Sunt/Est (Lingua Latina)

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ellisje
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Sunt/Est (Lingua Latina)

Post by ellisje »

On page 98, lines 75-80 of Lingua Latina are the following phrases:

"...nox atque dies aequi sunt;"

"...nox aequa est atque dies."

Is it like this:

"night and day ARE equal"

"night IS equal to day"

Can somebody explain why the number of the verb changes? Is "atque" the key to this?

modus.irrealis
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Re: Sunt/Est (Lingua Latina)

Post by modus.irrealis »

Yes, it's the atque, which with words of likeness and comparison can mean "as" or "than." So in the first sentence atque joins nox and dies and you need a plural verb, but in the second it modifies aequa ("as" doesn't work with "equal" in English so I like your "equal to day") so only nox is the subject and thus you get the singular verb.

ellisje
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Post by ellisje »

Okay. Thanks.

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