Salvete
In LLPSI. Familia Romana, Capitulum Decimum, p72 l.75. ‘et cum pueri pila ludere vult,’. Am I not getting enough sleep or something because I am failing to make sense of this. I’m thinking that the preposition ‘cum’ is implied a second time i.e. ‘et cum pueri cum pila ludere vult’?
I’m self isolating with COVID at the moment so am perhaps simply missing the point. These books are excellent and I feel I’m making good progress with the language. I think normally I’d ‘sus’ this out without asking, but bear with me…
Thanks for any help offered.
“To play with something” would be ludere + ablative, without a preposition. The preposition cum + ablative indicates accompaniment, not instrument, which is indicated by the ablative alone, as in this sentence fragment. So cum here must be the conjunction “when”, not the preposition “with”.
Pueri could be either genitive singular or nominative plural. Here, because the verb vult is singular, pueri cannot be the nominative plural subject, so pueri must be genitive singular depending on pila: “the ball of the boy”. So the words apparently mean “when he or she wants to play with the boy’s ball”.
Hope you feel better soon!
The original poster seems to have typoed pueri for pueris.
pila is ablative. pila ludere, I think, just means “play with the ball” here. cum pueris, “with the boys”. In my copy (if I haven’t added any typos myself):
Iūlia pilam tenet et cum puerīs pilā lūdere vult, neque iī cum puellā lūdere volunt
My understanding is:
Julia holds a ball and wishes to play with the ball with the boys, and they do not wish to play with the girl
Thanks again for answering and for being patient. I can confirm that we’re all feeling lots better already. I must take responsibility for the typo as I can’t, really, expect my partner to proof read the Latin, not when it’s supposedly a direct quote!