CH 02 question

Textbooks Wheelock's Latin
1

Salvete!

I am still plugging away at Wheelocks. I picked up the Audio CDs as well as Grotes book which is a big help. I am trying now to wrap my head around Cases. I have two questions regarding sentence 12 from the Sententiae Antiquae

  1. Quid cogitas?—debemus iram vitare.
    According to the teacher’s guide this translates to
    “What are you thinking?—we ought to (must) avoid anger.”

Would I have been correct to translate Quid cogitas? as “What do you think?” or is there a subtle difference i am missing in congugations between the two.

Secondly, I am not entirely clear on why iram takes the singular Accusative case and not the plural since it is we who must avoid anger.

Many thanks in advance.

Scott

2

As far as I know, your interpretation could be correct in isolation, but it doesn’t make as much sense, at least to me. I feel the second part would also have to be a question for that to make sense.

“Debemus iras vitare” would mean “we must avoid angers”. Anger is the direct object, in Latin (and in English) the verb agrees with the subject, not with the direct object. “Puellam amamus” means “we love the girl”, while “puellas amamus” means “we love the girls”.

3

Thank you Benedarius, your example helped to clarify that for me! :slight_smile:

Scott