Third Form Latin, Unit 1 Review lesson

[amyco]

We have several questions about worksheet 5 (p. 49).

In Part C, nos. 7-9 are translated with the perfect passive. Would it be incorrect to translate it with the imperfect passive? How can you tell when to use one or the other, as in different places in the TM the imperfect passive is translated as "I was loved." See p. 23 of TM.

Also, C 4 and D 3 are not translated with the preposition "cum." Is this because the ablative is the "in, by, with, from" case? We were unclear why "cum" wasn't used with the accusative.

And finally, why are the possessive pronouns sometimes included in the translation, and sometimes not?

Thank you for any help!

[Michael]

amyco,

The answer to your question about C 7-9 is a little complicated. For translating, we try to be consistent in using "was being" for the imperfect and "have/has" or "was" for the perfect, but you could translate both tenses as "was." The difference is between an ongoing or repeated action in the imperfect and a completed or "perfect" action in the perfect. In English, we generally don't distinguish tenses as precisely as Latin does, so "was" often works for both tenses.

Shorter answer, you should use the perfect for Part C, Nos. 7-9, as the English is "was," but the imperfect wouldn't really be wrong.

On p. 23 and other places where we translate the imperfect as "was," it's not technically wrong, but it does come across as inconsistent as we don't fully explain all of this in Third Form. We were trying to keep things simple for students, and tried to be consistent in translating, but we didn't catch every inconsistency.

C 4 does not have cum because it as a special use of the ablative we never actually taught students! We will correct that.

D 4 is an abl. of means and does not use cum. See Lesson II of Third Form, 5th bullet point in student text.

For your last question, do you mean when translating Latin to English? If so, possessive pronouns are almost always omitted in Latin when the Romans thought they would be obvious, such as family members or parts of the body. When translating into English, it sometimes sounds better to add the possessive pronoun back in, but you don't have to. The goal is a translation that is accurate and makes sense.

I hope all of this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[amyco]

Thank you very much for the help! I understand it better now.