LC II Lesson XI Question

[barbara914]

In the Exercises, A-5: "A book was on the table." In the teacher's manual, the translation is "Liber in mensa erat."

Why is this not "Liber erat in mensa."?

(In B-5 we have: "Agricola est in agro.")

My question is: Does the word order matter? If so, how much? Both these sentenses have a prepositional phrase, and both they make sense either way. How much should I worry about the word order?

Thanks, Barbara

[Maria]

barbara914,

Word order is not as important in Latin as it is in English. However, verbs usually come last in the sentence, with the exception of the verb to be, which can go anywhere. Since erat is a form of the verb to be, it can go anywhere in the sentence.

Maria

[barbara914]

That makes sense--thanks for helping.
Barbara