Present Subjunctive

Latin Learning Latin
1

i’ve been learning these days all about present subjunctive, and magister just left us two stories to be translated

well, i’ve got problems with three sentences, so if anyone could help me out, i’ll highly appreciate that :smiley:


- pericula mihi meisque semper ignota sint !


what meisque exactly means ??? it’s something like “that dangers always are strange for me”… (english is not my mothertongue, sorry :blush: )


- te tuosque iam hodie invito, ut apud nos sitis, cum ego togam mutabo


same here, problems with tuosque… i know those are possessive prepositions, and -que means “and”, but i haven’t seen those yet so i’m not sure how could i translate 'em

“i already invite you today, that you’re near to us, when i got my gown”

lol i’ve got to translate latin into english and spanish at the same time :laughing:


-opto, ut amicus meus sis, ut antea semper eras


antea… ??? what does that mean ?



thanks in advance !

2

Hi Meowth

You’re doing a great job with three languages at the same time! :slight_smile:

The meisque and tuosque in your sentences are, as you correctly point out, possesive pronouns (I am sure that’s what you meant :slight_smile: Watch the difference between pronoun, e.g. ego, and preposition, e.g. in).

But they are used as nouns here or as possesive pronouns with an implied meaning of people or soldiers.

So meis (the -que is just a conjunction) means my people, in the dative: to my people. And tuos means your people in the accusative plural. Thus:

I already invite you and your people today…

  • which makes sense because you have sitis in the 2nd person plural in the ut-clause.

Caesar often uses the pronouns thus:

diutius cum sustinere nostrorum impetus non possent …

as the couldn’t withstand the attack of ours any longer … that is: the attack from our soldiers.

The antea is an adverb and is a composite: ante + ea which means before + these things > earlier :slight_smile:

I hope this helps.

3

tyvm for posting :slight_smile:


now, those make sense ! i didn’t know i could translate also tuus and meus as “your people” and “my people”

i just have another question :

\

  • pericula mihi meisque semper ignota sint !


    mihi and meis are there because they’re complement of adjective, right ? complement of ignotus
4

You’re welcome, anytime. :slight_smile:

Perhaps the meaning of the pronoun is even clearer from the following Caesar quote:

Nostri celeriter arma ceperunt

Ours quickly seized weapons…
… that is: our soldiers quickly…

Now, I am not totally sure how to interpret the sentence you have. But I might venture this translation:

May the tries/trials always be forgiven for me and my people!

That depends on the context.

As you can see pericula and ignota correspond. Pericula must be the subject and ignota sint the verb: I interpret the subjunctive as optative, therefore “may”. And it is in the perfect tense, therefore “be forgiven”.

Try looking for “ignosco” in your dictionary. It requires a dative: … Post again, if you don’t understand after consulting your dictionary :slight_smile:

I hope you can tell me where the sentence is from. That will help me to ascertain, that I am not mistaken in this matter…