by mariek » Mon Jul 14, 2003 3:22 pm
<br />Sentence 1: Bona filia agricolae cenam parat. (62I2)<br /><br />Benissimus: Your first sentence could certainly mean either thing. In "good" Latin, there isn't supposed to be such confusion. I really don't know if one is preferable to the other.<br /><br />How would you change the sentence to remove this ambiguity?<br /><br />If the meaning was supposed to be "The good daughter prepares dinner for the farmer", does that mean I should rearrange it similarly to your alternative for Sentence #2? That is, "Bona filia cenam parat agricolae" ?<br /><br />In retrospect, I think that they are asking for the "for the farmer" translation (instead of "the good farmer's daughter"), because that seems to follow with the sentences before and after this one (viz. #1 "Agricola cum filia in casa habitat" and #2 "Cena est grata agricolae et igracola bonam filiam laudat").<br /><br />Sentence 2 : (His) daughter is getting (parat) a good dinner for the farmer. (62II5)<br /><br />Benissimus: Your second sentence is slightly more precise, in that it provided the (His). This tells you that the "his" is implied and that you won't be needing a genitive. Therefore, it would be Filia agricolae bonam cenam parat, as you put it, or to be a little bit clearer, Filia bonam cenam parat agricolae. Both of course being equally acceptable, though the latter is easier to translate.<br /><br />Ah... you've placed "agricolae" at the end of the sentence! This is new to me, I thought the verb was always at the end. Latin is very much like a puzzle; each word in a sentence needs to be rearranged in various sequences in order to solve the puzzle.<br /><br />