Quick Sentence Translation help-please?

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liz777
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Quick Sentence Translation help-please?

Post by liz777 »

Mox liberatus est, sed flumini suum donum dederat.

I translated it as: Soon he was freed, but he had surrendered his gift to the river.
Is this correct? I wasn't sure what the verb dederat meant, but does it come from dedo, dedere meaning to surrender?

One more question...'Et arena ab eo tempore erat pulchra'

Area=sand? My translation made no sense: And the sand was beautiful by this time?

Any help would be great. I'm confused

tienyew
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Re: Quick Sentence Translation help-please?

Post by tienyew »

'dederat' is the active indicative pluperfect 3rd person singular of dō, dare, dedī, datum, hence your translation seems right to me save for the verb.

'ab eō tempore' means 'from that time'. The sentence requires some context however, because 'arēna' according to Lewis and Shorts means generally 'sand, sands, a sandy place', including 'a sandy desert, the shore of a sea, the beach, coast, strand, the place of combat in the amphitheatre'.

vastor
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Re: Quick Sentence Translation help-please?

Post by vastor »

Et arena ab eo tempore erat pulchra.

Wouldn't tempore be an ablative of time, and therefore omit the preposition? Also, from my grammatical studies, the demonstratives hic, haec, and hoc tend to be used when a place and time are specified, whereas, I have never seen the weaker demonstratives is, ea, id used in references to places or times.

I would have written the latin thus:
Et hoc tempore arena pulchra erat.

And then translated as:
And within this (here) time, the sand was beautiful.

Unless of course, it denotes a separation / deprivation that overrides the ablative of time.

adrianus
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Re: Quick Sentence Translation help-please?

Post by adrianus »

vastor wrote:Unless of course, it denotes a separation / deprivation that overrides the ablative of time.

I think that using "ab" means separation does rule out the other. If the sentences of liz777 (hello, liz777) were connected, it could mean
Ever day after gaining his freedom, he appreciated anew the sand under his feet as something beautiful
Meâ sententiâ, "ab" uso sensus separationis istum ablativi temporis superat. Si quidem sententiae conjunctae sint (et salve liz777), significari possit ità:
Omne die postquàm/cùm/quòd liberatus est, pulchram denuò arenam sub pede diligebat.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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