# Question about word order with adjectives **URL:** \ **Category:** Learning Latin\ **Created:** [October 30, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134 "2013-10-30T20:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Matermultorum](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@Matermultorum](https://www.textkit.com/u/Matermultorum)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/1 "2013-10-30T20:51:02Z")
Is this a typical word order? adjective, preposition, noun? This was in Caesar’s Gallic wars DBG 6:14 duabus de causis For two reasons And what about this one? adjective, entire rest of the sentence, noun it modifies. Aargh! magnoque hi sunt apud eos honore These are in great honor among them. Caesar’s Gallic wars 6:13 Where could I read more about Latin word order? I knew that adjectives of quantity came before the noun, I just didn’t know they could come anywhere that wanted to as long as it was before the noun. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![adrianus](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@adrianus](https://www.textkit.com/u/adrianus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/2 "2013-10-31T11:18:42Z")
_Ordo saepè mutat vim._ Order changes a word’s emphasis often. _duabus de causis_ = for TWO reasons _magnâ cum laude_ = with GREAT distinction Normal order: preposition noun adjective _Plerumquè habes hoc: praepositio nomen adjectivum_ Devine and Stevens, _Latin Word Order_ (2006) is good but complex. // _Bonum at multiplex hoc opus._ ---
**Author:** ![Matermultorum](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@Matermultorum](https://www.textkit.com/u/Matermultorum)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/3 "2013-10-31T13:45:09Z")
Thank you for the helpful reply. Now that I know that they can be so far apart (nouns and adjectives) it will help when I am trying to translate a seemingly “nounless” adjective:). And then of course there are the “nounless” adjectives that are used as substantives. ---
**Author:** ![mwh](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@mwh](https://www.textkit.com/u/mwh)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/4 "2013-10-31T20:03:02Z")
There’s a formidably learned book on Latin Word Order by Devine and Stephens, but it calls for a high degree of linguistic competence and I suspect you’re after something more basic. Can’t really help you there but don’t the standard Latin textbooks give some guidance? In your sample sentence the “fronting” of magno gives it prominence, and since Latin is an inflected language, with cases etc. to sort out what goes with what, adjectives don’t have to stand right next to their nouns. The word order is more flexible – which enables it to be more nuanced and expressive. PS I now see adrianus’ helpful post, as well as your response to that. Thinking that words in a sentence can go wherever they want is not at all a bad way to think about Latin word order. (Some experts go so far as to describe Latin word order as “free.”) That’s not the same as thinking that it makes no difference where they go, which would be a big mistake: word order matters. Pulling something to the front (or alternatively deferring it to the end) can be a way of making it prominent; separating adjective from its noun (or adverb from its verb) likewise. Learn your declensions, pay close attention to case endings, and you’ll do all right. (Same goes for conjugations and verb endings, needless to say!) Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![Qimmik](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/43a26b/32.png) [@Qimmik](https://www.textkit.com/u/Qimmik)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/5 "2013-11-01T02:46:47Z")
Latin word order is _very_ flexible, and it’s fun! A line chosen at random from Ovid (Metamorphoses 7.80): _parva sub inducta latuit scintilla favilla_ “A small spark has lain hidden under ash spread over [_inducta_] [it].” _Parva_ agrees with _scintilla_ (nominative); _inducta_ agrees with _favilla_ (ablative) ; and the verb _latuit_ is in the middle. This is a very common arrangement of words in Latin poetry: two adjectives and two nouns with a verb in the middle. And there are similar arrangements, where adjectives are violently separated from the nouns they modify and arranged in elaborate interlocking patterns. This is technically known as hyperbaton. It’s quite common in Latin–the inflectional patterns allow you figure out which adjectives modify which nouns. Here the metrical pattern makes it clear that the -a’s of _parva_ and _scintilla_ are short and the -a of _inducta_ is long. Metrically, the -a of _favilla_ could be long or short, but once you become familiar with Latin verse, you would have no trouble recognizing that the -a of _favilla_ must be long and that _inducta_ must agree with it. ---
**Author:** ![adrianus](https://www.textkit.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@adrianus](https://www.textkit.com/u/adrianus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://www.textkit.com/t/question-about-word-order-with-adjectives/12134/6 "2013-11-01T14:53:29Z")
Read these pages on Word Order in Allen & Greenough, §§595-601, Matermultorum: _De ordine verborum, Matermultorum, vide has paginas:_ [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+595](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+595) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+596](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+596) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+597](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+597) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+598](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+598) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+599](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+599) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+600](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+600) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+601](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=AG+601)