I don't get North and Hillard's comp. answer here:

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jbutle04
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I don't get North and Hillard's comp. answer here:

Post by jbutle04 »

Exercise 24, #5:

The soldiers having been captured gave up their arms.

Me: Mīlitēs captī arma tradidērunt.
Them: Capti milites arma tradidere. (Sorry, no macrons in the answer key).

What is this? I'm fine with their order of Capti milites, but I have no idea what's up with arma tradidere. I'm treating the participle as just a modifier of the subject, soldiers, and I would expect to see a corresponding verb inflection, perfect indicative active 3rd plural. I'm not even sure what form their verb is in--the present infinitive would be tradere, right?

Thanks!
Eric

modus.irrealis
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Re: I don't get North and Hillard's comp. answer here:

Post by modus.irrealis »

-ēre is an alternate ending for the perfect 3rd person plural, so tradidēre = tradidērunt. I don't think there's any special reason they chose to use that form.

jbutle04
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Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:36 am

Re: I don't get North and Hillard's comp. answer here:

Post by jbutle04 »

sweet--thanks!

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