Not sure I follow this. cantat is being used transitively. (Cf. μῆνιν ἄειδε.) And his amica is not absentis (genitive) but absens.
Sorry, that was a typo. I meant I had “only seen the verb used intransitively”. The absentis was not a typo, but ignorance. Thank you.
The context was here:
Dum nāvis ventō secundō per mare vehitur, Marīnus in puppī sedet et librum dē optimō gubernātōre, cui nōmen erat Palinūrus, legere cōnātur. At difficile est in puppī librum legere, quia gubernātor absentem cantat amīcam. Marīnus eum tacēre iubet, sed ille foedā vōce cantāre pergit!
The intransitive cantāre at the end is what I was used to. So following μῆνιν ἄειδε, he simply “sings about his absent girlfriend.”
We live and learn. And there’s a difference between singing someone and singing about them. The Homeric hymn to Demeter starts Δήμητρ᾽ ἠύκομον, σεμνὴν θεόν, ἄρχομ᾽ ἀείδειν, and Vergil’s Aeneid (where you will again encounter Palinurus) starts arma virumque cano.
I never heard of Acta Muciorum before. Thanks for the lead.
I’m on chapter 26, and have finished Fabellae Latinae and Colloquia Personarum (poor Diodorus!, poor Davus!). I’ve picked up Fabulae Syrae, and will be reading that with next 10 chapters.
With the introduction of gerunds, I find that I have a lot to digest. Some quick notes:
supīnum – used to express purpose with verbs like īre, venīre, mittere, etc. It has its own principle part, also used for the active future and perfect participles, and passive perfect participle (and various tenses expressed by them).
participium – a verbal adjective. If it’s possible to judge from Ørberg, with not quite the range or frequency of Greek participles (because of the tense/voice limitations?). The active case has present and future particles, and the passive case only has a passive. The active present seems to come from the present indicative principle part, and the rest from the supine.
gerundium – a substantized verb. Apparently equivalent to the article with the infinitive in Greek. Comes from the active indicative principle part.
gerundīvum – a gerundal adjective. I haven’t really seen it used yet, though there is a gerundive of obligation. Comes from the active indicative principle part.
infīnītīvus – as Greek and English. Active present and perfect, and passive present, are formed from the present/perfect principle parts. The active future is formed from the future participle with esse. The passive perfect is formed from the perfect participle with esse. And the passive future is formed from the (passive) perfect participle with īrī (present passive infinitive from eō).
Congratulations!
The gerund and the gerundive are quite common, and you’ll get used to them quickly with more reading experience. The passive future constructed with the passive perfect participle and īrī is much less common, and the day you’re reading Latin and encounter it and know what it is and comprehend it, that’s the day to pat yourself on the back and buy yourself a bottle of champagne!
Hi Jeidsath!
How far are you in ‘Familia Romana’?
I have read it through, but I would like to do some ‘back to basics’ and make some of the exercises of the last chapters. If you haven’t finished them yet, how about ‘hooking up’ in e..g Hangouts and make a couple of exercise-dates? Sorry for being so direct, but I really would like not to do these even though fruitful then still (slightly) boring exercises alone. Quomodo sedet sola civitas… 
I’m afraid that in May my youngest daughter stopped being willing to sleep except when she was held by an adult, and I’m only just now catching up on sleep. I made it through the chapter on the Minotaur, and haven’t been able to make time for Latin since. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it soon.
I see…a well-known problem - but I think that Ørberg foresaw this when he made the audiofiles - I have at least listened to a load of them walking with babies
Ring a bell or something if you (OR OTHERS) are keen on some ‘back to basics’ exercises from FA…
Is this really a better route to learning Latin? It’s what I have been considering lately. I went through Orberg’s Familia Romana and am on the fifth chapter of Roma Aeterna. But as I said, I’ve been doubting the validity of Orberg and have been considering just going through Allen and Greenough’s grammar, while learning composition (which I believe is indispensible to being able to read Latin fluently), and then picking up Caesar’s works after I’m done with Allen and Greenough. Is this how you learned Latin?
By the way, now that we’re talking about Gildersleeve (I would hate to start a thread on such a small topic) did you notice that the ablative of comparison isn’t mentioned anymore? I at least couldn’t find it.