verbs to use instead of * ahem * copulating?

This is wrong, though. It’s true that えい can be pronounced as ええ, but depending on dialect or politeness it’s quite normal to pronounce it as a diphthong えい (rhymes with “hey”).

Similarly you sometimes find です being pronounced with a distinct “u” at the end.

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depending on dialect or politeness

Is the diphthong more or less polite?

More, it’s closer to what’s actually written.

I’d still say that ええ is more common.

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That’s interesting. I would have thought that ē is a contraction of e’e, like wasn’t from was not and would therefore be less “polite”.

You’re thinking in gluttal stops again, I think :stuck_out_tongue:

In Japanese romanisation ē stands for an e sound that’s two morae long.

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Wait, we weren’t discussing glottal stops? Now I really am confused .__.

What’s the difference between ええ and えい then?

In the standard dialect, both are pronounced as a long e sound (as in “left”).

However, in some other dialects only the first is a long e and the second is a sound more like “hey”.

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