Can I get quick view on translation?

[pmda]

I've answered the following question in Orberg's Exercitia Latina as follows:

7. Cur Marcus OMO ABET scribit?

Marcus dicit se hoc sententiam scribere quia eadem verba solere dicere.

Does it look OK?

[adrianus]

Looks OK except I think "hoc" is better as "sic" (in "sic scribere") and "dicere" better as "sic sonare".
Licet etiamsi melius, ut opinor, "sic" adverbium pro "hoc", "sic sonare" vel "sic enuntiare" pro "dicere" substituere.
Answer // Responsum: Sic scribit quia sic sonat.
I'm not looking at the passage so I'm just following your lead. // Locum apud Orbergensem non specto ergo quod dicis sequor.

[pmda]

Adrianus, thanks - as always - for the lesson. Actually Orberg's answer was very elegant: Ita scribit quia ita dicit

[cb]

hi pmda, in your initial answer in your first post, there is an important point to note: the QVIA clause is a causal clause in indirect discourse and so its main verb (a form of SOLEO) needs to be in the (finite) subjunctive rather than the infinitive. see allen and greenough s540(b), top of the page here:
http://books.google.fr/books?id=hdLoMc6a9loC&pg=PA350

for some e.g.s of causal indirect clauses (using the subjunctive) in golden prose:

- see PROPTEREA QVOD … OBTENTVRVS ESSET in caesar’s BG 1.3, and have a look at footnote 17 in walker’s edition of caesar's BG here:
http://www.archive.org/stream/caesarsga ... 7/mode/1up

- see QVOD … CONTINEREMVR in cicero’s first oration against catiline, s8, and have a look at the footnotes to QVOD and CONTINEREMVR in maclardy’s edition here:
http://books.google.fr/books?id=SixKvaKeDpoC&pg=PA154

cheers, chad

[pmda]

Chad. I'll check this out. Is this simply because I used 'quia'... ?

So you're saying it would be something like:

Marcus dicit se sic sententiam scribere quia eadem verba soleat dicit. (?)

[cb]

hi, you've put the verb SOLEO in the right form now for a causal indirect statement which was the key syntax problem in your first post.

in your latest post though, there's a new syntax issue: can i ask why you put the last word - a form of DICO - in the finite? (you had it in the infinitive in your initial post). perhaps have a read again of the passages that i linked to above, and generally on subordinate clauses in indirect speech. cheers, chad

[pmda]

Chad

I wasn't paying attention.

Marcus dicit se sic sententiam scribere quia eadem verba soleat dicere.

Many thanks for your guidance. This forum is invaluable.

Paul