I was working through Ch. 2 and I came across one sentence that doesn’t seem to translate to what the answer key says. I’ve checked my grammar etc But I cannot figure out where I went wrong.
Sentence #10: Sanam formam vitae conservate.
My translation: The beautiful sound preserves life.
Actual Answer: Maintain (preserve) a healthy (sound) form of life.
*I realize that I may be misinterpreting something here. Could someone explain this sentence a bit?
What was the reasoning behind your translation?
It was based on the limited definitions that were provided. Conservate was obviously preserves / conserves. However, Sanam was defined as sane / sound. Formam was defined as form / beauty etc. I think if I’m not mistaken, these are not the only definitions for these words. But they are what I had to work with.
It seems to me that you don’t know the first declension and the first conjugation. You must go back to the grammar part and learn those first. Otherwise your effort is useless.
The endings of the words provide some information about them:
Sanam formam vitae conservate
English signals “direct object of the verb” by putting the word after the verb. “Maintain a … form…” Latin signals it with an accusative ending, here formam.
English puts an adjective before a noun to signal that it is modifying that noun, “healthy form”, but Latin has the word ending agree instead (really the case), “sanam formam”.
English uses the word “of” to signal genitive of material, “form of life”, but Latin uses the ending instead “formam vitae”.
English states the subject of a verb, or uses position to signal that it’s an imperative, “Maintain…”. But Latin does this with the ending instead, “conservate”. (Here said to multiple people.)
point 1: Thank you! That never even occurred to me.
point 2: I finally got a dictionary and apparently the text forgot to add ‘healthy’ as a possible translation.
Thanks again!
Glad you got it worked out. Good luck with Latin.