Translation question

[Carolus Raeticus]

Salvete!

I was wondering, how to translate the sentence He entered the house through the backdoor. I came up with the following variants:

• Aedificium per posticam intravit.
• Aedificium posticâ intravit.

Which one is correct? Or are both correct and merely emphasizing different aspects?

Valete,

Carolus Raeticus

[adrianus]

per porticam "through the backdoor" and porticâ "by the backdoor".
I would say both work, Carolus.
Bonum utrum, dicam, Carole.

[Carolus Raeticus]

Salve Adriane!

per porticam "through the backdoor" and porticâ "by the backdoor".
I would say both work, Carolus.

Thank you. I did some further research. A search on the internet for "per ianuam" gave several results:

• Miraculosus Christi per Ianuam clausam ingressus: this is the title of a book containing a sermon.
• Marcus per ianuam (in hortum ad equum) currit: from a grammar site.
• Qui non intrat per ostium in ovile ovium, sed ascendit aliunde, ille fur est et latro: from the Evangelium secundum Ioannem, 10.1 and .2

However, I'm still wondering about the second variant, i.e. using an ablative.

Having a look at A&G's New Latin Grammar, I do not think that such an ablative would be an ablative of the way by which (A&G, sect. 429.4a) as that seems to imply some spatial extent of this "way" which is not the case with a mere doorway.

It could be an ablative of Means or Instrument (A&G, sect. 409), but the examples given by Allen & Greenough do no fit exactly. Nonetheless, Aedificium posticâ intravit feels good (I guess, I have developed a slight weakness for the pure ablative).

Vale,

Carolus Raeticus

[adrianus]

In this, you actually have both:
Portâ unâ cum per portam habes hîc:

Cur princeps eâdem portâ orientali, quâ intravit, exeat? Cumque ingressurus Princeps...per eandem viam exeat.

You might also like to translate "entered from" instead of "entered by", as in "à portâ"
Aliter, sensus per "à portâ" concipiatur

praedictus Smaragdus Eques intravit Barum per vim à porta Occidentali, et exiit iterum
entered with force from the Western gate and again exited

[Anthony Appleyard]

And Google just translated "The owl swallowed the mouse." as "Noctuam devoravit mus."!!!

And "scuba diver" as "Aliquam varietas" :: I have seen the old English adjective "divers" = "various" in the Bible, but how does "scuba" become "aliquam"!?!?

"The cat scratched the dog." became "Cati scratched canis.".