Salvete.
Familia Latina or rather Romana. I’m always making that mistake.
Prices.
There seems to be a mix of nominative and ablative.
Could somebody please explain to me when one should use the ablative of price?
Cheers.
Paul.
Hi Paul,
I was doing some sentences in North & Hillard awhile back involving price and value, which N&H summarised thus:
- When stating an exact price, the ablative of price must be used (hoc domum quinque millibus sestertium emit). It is also used with indefinite prices (hoc domum multis sestertiis emit).
- When using verbs of estimating or valuing, the genitive of value is used with the genitive of various indefinite quantifiers (tanti, quanti, minoris, minimi, magni, pluris, nihili, etc.) N&H’s example is a good one “multis talentis emptam domum nihili aestimat” (a house bought for many talents he values at nothing)
As far as nom. vs. abl., I don’t have FR. Perhaps you could provide a couple of sentences?
Hi
Presumably you are looking at chapter 8.
You find “pretium” in the nominative in sentences such as this.
Pretium illīus ānulī tantum est quantum huius. l.75
The “ablative of price” is used with emit, vēndit, and cōnstat (verbs of buying and selling, etc.) and the “price” is put in the ablative.
Examples in your book are :
Hic ānulus centum nummīs cōnstat. (l.59)
Albīnus…Mēdō ānulum vēndit sēstertiīs nōnāgintā. (ll.116–117)
You can see from Aetos’ helpful general reply that these examples fall into the category “When stating an exact price, the ablative of price must be used.”
I would put the genitive of value on one side for the moment, as it doesn’t come up until chapter XXIX.
Does that clear up the confusion?
Thanks both.
After lunch I’ll have another look and get back to you.
Paul.
OK. Had another look. The main thing that jumps out is the presence or not of those verbs.
Even asking the price (so no figure mentioned) has the unit in ablative.
Run out of time - guitar practice calls.
Cheers.
Paul.