Accusative or Genitive

Salvete,

Sorry. I just posted this new post in the wrong topic a minute ago.
Here it is again:

I read in Wheelock’s that forms such as ad edendum, ad laborandum were used for the English for eating, for working etc.

However, I was just reading an old German latin textbook from the 50’s and found this sentence:

Nunc non est tempus dormiendi et ludendi sed laborandi.
Now is not the time for sleeping and playing but for working.

Any idea why the genitive is used here?

Look forward to any comments you may have.

David

:slight_smile: Smily courtesy meae filae septorum annorum

These forms of the verb are known as gerunds. They’re declined in the same manner like those adjectives ending in -us, -um, -a, and they’re actually considered verbal adjectives.

Nunc non est tempus dormiendi et ludendi sed laborandi.

dormiendi>dormiendum>dormire
ludendi>ludendum>ludere
laborandi>laborandum>laborare
http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/grammar/gerund.htm


Regards

That’s not what he asked, Gonzalo.

kembreg - That line is taken almost verbatim from Horace nunc tempus bibendi “now is the time of drinking”. They’re both correct. I’m not sure if there’s a fancy term for it, and perseus is down so I can’t check if it’s something to do with tempus, but you see this often. ad + accusative is normal in prose, genitive can be normal in poetry. Circumstance often dictates the choice. When the tools are back up, I’ll check it out for you.

The ablative is also used, too, such as “ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit” by Tacitus.

we can also use the infinitive with TEMPUS and perhaps with other expressions of time. In a dialog by Cordieri (maybe that is not the exact spelling) that I got from the site where all the humanistic Colloquia are stored I read something like.

Visne ludere amice? Ita, amice, attamen non est tempus ludere.

Licet conjunctivo uti? Non est tempus ut ludamus! vos oro ut me certiorem faciatis.