Hello there,
I appreciate that this question will not be overly stimulating nor intriguing to many of the folks on this forum, it being a simple and rudimentary one, so I’ll take this opportunity to thank my kind helpers in advance for their time, and for having the patience to aid a beginner.
In working through my textbook, I was given the following English-Latin translation exercise:
How many days after me do you want to set out to Rome?
Earlier in the same textbook I was given several adjectives to be used to express ‘how much, how many, so much, so many etc.’ Namely quot - how many, tot - so many, quantus, -a, -um - how much, tantus, -a, -um - so much.
Assuming that the difference in Latin between ‘much’ and ‘many’ would operate along the same lines as the distinction in English, namely that ‘many’ would be reserved for things readily divisible into individual units such as apples, and ‘much’ for those things not so readily separable, such as love, sand etc. I came up with the following translation:
‘Quotne diebus post me romam proficisci vis?’
It was on flicking over to the internal answer key in order to verify my translation that I was surprised to be met with a seeming deviation from this rule:
‘Quantis diebus post me Romam proficisci vis?’
Whilst it’s likely that those who compiled my textbook are fallible, at this early stage in my linguistic journey I’m much more inclined to doubt myself. I would therefore, be much obliged if somebody on this forum more learned than myself could enlighten me as to the source of my confusion.
Thank you again,
Tom.
