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Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood.
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); [5] and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both hostium castra and castra hostium; the latter is more common). [6]
A difference between Latin and English is that in subordinate clauses such as 'if this happens in future', English uses the present tense, but Latin usually uses the future. [48] nārrābō cum aliquid habēbō novī (Cicero) [49] 'I will tell you when I have some news' (lit. 'I will have') crūdam sī edēs, in acētum intinguitō (Cato) [50]
However, with some exceptions (for example, versus or modus operandi), most of the Latin referent words and phrases are perceived as foreign to English. In a few cases, English referents have replaced the original Latin ones (e.g., "rest in peace" for RIP and "postscript" for PS). Latin was once the universal academic language in Europe.
Latin word order is relatively free. The subject, object, and verb can come in any order, and an adjective can go before or after its noun, as can a genitive such as hostium "of the enemies". A common feature of Latin is hyperbaton , in which a phrase is split up by other words: Sextus est Tarquinius "it is Sextus Tarquinius".
In Latin, the sequence of tenses rule affects dependent verbs in the subjunctive mood, mainly in indirect questions, indirect commands, and purpose clauses. [4] If the main verb is in one of the non-past tenses, the subordinate verb is usually in the present or perfect subjunctive (primary sequence); if the main verb is in one of the past tenses, the subordinate verb is usually in the ...
-re was the regular form in early Latin and (except in the present indicative) in Cicero; -ris was preferred later. [6] In early Latin , the 3rd singular endings -at and -et were pronounced -āt and -ēt with a long vowel. [6] Other forms: Infinitive: amāre "to love" Passive infinitive: amārī "to be loved" (in early Latin often amārier) [6]
In old Latin, a form of the subjunctive with -s-, known as the sigmatic aorist subjunctive, is preserved (faxim, servāssim etc.). One use of this is for wishes for the future: [17] dī tē servāssint semper! (Plautus) [51] 'may the gods preserve you always!' deī faxint ut liceat! (Cicero) [52] 'may the gods ensure that it be allowed'