redundancy... I theenk I speld that rong..

Deudeditus · Post by **Deudeditus** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:04 am

Wheelock's ch. 31
-... a militibus ad litus allata esse...

isn't adferre a compound of ad + ferre? So wouldn't adferre itself imply that it was ad litus and not a or ultra or something? I seem to remember something about advenire...; advenire ad...;and venire ad... and how they all mean the same thing, but not really...

oh, just thought of this... can ipse be used with an infinitive?

spiphany · Post by **spiphany** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 4:32 pm

It's very common in Latin to use both a compound verb and a preposition (particularly the same preposition already in the compound) whereas in English this seems redundant.

In this example, you still have to use "ad" with "litus" and can't simply put it in the accusative or some other case because it isn't the direct object of the verb. You could just use "...ad litus lata esse...", but Latin prefers the other construction, which emphasizes the motion implicit in the verb (carrying in a particular direction) rather than just the result of the carrying (to the shore).

It isn't always necessary to try to translate both uses of the preposition; just note that they're there and that the author is doing you a favor and reinforcing the relationship between the verb and the noun.