Night Elf Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Yes, I know this is the general board but I will likely get a quicker answer. :D Dd19 is taking Latin II and is having trouble remembering word order when translating from English into Latin. It's been 2 years since she took Latin I and she's forgotten some stuff. I worried the gap was too long, but surprisingly, she is doing fairly well. She is doing a bang up job translating from Latin into English, it's the other way around that is confusing her. Are there rules for word order during translations? Any suggestions? I asked her for specifics and she said it's just "all words in general." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldskool Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 :bigear: Would love to know this as well. Lesley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 I just asked my son who is in his 3rd year of Latin. He said that, because Latin is an inflected language, most of the time word order doesn't matter. Vergil could not have written his poetry in meter if it did. If there is confusion over what an adjective or an adverb (compound subject, verb or object) is modifying then you would put it before or after the one it is modifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 I just asked my son who is in his 3rd year of Latin. He said that, because Latin is an inflected language, most of the time word order doesn't matter. Vergil could not have written his poetry in meter if it did. If there is confusion over what an adjective or an adverb (compound subject, verb or object) is modifying then you would put it before or after the one it is modifying. Yup, exactly. We tend to want to put things in order so that we can systematically translate but it is not necessary with Latin. The forms of the words convey their function in the sentence. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Typically in elementary Latin courses, you'll see the pattern Subject Object (Indirect then Direct) (Adverbs or phrases) Verb (subordinate verbs like infinitives before the main verb). Adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify unless the adjective describes size, quantity, or an element of goodness/truth/beauty. Those usually come before the noun. As Ellen said, word order is very flexible. But those are the typical rules for classroom translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 Thanks! I'll pass these along to her to see if they help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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