Henle I Ex. 152 No. 7

[Ron]

The Henle I answer key shows the use of superabant for "(they) conquered" and dabat for "(he) gave." As the English shows the past tense, not the imperfect, shouldn't vicerunt and dedit be used?

[martin]

Ron,

The imperfect is generally indicated in English by constructions like "was conquering" or "was giving," but not always. Sometimes you still get the sense of the imperfect by a straight past tense.

Example: "When Caesar was in Gaul, the Gauls defended their homes." In that case, "defended", even though it is in the same form as it would be if it had the perfect sense to it, still has an imperfect sense. It is referring continuing past action.

The book has quite a few of these kinds of constructions.

Martin

[Ron]

I understand your example, but I do not get the sense of continued past action in the two sentences I cited. Both seem to indicate an action completed in the past. Is this just a judgment call or should the sense expressed in the previous clause or sentence dictate the tense?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Ron

[martin]

Ron,

Sorry, I just noticed the specific reference in the title of your post. It's sort of a judgment call there, but I think the author here is looking at the whole sentence in context, and seeing that the whole sentences has an imperfect sense to it. Notice how those constructions are surround by more explicit imperfects.

But even though the answer key gives the imperfect, I would allow my students to do it either way. I think you could justify both.

Martin