Wheelock's FAQ chapter 4

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Wheelock's FAQ chapter 4: 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: Vocabulary
VOC
How can "ex nihilo" be correct if nihil is indeclinable?
Category: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR1
In PR #1, "otium multOrum confuses me.
PR4
Everyone wrote nautarum while I wrote nautorum. Why did everyone write nautarum?
PR11
The "greats" are troubling me. Should the first one modify men: magnI virI ? Should the second one (after the copulative verb,est) modify daughters because it comes first or sons because of some default to the masculine when referring to a group of both genders?

Wheelock's FAQ chapter 4: Answers

Category: Vocabulary
VOC:
How can "ex nihilo" be correct if nihil is indeclinable?
A:

There are two different, related words. "Nihilo" is the ablative singular of "nihilum". "Nihilum" also means "nothing".

Probably the Romans just got lazy about adding the endings. :)

Category: Practice/Repetition sentences (PR's)
PR1:
In PR #1, "otium multOrum confuses me.
A:

Gail's answer:

Basically it means the peace "of many (people)." I used to also get confused with how some words are left out and you have to infer the meaning. For example, you will soon find in an upcoming chapter that the Latin word for "that" if it is masculine will mean "that man".

Ruth's answer:

I believe those are called substantive adjectives. They can stand alone. Since Latin words have the gender "built in" you can tell if it's a good man, a good woman, or a good thing, most of the time. If in doubt make it male :D
PR4:
Everyone wrote nautarum while I wrote nautorum. Why did everyone write nautarum?
A:
Because "nauta" is a first-declension noun, one of the few
first-declensions which are masculine. The endings follow
the declension the noun belongs to; the gender only makes a
difference when the gender is neuter.
PR11:
The "greats" are troubling me. Should the first one modify men: magnI virI ? Should the second one (after the copulative verb,est) modify daughters because it comes first or sons because of some default to the masculine when referring to a group of both genders?
A:

Meredith's answer:

You can either make the adjective agree with the noun it's closest to, or you can default to the masculine, whichever you'd rather. Or you could repeat the adjective twice, but that sounds rather pedantic. The Romans did all those things.

In this case, since the same adjective turns up twice, it might sound better to default to the masculine, but either is correct.

Last updated Thu Nov 13 17:09:35 GMT 2003

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