Ann.without.an.e Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 There are similar exercises like this throughout Henle, but it's basically plural in Latin, singular in English upon translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 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 :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Also, technically she answered Hostis and est, would that be correct or is there no singular form of enemy in Latin? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 So if you are translating a section like "the enemy is in the hills" Do you assume it is plural? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 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". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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