Filiam?

Latin Learning Latin
1

I just restarted learning latin out of the Oxford Latin Course book and i ran across a sentence that confuses me.

filiam laudat Scintilla

I’m not sure if it should be translated as:

Scintilla praises her daughter.

or

Scintilla praises a/the daughter.

in the context it seems like it would be her daughter but wouldn’t that be differenet?

thanks for any help.

2

In latin the possessive is often left out, they consider it obvious I suppose. Both translations are really correct, it sort of depends on the context.

3

I thought that might be the case, thanks for the clarification.

4

It happens in English too. If I had a son, I could say to him

Son, bring me a glass of water.

Notice that I could also specify whose son he is and say,

Bring me a glass of water, my son.

In both cases it is clear that he is my son.