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Word order is a strange thing. I was talking to some one last night who recommended that I randomly mix around the words in a latin sentence. But I feel, I have neither the right nor the knowledge to do so at the moment. There should be a whole book dedicated to this, is there one?
For there are many occasions on which I don't know whether a word because it for example is first after the relative pronoun has strongest emphasis, as all I am given is "Pulchras amat is puellas", and even then I don't know which is more emphatic, amat or is.
I mean, for God's sake I don't even know that which is a clause, or a subordinate clause etc.
That's another problem in addition to my lack of vocabulary
Lol, word order in Latin is often sort of random, but in general the verb will be somewhere near the end, though I've translated nothing but poetry in over one and a half years... and well, poets are probably worst when it comes to word order.
The context should help you, though.
Word order isn't a random at all!
When Latin writers put a word on a (at first sight) silly place, it has a meaning, certainly in poetry! Also in prose there was a metrical scheme to follow at the end of a period. That's a very important thing also, the clausulae! Some combinations sounded better for the Roman ear, like 'esse videatur' etc. This is only one thing, emphasis is an other. There are alse words with a standard position, like nam, enim, etc.
There are to many things to mention. But there are books about it! You can find a little bit in Latin grammars, but there are also specific books about the subject: Ernout, L'ordre des mots dans la phrase Latine, 3 + 1 vols. But this is in Frensh and also very old. I think there are English books about that too. But I can't remember them right now. But I will mention them here a little later, if I don' forget, lol.
