Answer Key to A Latin Exercise Book

By Sarah van der Pas

This is the answer key to "A Latin Exercise Book". A little more than a typical answer key, it contains many helpful notes and explanations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781304929716

Book preview

Copyright © 2021, Sarah van der Pas. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-92971-6

Cover photograph by Graham Hobster from Pixabay.

Answer Key to

A Latin Exercise Book

Chapter 1

A)

Lupus agnum vorat.

Agnus lupum vorat.

Puella vigilat.

Puella magistrō dat tabulās.

Puella bella mālum vorat.

Puella bella mēnsam dominō parat.

Magnī lupī agnōs parvōs vorant.

Puella puerō librum dat.

Puella bellum puerum amat.

Puerī multa puellīs dōna dant.

Note 1: Latin word order is rather flexible. While English relies heavily on word order, especially to differentiate a subject from an object (e.g. The wolf devours the lamb vs. The lamb devours the wolf), in Latin that function is fulfilled by case endings. Consequently, lupus agnum vorat in any order (agnum lupus vorat, vorat lupus agnum, lupus vorat agnum, agnum vorat lupus) will always mean that the wolf devours the lamb, while lupum agnus vorat in any order (agnus lupum vorat, vorat lupum agnus, etc.) will always mean that the lamb devours the wolf. The difference between the various possible word orders is one of emphasis, or sometimes merely style or euphony. While anything isn’t permissible or desirable, in such simple sentences as the ones above any order is acceptable, even though not all will be equally suited to every context. Do not worry too much if your word order differs from mine; concentrate on getting the word endings right. Nevertheless, you should avoid the pitfall of always using the same order as in English: even though it can’t be called wrong in any given individual sentence, writing that way all the time will make you sound un-Latin, since Latin has very different word-order tendencies than English.

Note 2: The girl gives the boy a book is the same as The girl gives a book to the boy. In both sentences, the boy is the indirect object and translates to the dative in Latin. The same goes with the girls in The boys give the girls many gifts and The boys give many gifts to the girls. When faced with a sentence that has two objects, like The girl gives the boy a book, and unsure which object is the direct and which is the indirect one, rephrase it using to: the word that can follow to without changing the meaning of the sentence is the indirect object, as in The girl gives the boy a book = The girl gives a book to the boy.

B)

The teacher (or: schoolmaster) gives a gift to the boy (or: gives the boy a gift).

Boys love girls.

The boy loves the lamb.

The pretty boy gives a big gift to the girl (or: gives the girl a big gift).

Many boys devour apples.

The wolf devours many lambs.

The boy loves many girls.

The boy prepares the table.

The boys prepare the table for the girls.

The girl gives big books to the boy (or: gives the boy big books).

Chapter 2

A)

Magistrī sumus.

Lupī sunt.

Bonus es magister.

Dominus dat rosam puellae. (OT—see Preface to the Exercise Book for what this means.)

Puellae puerīs dōna bella dant. (OT)

Rosae parva dōna sunt.

Parvae puellae estis.

Magistrī puerīs puellīsque multōs librōs dant. (OT)

Puella sum.

Puerī cēnam parant.

Note 1: Sum does not take a direct object. Instead, it takes a predicative complement that describes the subject (saying who or what it is—Julius, a teacher, a girl, etc.—or ascribing some quality to it—big, small, good, etc.) and thus must usually agree with it in the nominative.

Note 2: If you got the cases in 5 and 8 wrong, see again Answer Key, Chapter 1, Note 2.

Note 3: Latin does not have compound tenses with be + present participle like in English. I do something and I am doing something translate to the same Latin tense: the present tense. Thus, The boys are preparing dinner in Latin is the same as The boys prepare dinner: Puerī cēnam parant.

B)

The boys and girls are preparing (or:prepare) dinner for the good master. (OT)

The girl gives the boy a small gift. Or: The girl gives a small gift to the boy. (OT)

I am a small boy.

The boys/children give a book to the teacher. Or: The boys/children give the teacher a book. (OT)

The boys/children devour (or:are devouring) the apples. (OT)

The master devours (or:is devouring) the good dinner. (OT)

The boy loves the pretty girl. (OT)

You are a pretty girl.

You are good teachers.

The boys/children are awake. (OT)

    Chapter 3

A)

Rosa puellae bella est.

Magistrī liber magnus est.

Puer puellae magistrī librum dat.

Puellae dat rosās et māla et librōs./Puellae dat rosās, māla, librōs./Puellae dat rosās, māla librōsque. (OT)

Dominus multōs librōs habet.

Magister puellae fōrmōsus est.

Fēmina rosam tenet.

Māla vorātis. (OT)

Puerī nōn rubent.

Puer bellus bellam puellam videt.

Note 1: If you got the case of bella in 1, magnus in 2, and fōrmōsus in 6 wrong, see again Answer Key, Chapter 2, Exercise A, Note 1.

Note 2: If you got the cases of the objects in 4 wrong, see again Answer Key, Chapter 1, Note 2.

Note 3: The word order that I used in puer bellus bellam puellam, where the word order of the first phrase puer bellus is inverted in the second phrase bellam puellam, is a figure of speech called chiasmus, where the construction of a phrase is mirrored (i.e. similar but inverted) in another. Latin authors are relatively fond of it. That does not mean that another order is wrong or that you need to do this all the time; but once in a while is nice—it’s just a little artful touch.

B)

The master’s dinner is not good.

Roses are red.

The boy is holding the girl’s book.

He/She gives a gift to the boy. (OT)

I have a big book.

The woman sees a big wolf.

You (pl.) prepare dinner for the boys/children. (OT)

The girl sees the schoolmaster.

The boy gives great gifts to the girl. (OT)

The girl sees the boy and blushes.

Note 1: Since nominative personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.) are most of the time omitted in Latin, being implied in the verb, when you see a sentence like 4 where no word is likely to be the subject (dōnum could theoretically be nominative and therefore the subject, but the gift gives to the boy makes little sense) you must rely on the verb to tell you the person of the subject. Here, you can see that dat is third person singular, so the subject must be he, she or it. The last of these being unlikely, you’re left with he or she. In a normal situation, the context would usually tell you which one it was, but in a contextless sentence like this there is no way to tell.

Note 2: I have said earlier that Latin word order is flexible. One implication of this is that if an adjective is separated from a noun by one or more words, like magnum from lupum in 6 and magna from dōna in 9, that does not mean that the adjective cannot refer to the noun. The decisive factor is the word endings: does the adjective appear to agree with the noun and, furthermore, is there nothing else that it can agree with? If it appears to agree with the noun and there is nothing else that it can agree with, then it does refer to that noun. If there is something else that it could agree with, then it will be referring to what it makes the most sense for it to refer to in the context.

Note 3: The word order in 9 puts significant emphasis on magna. It is being stressed that the gifts given the girl by the boy are decidedly great. In some contexts and in a fancy style, you could even translate the sentence as Great are the gifts that the boy gives the girl.

Chapter 4

A)

Mārcus gladiō pugnat.

Agnī lupōs timent; lupī enim agnōs vorant. (OT)

Mārcus Claudiae magnam rosam dat. (OT)

Templum Diānae prope est. (OT)

Dominum linguā vulnerās.

Fēmina mālum puerī secat cultrō bellō.

Mārcus Pūbliō multam dēbet pecūniam. (OT)

Coquus cēnam dominō magnā (cum) cūrā parat.

Fēmina magnā (cum) laetitiā cantat.

Puer parvō digitō rosam dēmōnstrat.

Note 1: The Latin genitive translates both the English possessive case (as in Diana’s temple), which itself is historically a genitive, and the construction with of (as in the temple of Diana). Indeed, both of these English constructions denote possession, as does the Latin genitive (among other, by and large related, meanings, as you will see later).

Note 2: Since prope is an adverb and not an adjective, it does not decline or agree with anything. Adverbs basically answer the questions How? Where? When? whereas adjectives attribute a certain quality (like good, small, big, etc.) to a person or thing. (Some ideas can be expressed by either an adjective or an adverb, but you should not concern yourself too much with this finer point at this stage.)

Note 3: Latin does have words for the possessives my, your, etc. but, unlike in English, where the grammar often requires such possessives to be used even if you could guess without them who the owner was, they can often be omitted in Latin as long as it isn’t important to specify or stress who the owner is. Possessives are often omitted with body parts when these belong to the subject, for instance, as it tends to be obvious from the context that that is whom they belong to. In sentence 5 here, for example, the addressee would be unlikely to be wounding his master with someone else’s tongue. Or, for another example, take the English sentence close your eyes: oculōs claude, which word for word is just close eyes, is a sufficient Latin translation. It’s usually your own eyes that you close, so in this sentence they are understood by default to be yours. If they were someone else’s, then you would be likely to have some genitive or possessive to specify the owner; for instance if you were to close the eyes of a dead person (and even then, context might sometimes make things clear enough to allow an omission of the genitive or possessive).

Note 4: An ablative of manner, as in 8 and 9, may be used with or without the preposition cum when it consists of a noun and an adjective. Cum (like other prepositions) is sometimes placed between the adjective and the noun, the adjective then usually (with many exceptions in poetry) coming first. When an ablative denoting manner is a noun alone, cum is generally present. An ablative of means, on the other hand, as in 1, 5, 6 and 10, never takes cum in classical Latin.

B)

I am afraid of wolves, for wolves devour boys and girls. (OT)

Marcus wounds Publius’s finger with the knife.

We do not devour boys and girls, for we are not wolves. (OT)

Publius is afraid of Marcus, for Marcus is holding a sword. (OT)

Publius prepares dinner with great joyfulness.

Marcus fights with Publius.

The boy prepares a good dinner together with the girl.

The temple of Diana is big. (OT)

You (pl.) are afraid of Marcus’s sword. (OT)

The master does not give much money to the boy. (OT)

Note: In 6 and 7, the ablatives with cum denote accompaniment (although the context in 6 also implies competition and hostility). They are not, of course, ablatives of manner. Manner however is merely an extension of this. When you say that someone does something with great care, that denotes the manner in which they do it, but in a way it means that they are metaphorically accompanied in their action by great care.

Chapter 5

A)

Fēmina mediā nocte mālum vorat.

Dīlūculō agnus lupum videt.

Fēmina cum dominō saltat. (OT)

Fēmina capillum aquā puteī lavat. (OT)

Magnōs magistrī librōs videō. (OT)

Multa māla vorās. (OT)

Crepusculō ancilla mēnsam magnā (cum) cūrā lavat.

Ancilla dominum amat quod est fōrmōsus et argūtus et benignus. (OT)

Puer magistrum timet quod sevērus est. (OT)

Dominus ōstium baculō pulsat. (OT)

B)

The boys and girls dance with the teachers. (OT)

At dawn, the maidservant cuts an apple with the master’s knife and devours it.

Publius fights the wolf with his walking stick. (Literally fights with the wolf. The repetition of with is awkward, however; that is why I chose to make the wolf the direct object of fights in the translation, since the English verb fight admits that construction. Latin pugnō, on the other hand, cannot take the person or thing fought against as a direct object.) (OT)

The water of the great well is good. (OT)

You (pl.) love good women. (OT)

We dance at midnight.

The girl is holding a small rose. (OT)

I have Marcus’s sword. (OT)

I give Marcus’s sword to Claudia. (OT)

The girl washes her hair with great care. (OT)

Note: It is common in Latin, when two or more verbs have the same object, for this to be understood without a need for the object to be repeated in the form of a pronoun. This is what is happening in 2. Mālum is the object of both secat and vorat. English requires you to repeat the object by using the pronoun it in the second part, but there is no such