Do you know Latin? I have a question?

[Ann.without.an.e]

Henle Latin 1 Exercise 57 ( student is asked to translate)

 

#5)  There are dangers on the journey because the enemy is in the hills.

 

Answer keys says:  Sunt pericula in itinere quod hostes in collibus sunt.

 

Dd (who is further along in Latin than I am) is convinced that the last sunt should be est?  

 

Can anyone explain why it is sunt rather than est?

 

Thanks

[yvonne]

My son (and I agree) says that the second sunt is correct because the subject of the clause, hostes, is plural.  Although it's translated as "the enemy" in English, the Latin word hostes is the plural form of hostis, is.

 

HTH

[crazyforlatin]

There are similar exercises like this throughout Henle, but it's basically plural in Latin, singular in English upon translation.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Thanks so much.  I actually had a hunch that this was the case, but not being as familiar as I should be with Latin, I questioned myself.  Ya'll are awesome :)

[Ann.without.an.e]

Also, technically she answered Hostis and est, would that be correct or is there no singular form of enemy in Latin?   

 

Thanks

[Maureen]

My understanding is that hostis singular refers to a personal enemy and hostes plural refers to an enemy of the state such as an opposing army.  The above comments are correct; hostes is plural in Latin but singular in English.

[Ann.without.an.e]

So if you are translating a section like "the enemy is in the hills"  Do you assume it is plural?  

 

Thanks

So if you are translating a section like "the enemy is in the hills"  Do you assume it is plural?  

 

Thanks

 

Yes.  There are several words in Latin that are always plural, and a few others that have different meanings when singular vs. plural.  This can be a bit hard to wrap your mind around, so when I teach this, I ask the student to think of any English words that are always plural, like "jeans", or "scissors".