Cindyg Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 The question is: Imperium Iulii Caesaris erat __. The answer is: Imperium Iulii Caesaris erat magnum. The power of Julius Caesar was great. My question is: Why isn't it magnus? Great here is a predicate adjective, right? And predicate adjectives are nominative, right? And magnus is nominative, right? So is the answer magnum or magnus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Because it's imperium, ii, n., a neuter noun: imperium magnum, just like it's imperium Romanum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 Because it's imperium, ii, n., a neuter noun: imperium magnum, just like it's imperium Romanum. Ester, I still don't understand. Imperium is nominative, so magnus also has to be nominative. But isn't magnum accusative? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Ester, I still don't understand. Imperium is nominative, so magnus also has to be nominative. But isn't magnum accusative? Magnum IS nominative, actually: the full description of the adjective is magnus, magna, magnum (M, F, N). When you recite the adjectives, you always include all the nominative forms of it, right? (masculine, feminine, neuter if it exists) Now, magnum CAN also be accusative of magnus (M), but it is also nominative (and accusative) of magnum (N), and that's one of the beauties of Latin: the same form can mean several things and it takes understanding the sentence syntactically to know what it says. ;) For example, video magnum hominem is the case where magnum is accusative; but in Imperium Romanum / magnum / etc., the -um is just a regular nominative neuter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevilla Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 (edited) Alright, let's start with labeling the sentence: ____SN_____PNA____ LV ___ PRA Imperium Iulii Caesaris erat magnum. (PNA = possessive noun adjective, the equivelent of our 's in English, an alternative transation would be "Julius Caesar's Empire was great") The PRA must match the SN in case/number/gender (this is the reason you will see adjectives written this way "magnus/magna/magnum" to show you a few declensions and their nominitive singular endings). Parsing Imperium: Nominative/Singular/Neuter That means that your adjective must match those three things...leading to magnum (nom/sing/neuter) If the subject noun was "Iulius Caesar" then magnus would be the PrA to match the -us of the 2nd declension Masculine. HTH! Edited March 16, 2011 by Sevilla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevilla Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Do you have your endings chart in front of you? That can sometimes help. Remember that certain endings (such as -um) are used more than once. BUT - certain parts of the sentence only do certain jobs Ex. Nominative: SN/PrN/PrA (noun jobs) Even though it has an -um ending, since it's the subject noun it automatically is NOT the accusative case because that deals with direct objects and objects of certain prepositions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted March 16, 2011 Author Share Posted March 16, 2011 So because imperium is neuter (a fact which I overlooked), that means magnum also has to be neuter, right? If so, then I know we would have to choose magnum because of the Neuter Rule (which I also overlooked). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I have it now. Thanks so much, you guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 So because imperium is neuter (a fact which I overlooked), that means magnum also has to be neuter, right? Exactly. Accord of noun and adjective. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevilla Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 So because imperium is neuter (a fact which I overlooked), that means magnum also has to be neuter, right? If so, then I know we would have to choose magnum because of the Neuter Rule (which I also overlooked). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I have it now. Thanks so much, you guys. Exactly - the noun determines the adjective (and once you get into the 3rd declension nouns things get really interesting because the endings won't match even though the parsing will ;)). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Exactly - the noun determines the adjective (and once you get into the 3rd declension nouns things get really interesting because the endings won't match even though the parsing will ;)). There are such stuff even before: bonus poeta. :D Can't not love Latin. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevilla Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Ah...P.A.I.N., I just went over that with my first year students this week ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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