LC II Lesson 2

[hejaj]

3rd edition book---On Exercise B #1:
"We are preparing dinner."
If the irregular verb (to be verb) ending 1st person plural is sumus,
why is this sentence translated "Cenam paramus."?
Why is the word not translated as parasumus?
Thanks
Learning With My Children

[mcyoder]

Look back on page 8 and 9 of your teacher's book. The present tense in Latin includes both the emphatic (I do prepare.) and the progressive (I am preparing.) Paramus is translated three ways: We prepare. We do prepare. We are preparing. We don't use helping verbs for these in Latin. Hope this helps.
-Martha

[jeremiah213]

For both the present tense and the perfect tense, English has three translations

Present Tense:
Simple: I verb
Ongoing: I am verbing
Emphatic: I do verb

Perfect Tense:
Simple: I verbed
w/ helping word: I have verbed
Emphatic: I did verb.

But these are distinctions in English and so any present tense or perfect tense verb can be translated in any of the three ways possible with only the context of the verb to consider as to which one to choose.

Glen