I’m a beginner Latin learner and despite being able to understand some key grammar rules without any problem, I’m still slightly confused with the Adjective and Noun order. What I’ve learned that in Latin usually the noun comes first before the adjective describing it (just like in Spanish). However I’ve seen some other examples in various sources where the adjective was placed before the noun. Are there any rules stating when the adjective should come first or vice versa?
For example I want to express the phrase “curious planet (Earth)” in Latin. As far as I am concerned in Latin that would be “Terra curiosa” (the same order as in the widely used phrase terra incognita). Is it also correct to say “curiosa Terra” or is it a grammatical error?
Thank you very much for taking your time to answer my question, hope other struggling beginners can also benefit from this question and your generous help!
This is a matter of style, not of grammar. Usually the adjective follows the noun unless emphasis is to be placed on the adjective. By the way, curiosus means careful, not curious in the sense you are using.
As for the “curious planet”, I am not so sure about curiosus, because my dictionary lists “careful, attentive, diligent; inquisitive, curious” as the translation of this Latin word. I guess this is a “false friend”. Cassell’s dictionary gives the following adjectives for curious in the sense of strange: “insolitus, novus, singularis, mirus.” I am only a “tiro” myself, but I would favour “mirus” because that has the connotation of “wonderful”.
As for the question concerning word order, that is something I am also wondering about fairly often. I am currently reading some passages from Livy, and I keep thinking “what the heck was this guy thinking when deciding on what word to put where?” Bennett’s New Latin Grammar (link to Gutenberg.org HTML-version) may serve as an introduction. Just use the “find”-tool of your browser to look for “348”. That will bring you straight to the passage.