I’m working through some Latin sentences that are throwing me off somewhat. (I should note that I’m self-studying Latin at the moment!) I’d like to make sure I’m understanding the relative pronouns and their functions correctly in these ‘pairs.’ (There’s no additional Latin for context, just these two pairs on their own.)
a. Mala inter nos es quae bona inter eos facis
b. Mala inter eos eris quae mala inter nos manseris
For (a), I’m understanding ‘mala’ as being the predicate of ‘es,’ and ‘quae’ must be taking the ‘you’ in ‘facis’ as its antecedent, which makes ‘bona’ the object in the relative clause. As such: ‘You, a wicked woman who do good things among the men/people, are among us.’ For (b), ‘mala’ in the relative clause is the object, and ‘quae’ must be taking ‘mala’ in the main clause as its antecedent, so… ‘You, a wicked woman, who will await bad things among us, will be among the people/men.’
c. Bona cantas quam audimus
d. Bona cantas quae audimus
This pair doesn’t confuse me as much, though I’m wondering if (c) is ambiguous. ‘Quam’ is the object of ‘audimus,’ and its antecedent could be either (i) the ‘you’ in ‘cantas,’ which could make ‘bona’ the object; or (ii) ‘bona’ as an adjective describing ‘cantas.’
If that’s the case, then the Latin appears ambiguous to me. Either ‘You, a good woman whom we hear, sing’ or ‘You, a woman whom we hear, sing good things.’
(d) seems pretty straightforward to me, as ‘quae’ has to be the neuter object here, so ‘You sing good things, which we hear.’ (‘Quae’ can’t be feminine plural as there’s no room for an implied antecedent, and the main clause is in the singular; the feminine singular can’t work as ‘audimus’ is plural; and neuter subject singular doesn’t make sense to me as that’d anthromorphise things into being hearers, i.e. ‘we, the things, hear,’ which leaves ‘quae’ as the neuter plural object, thereby confirming ‘bona’ as being neuter plural.)
Am I on the right track here? Many thanks!