I’m not sure about the answer to BLD Ex 78, Pg 34, # 4.
Translate the questions and answer them in Latin.
#4. Cuius equum ancilla curat?
I translated the question :
Whose horse does the maid care for?
I answered the question :
Ancilla curat equum Marce.
Background info:
I obtained the answer to this question from this dialogue (excerpt):
Galba: Ubi, Marce, est ancilla tua? Cur non cenam parat?
Marce: Ancilla mea, Galba, equo legati aquam et frumentum dat.
My question is this :
In my answer (Ancilla curat equum Marce), I think ‘Marce’ should be the Genitive since we’re talking about Marcus’ horse. We haven’t yet learned the noun declension for verbs ending in -e (we’ve only just started with the -um and -us nouns in the 2nd declension). But I looked ahead at the 3rd declension and think the answer really should be this :
Ancilla curat equum Marcis.
I just realized that the page number in Acrobat doesn’t match the page number in BLD.
Have you come across the Vocative case yet? If I remember rightly it’s only different from the nominative (subjct) in 2nd Declension masculine nouns.
The vocative is the case you use to talk to someone. So if you are calling your slave, for example, you would say “serve” (vocative) and not “servus” (nominative).
To make the vocative just put ‘e’ instead of the ‘us’ ending. Marce is the vocative of Marcus. I’ll leave you to put Marcus into the genitive
PS, note that in your dialogue Marcus says:
Ancilla mea, Galba, equo legati aquam et frumentum dat
Hmmm…
Uhh… vocative. I was going to say nope, don’t know anything about it, but looking back, I see it was touched on very briefly. Which is why I didn’t remember it!
NOM = Marcus
VOC = Marce
GEN = Marci
So the answer should be Ancilla curat equum Marci ?
That really threw me off!
So the ‘Galba’ I read in the dialogue is really the Vocative of the name ‘Galba’ … and it looks the same because -a nouns have the same -a ending for NOM & VOC ?
Bingley is right. There isn’t really such thing as “E” ending nouns. That’s a vocative case of masculine second declension. If you meant to use the genitive it would be “Marci”, or if you want to address him directly (O Marcus!) you would change his name to “Marce”.
So the ‘Galba’ I read in the dialogue is really the Vocative of the name ‘Galba’ … and it looks the same because -a nouns have the same -a ending for NOM & VOC ?
Yep.
So the answer should be Ancilla curat equum Marci ?
Grammatically possible, but if your answer is supposed to be based on the dialogue, no.
Non Marcus qui equum illum habet sed legatus.
Cuius equum ancilla curat?
Galba: Ubi, Marce, est ancilla tua? Cur non cenam parat?
Marce: Ancilla mea, Galba, equo legati aquam et frumentum dat.
equum legati ancilla curat, would be better IMHO because it keeps the same w order order as the question…
by the way, how would one say
the maid of marcus cares for the lieutenant’s horse?
i would have the 2 genitives confused… like where to put them…
equum legati ancilla marci curat ?
[quote author=bingley link=board=3;threadid=261;start=0#1470 date=1058423855]Ancilla mea, Galba, equo legati aquam et frumentum dat[/quote]
Eheu! Well, that goes to show you that I shouldn’t try to study Latin when it’s nearing midnight! In that case, the answer should be :
Ancilla curat equum legati.
The servant cares for the lieutenant’s horse.
[quote author=bingley link=board=3;threadid=261;start=0#1473 date=1058425827]
Non Marcus qui equum illum habet sed legatus.[/quote]
I haven’t learned these words yet : qui, illum, habet, or sed.
I’m guessing that the gist of what you’re saying is this : Not Marcus, but the horse which belongs to Legatus.
[quote author=ingrid70 link=board=3;threadid=261;start=0#1481 date=1058450029]
But don’t worry about them yet, Marieke, you’re going fast enough as it is. 
[/quote]
Latin consumes me. I feel like I’m not assimilating new concepts as fast as I would like. I often feel like I have to take two steps back to go over something I just learned not too long ago. I feel like I don’t have enough time to study. I try to do a little in the evening. I try to do it while I’m on the bus. And I also do it surreptitiously while I’m at work. Shh, don’t tell my boss! 
Language is a virus. There is even a WS Burrougs poem (I believe) that’s called “Language is a Virus”. There was a song by Laurie Anderson called “Language is a Virus”. And I have read a few geeky webpages on the subject. I digress. What was I saying? Oh, yes… Latin consumes me. And that’s not a bad thing at all. ;D
[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=261;start=0#1484 date=1058451467]
the maid of marcus cares for the lieutenant’s horse
equum legati ancilla marci curat[/quote]
Somewhere in BLD, he gives the “usual” word order as :
Subject - Modifiers of the Subject - Indirect Object - Direct Object - Adverb - Verb.
So “ancilla marci” is the Subject, and “equum legati” is the Direct Object.
So shouldn’t the order be reversed, so that it reads :
Ancilla marci equum legati curat.
Subject Direct Obj Verb
Of course I really have no idea, I’m just guessing.
No no mariek you are right ;D
wrong way round on my part!
equum legati ancilla marci curat means ‘it is the horse of the lieutenant that marcus’ maid cares for’
ancilla marci equum legati curat = the maid of marcus cares for the lieutenant’s horse.
equum legati ancilla marci curat = it is the horse of the lieutenant that marcus’ maid cares for
It’s interesting how you read/translate these two sentences differently. I would read them both as “the maid of marcus cares for the lieutenant’s horse”. I need to stop assuming that the subject of the sentence should go at the beginning.
yeah, it’s one of those things that has to be done! I have no respect for english!
so the more correct answer to “Cuius equum ancilla curat?”
would be ‘equum legati ancilla curat’
it’s asking you whose horse is being cured so the most emphasis must be put onto the horse/owner.
-the clue is a lot of the time in the question.
the emphasis on words in latin is nice instead of vocal emphasis the word order can change!
If B.L.D were to ask “Curatne ancilla equum legati”?
you could just reply “Curat.” (yes) or “Curat ancilla equum legati”
being “The maid DOES cure the lieutenant’s horse”
I put ancilla in the middle because of my instinct, episcopo " curat equum legati ancilla" pulcher non est ;D
mei 2 centi :
Meus 2 nummi? Tuus 2 nummi? ???
Curatne ancilla equum legati?
Curat ancilla equum legati.
or
curat equum legati ancilla.
Yes, I agree that the first (curat ancilla equum legati) seems to have a nicer ring to it… well, I mean as I imagine them to sound.
To know the word order it helps to ask the question to which you already know the answer.
“Quis equum legati curat?”, “ANCILLA marci equum legati curat”
“suntne multi episcopi in casa tua?” "SUNT (multi episcopi in mea casa) "
Sometimes it gets to a point where the answer is obvious where a verb comes in. That ‘sunt’ basically means ‘yes’, or, as I like to think of it “There does be”
ps everybody sorry about the monotony of my examples! Verborum copiam non habeo!
You guys should feel free to invent your own style. No two Latin speakers spoke alike… there’s just far too much complexity and flexibility for that to occur. Certain word orders are common, but none of them are “proper”. Put the words wherever you want, unless it gets to the point of confusion (and in that case we conveniently label it poetry )
Non Marcus qui equum illum habet sed legatus.
I haven’t learned these words yet : qui, illum, habet, or sed.
I’m guessing that the gist of what you’re saying is this : Not Marcus, but the horse which belongs to Legatus.
qui = who, as a relative pronoun
illum = that
habet = has, owns
sed = but
(It is) not Marcus who owns the horse but the legate.
[quote author=bingley link=board=3;threadid=261;start=15#1533 date=1058495039]
qui = who, as a relative pronoun
illum = that
habet = has, owns
sed = but
(It is) not Marcus who owns the horse but the legate.[/quote]
It really helps when you break it down that way. And this just shows how much I need to learn to be able to communicate on a basic level. I need to learn more about the grammar, and then I need to learn more vocabulary.