translation of ei in a sentence

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Fausta
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translation of ei in a sentence

Post by Fausta »

Salve!
Wheelock's Latin Chapter XI has the following sentence:
'Ei id ad nos mittent' translated as 'They (m.) will send it (this thing) to us.' I know ei means 'to / for him, her, it'. My question is, what role does it play in this sentence? Could it not be omitted?

I have a second question. I am translating 'Frog, I hear you' as 'Rana, te audio.' Is 'frog' in the vocative case?

Tibi gratias ago.

RandyGibbons
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Re: translation of ei in a sentence

Post by RandyGibbons »

Hi Fausta. I'm out of town for the holidays with no grammar at my disposal (and too lazy to look online), but I believe Ei in your sentence is masculine nominative plural (I think ei and i are alternative forms).

And yes, I believe the vocative singular in female nouns is identical in form to the nominative singular.

Please someone else though double check me.

Aetos
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Re: translation of ei in a sentence

Post by Aetos »

Hi Fausta,
Randy is correct. is indeed also the masculine nominative plural of the demonstrative pronoun is . Quoting from Allen & Greenough, Section 295a: "The personal pronouns are not expressed as subjects, except for distinction or emphasis.." This means in the case of is, ea , id that as demonstratives, they are being used to refer to someone already mentioned or will be explained later with a relative pronoun, e.g. "eī qui urbem visitant, id ad nos mittent". Without the demonstrative, there would simply be an implied subject of "they".

Randy is also correct about the 1st declension vocative case ending being -a. Except for the masc. sing. vocative (-e) of 2nd declension nouns and adjectives ending in -us, the vocative is always the same as the nominative in all other declensions.
I hope that was clear enough-I tend to ramble..

Aetos
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Re: translation of ei in a sentence

Post by Aetos »

I should probably say a little more about the use of the demonstrative here. You probably already know that except for the reflexive pronouns, there are no 3rd person personal pronouns. Remembering that the 1st and 2nd person personal pronouns are primarily used for emphasis, to achieve emphasis on third person subjects we use the demonstratives, either is,ea,id, or hic, haec, hoc or ille,illa, illud and used in this sense, they function like 3rd person pronouns.

Fausta
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Re: translation of ei in a sentence

Post by Fausta »

Vobis gratias ago. I really appreciate your help.

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