Latin for Beginners by Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge (best motivational novels .txt) 📖

to us to hear him recite. Latin is easy for him, but it is very hard for me. Some are fitted for one thing and others for another.

«44.» «The Indirect Object.» Examine the sentence

«Nauta fugam nūntiat», the sailor announces the flight

Here the verb, «nūntiat», governs the direct object, «fugam», in the accusative case. If, however, we wish to mention the persons «to whom» the sailor announces the flight, as, The sailor announces the flight «to the farmers», the verb will have two objects:

1. Its direct object, flight («fugam») 2. Its indirect object, farmers

According to the preceding section, to the farmers is a relation covered by the dative case, and we are prepared for the following rule:

«45.» RULE. «Dative Indirect Object.» The indirect object of a verb is in the Dative.

a. The indirect object usually stands before the direct object.

«46.» We may now complete the translation of the sentence The sailor announces the flight to the farmers, and we have

«Nauta agricolīs fugam nūntiat»

«47.» EXERCISES

First learn the special vocabulary, p. 283.

Point out the direct and indirect objects and the genitive of the possessor.

I. 1. Quis nautīs pecūniam dat? 2. Fīliae agricolae nautīs pecūniam dant. 3. Quis fortūnam pugnae nūntiat? 4. Galba agricolīs fortunam pugnae nūntiat. 5. Cui domina fābulam nārrat? 6. Fīliae agricolae domina fābulam nārrat. 7. Quis Diānae corōnam dat? 8. Puella Diānae corōnam dat quia Diānam amat. 9. Dea lūnae sagittās portat et ferās silvārum necat. 10. Cuius victōriam Galba nūntiat? 11. Nautae victōriam Galba nūntiat.

Imitate the word order of the preceding exercise.

II. 1. To whom do the girls give a wreath? 2. The girls give a wreath to Julia, because Julia loves wreaths. 3. The sailors tell the ladies[2] a story, because the ladies love stories. 4. The farmer gives his (§22.a) daughter water. 5. Galba announces the cause of the battle to the sailor. 6. The goddess of the moon loves the waters of the forest. 7. Whose wreath is Latona carrying? Diana’s.

[Footnote 2: Observe that in English the indirect object often stands without a preposition to to mark it, especially when it precedes the direct object.]

LESSON VI

FIRST PRINCIPLES (Continued)

[Special Vocabulary]

ADJECTIVES «bona», good «grāta», pleasing «magna», large, great «mala», bad, wicked «parva», small, little «pulchra», beautiful, pretty «sōla», alone

  NOUNS
  ancil´la, maidservant
  Iūlia, Julia

  ADVERBS[A]
  «cūr», why
  «nōn», not

  PRONOUNS
  «mea», my; «tua», thy, your (possesives)
  «quid», interrog. pronoun, nom. and acc. sing., what?

«-ne», the question sign, an enclitic (§16) added to the first word, which, in a question, is usually the verb, as «amat», he loves, but «amat´ne»? does he love? «est», he is; «estne»? is he? Of course «-ne» is not used when the sentence contains «quis», «cūr», or some other interrogative word.

[Footnote A: An adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb; as, She sings sweetly; she is very talented; she began to sing very early.]

«48.» «The Ablative Case.» Another case, lacking in English but found in the fuller Latin declension, is the ab´la-tive.

«49.» When the nominative singular ends in «-a», the ablative singular ends in «-ā» and the ablative plural in «-īs».

    a. Observe that the final -ă of the nominative is short, while the
    final -ā of the ablative is long, as,

Nom. fīliă Abl. fīliā

b. Observe that the ablative plural is like the dative plural.

c. Form the ablative singular and plural of the following nouns: «fuga», «causa», «fortūna», «terra», «aqua», «puella», «agricola», «nauta», «domina».

«50.» «The Ablative Relation.» The ablative case is used to express the relations conveyed in English by the prepositions from, with, by, at, in. It denotes

1. That from which something is separated, from which it starts, or of which it is deprived—generally translated by from.

  2. That with which something is associated or by means of which it is
  done—translated by with or by.

3. The place where or the time when something happens—translated by in or at.

a. What ablative relations do you discover in the following?

In our class there are twenty boys and girls. Daily at eight o’clock they come from home with their books, and while they are at school they read with ease the books written by the Romans. By patience and perseverance all things in this world can be overcome.

«51.» «Prepositions.» While, as stated above (§41), many relations expressed in English by prepositions are in Latin expressed by case forms, still prepositions are of frequent occurrence, but only with the accusative or ablative.

«52.» RULE. «Object of a Preposition.» A noun governed by a preposition must be in the Accusative or Ablative case.

«53.» Prepositions denoting the ablative relations from, with, in, on, are naturally followed by the ablative case. Among these are

«ā»[1] or «ab», from, away from «dē», from, down from «ē»[1] or «ex», from, out from, out of «cum», with «in», in, on

[Footnote 1: «ā» and «ē» are used only before words beginning with a consonant; «ab» and «ex» are used before either vowels or consonants.]

1. Translate into Latin, using prepositions. In the water, on the land, down from the forest, with the fortune, out of the forests, from the victory, out of the waters, with the sailors, down from the moon.

«54.» «Adjectives.» Examine the sentence

«Puella parva bonam deam amat», the little girl loves the good goddess

In this sentence «parva» (little) and «bonam» (good) are not nouns, but are descriptive words expressing quality. Such words are called adjectives,[2] and they are said to belong to the noun which they describe.

[Footnote 2: Pick out the adjectives in the following: “When I was a little boy, I remember that one cold winter’s morning I was accosted by a smiling man with an ax on his shoulder. ‘My pretty boy,’ said he, ‘has your father a grindstone?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ said I. ‘You are a fine little fellow,’ said he. ‘Will you let me grind my ax on it?’”]

You can tell by its ending to which noun an adjective belongs. The ending of «parva» shows that it belongs to «puella», and the ending of «bonam» that it belongs to «deam». Words that belong together are said to agree, and the belonging-together is called agreement. Observe that the adjective and its noun agree in number and case.

«55.» Examine the sentences

  «Puella est parva»,
    the girl is little
  «Puella parva bonam deam amat»,
    the little girl loves the good goddess

In the first sentence the adjective «parva» is separated from its noun by the verb and stands in the predicate. It is therefore called a predicate adjective. In the second sentence the adjectives «parva» and «bonam» are closely attached to the nouns «puella» and «deam» respectively, and are called attributive adjectives.

a. Pick out the attributive and the predicate adjectives in the following:

Do you think Latin is hard? Hard studies make strong brains. Lazy students dislike hard studies. We are not lazy.

«56.» DIALOGUE JULIA AND GALBA

First learn the special vocabulary, p. 283.

  I. Quis, Galba, est Diāna?
  G. Diāna, Iūlia, est pulchra dea lūnae et silvārum.
  I. Cuius fīlia, Galba, est Diāna?
  G. Lātōnae fīlia, Iūlia, est Diāna.
  I. Quid Diāna portat?
  G. Sagittās Diāna portat.
  I. Cūr Diāna sagittās portat?
  G. Diāna sagittās portat, Iūlia, quod malās ferās silvae magnae necat.
  I. Amatne Lātōna fīliam?
  G. Amat, et fīlia Lātōnam amat.
  I. Quid fīlia tua parva portat?
  G. Corōnās pulchrās fīlia mea parva portat.
  I. Cui fīlia tua corōnās pulchrās dat?
  G. Diānae corōnās dat.
  I. Quis est cum fīliā tuā? Estne sōla?
  G. Sōla nōn est; fīlia mea parva est cum ancillā meā.

a. When a person is called or addressed, the case used is called the voc´ative (Latin vocāre, “to call”). In form the vocative is regularly like the nominative. In English the name of the person addressed usually stands first in the sentence. The Latin vocative rarely stands first. Point out five examples of the vocative in this dialogue.

b. Observe that questions answered by yes or no in English are answered in Latin by repeating the verb. Thus, if you wished to answer in Latin the question Is the sailor fighting? «Pugnatne nauta?» you would say «Pugnat», he is fighting, or «Nōn pugnat», he is not fighting.

LESSON VII THE FIRST OR Ā-DECLENSION

[Special Vocabulary]

  NOUNS
  «casa, -ae», f., cottage
   cēna, -ae, f., dinner
  «gallī´na, -ae», f., hen, chicken
  «īn´sula, ae», f., island (pen-insula)

  ADVERBS
  «de-in´de», then, in the next place
  «ubi», where

  PREPOSITION
  «ad», to, with acc. to express motion toward

  PRONOUN
  «quem», interrog. pronoun, acc. sing., whom?

  VERBS
  ha´bitat, he (she, it) lives, is living, does live (inhabit)
  «laudat», he (she, it) praises, is praising, does praise (laud)
  «parat», he (she, it) prepares, is preparing, does prepare
  «vocat», he (she, it) calls, is calling, does call; invites,
     is inviting, does invite (vocation)

«57.» In the preceding lessons we have now gone over all the cases, singular and plural, of nouns whose nominative singular ends in «-a». All Latin nouns whose nominative singular ends in «-a» belong to the First Declension. It is also called the Ā-Declension because of the prominent part which the vowel «a» plays in the formation of the cases. We have also learned what relations are expressed by each case. These results are summarized in the following table:

+————+————————+—————————-+————————————-+ | CASE | NOUN | TRANSLATION | USE AND GENERAL MEANING | | | | | OF EACH CASE | +————+————————+—————————-+————————————-+ | | | SINGULAR | | +————+————————+—————————-+————————————-+ | Nom. | do´min-a | the lady | The subject | | | |