Wheelock's FAQ chapter 25

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Wheelock's FAQ chapter 25: 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: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR3
>In PR 3 [VIcInI nostrI vim ignis...] I've no idea how to translate vim, I've tried looking in the dictionary but am unable to find any entry. Did I miss something?
PR5
"Duce feroci Carthaginis expulso, ..." is causing me problems. It looks like ablative absolute, so the unpretty translation => "the Carthaginean leader ??? having been expelled ...", but I don't know what to do with the feroci [dat.sg.] Maybe "by fierce men"??? [But this doesn't look like periphrastic 'cause expellendus, -a, -um is the gerundive.]
PR13
Am I right is saying this could be translated using an indirect statement in either the active or passive voice?
PR16
How do you translate "two letters"? "Duas litteras"?
Category: Translations (TR's)
TR12
I do not understand how "miseri" fits. In fact, I cannot make any sense out of: "et quoque gaudemus nos miseri, ..."

Wheelock's FAQ chapter 25: Answers

Category: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR3:
>In PR 3 [VIcInI nostrI vim ignis...] I've no idea how to translate vim, I've tried looking in the dictionary but am unable to find any entry. Did I miss something?
A:

David Goldfarb answers:

I don't know if you've *missed* anything. You have perhaps forgotten something: to wit, the declension of the irregular noun "vIs, vIs" from back at the start of chapter 14.

PR5:
"Duce feroci Carthaginis expulso, ..." is causing me problems. It looks like ablative absolute, so the unpretty translation => "the Carthaginean leader ??? having been expelled ...", but I don't know what to do with the feroci [dat.sg.] Maybe "by fierce men"??? [But this doesn't look like periphrastic 'cause expellendus, -a, -um is the gerundive.]
A:
It's not periphrastic, and it's not dative. Since "ferox" is an
adjective,
there's another possibility for -I.
PR13:
Am I right is saying this could be translated using an indirect statement in either the active or passive voice?
A:

David Goldfarb's answer:

Well, you can get the same meaning in either voice... Well, the same meaning could be gotten in either voice...

...but lacking any reason to the contrary I'd be inclined to use the same voice in the translation as in the original. Here, active.

PR16:
How do you translate "two letters"? "Duas litteras"?
A:

Meredith's answer:

No, you need to use "distributive numerals," which Wheelock's doesn't even mention. Distributive numerals are the "Noah's Ark" numbers -- one by one, two by two, three by three.... And when you have a noun with plural form and singular meaning, like "litteras", but you want to talk about more than one of whatever it is, you use a distributive. So "two letters" is not "duas litteras" but "binas litteras".

The distributive numerals are: singulI, bInI, ternI, quaternI, quInI, sEnI, septEnI, octOni, novEnI (Roman Catholics will recognize the origin of the "novena"), and dEnI. They do go on, of course, higher than that -- generally, follow the pattern for ordinals, replacing -gEsimus with -gEni. But you will generally only encounter the first four.

Category: Translations (TR's)
TR12:
I do not understand how "miseri" fits. In fact, I cannot make any sense out of: "et quoque gaudemus nos miseri, ..."
A:
It's in apposition with "nos". The previous sentence has just talked
about how happy the boys and girls were to touch the horse, so the speaker is
going on to say that the adults -- poor things -- himself among them -- were
happy too.
Last updated Thu Nov 13 17:12:58 GMT 2003

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