I don’t get it… why don’t these books provide answer keys to ALL the exercise questions ? I find this rather frustrating since I’m trying to do this on my own. I guess providing the answer key precludes their use in the classroom environment which they were originally designed for ?
I would guess that that’s the case, but yes, I agree that it’s annoying…
Kilmeny
I have a camebridge latin book, 200 glossy pages frumenti.
Wheelock, I beats him with Latin For Beginners what a book.
frumenti ?
of grain ;D
Episcopus dixit: I have a camebridge latin book, 200 glossy pages frumenti.
Mariek dixit: frumenti ?
Episcopus dixit: of grain ;D
Sorry, I still don’t get it. The Cambridge Latin book has 200 glossy pages of grain?
Episcopus noster likes to weave Latin into the English language. :
… and I’m sure I will do likewise as I learn more Latin words… ;D
well, grain is brown.
what is brown and grainy?
knows anyone what " I have a camebridge latin book, 200 glossy pages" is?
what is ‘by’ eg. By TOlkien
?
fr:umentum, :i , (N) - grain
i CANT believe I did the colon macron thing!
I’m trying to decipher the particular flavor of your patois. So you’re basically saying that the Cambridge latin book is 200 glossy pages of crap?
For “inappropriate words”, see my post on the “Latin language books are unlike other language books” thread.
So the CLC is “poopy” – support your claim! (I’d ask about this for any other series too. Maybe this should be a new thread – " Rant against ________"?)
Magistra
I just got to the part of BLD where we learn the word “frumentum, -i”! 
nunc habemus copiam frumenti
yay ;D
We have plenty of grain today. ???
nunc = today ?
habemus = we have (plural) ?
frumenti = grain (plural)
copiam = plenty
Why is it copiam and not copias ? Isn’t “copias” the plural form? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
nunc means “now”
If you ever want to say “today” you would use hodie (h:oc+di:e= by/in this day).
Benissimus (who is lucky he can’t see the many mis-typings that always seem to occur when I try to type that) covered the “nunc”, but the rest is right on.
As for why ‘copiam’… you are right that ‘copias’ is the plural form. But there isn’t a requirement in Latin to make ‘copia’ plural. It’s a noun on its own that means ‘abundance’. In plural, it has the connotation of “troops”, or “provisions”. If you prefer, I suppose, you could translate the line to be ‘Now we have an abundance of grain’, or ‘a copious quantity of grain’ where ‘copia’ in one word says ‘a copious quantity’. There’s only one abundance or quantity that we’re talking about.
Does this help, or muddify the matter?
Kilmeny
[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=53;start=30#1407 date=1058300446]
Episcopus dixit : nunc habemus copiam frumenti[/quote]
[quote author=Milito link=board=3;threadid=53;start=30#1442 date=1058376507]
Does this help, or muddify the matter?[/quote]
Yep, it’s clear as mud. But I love this… I’m learning something new everyday!
“copias” (pl) = troops, provisions.
So “copia” must be one of those special verbs which doesn’t need to be pluralized. This must also be one of those cases where context makes a difference.
I just realized something about “frumenti”. It’s “frumentum” (NOM S). So that makes “frumenti” the GEN S case.
So if we were to change “copiam” to “copias” and use the connotation of “provisions”, then :
“nunc habemus copias frumenti” = “now we have provisions of wheat”
Is that correct?
Or since “copias” is now plural, doesn’t that mean that the GEN for “frumentum” must also be plural, thus “frumentorum”? And now the sentence changes to :
“nunc habemus copias frumentorum” = “now we have provisions of wheat”
Sorry if this is a bit prolix … I have to work out all the details to get a better understanding of the grammar.
There’s no need to pluralize the genitive. He means to say, “Now we have an abundance of wheat” and to say “Now we have provisions of grains (wheats)” would alter the meaning.
You’re catching on rather quickly! You’re really quite bright 
[quote author=benissimus link=board=3;threadid=53;start=30#1457 date=1058397090]
There’s no need to pluralize the genitive.[/quote]
Oops. I just realized what a big mistake I made there with my attempt to pluralize the genitive. I was just reading a section on how the adjective matches in number with the noun it modifies … so I sorta got confused and made that silly error with ‘frumentorum’.
I feel so confused sometimes. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on the 1st noun declesion, I got sideswiped by the -us and -um 2nd noun declensions.
[quote author=mariek link=board=3;threadid=53;start=30#1465 date=1058415514]
I feel so confused sometimes. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on the 1st noun declesion, I got sideswiped by the -us and -um 2nd noun declensions.[/color]
[/quote]
Don’t feel confused or sideswiped! You’re doing fine! You do have a handle on the 1st declension. Instead of being sideswiped, you’re actually beginning to get a handle on the 2nd declensions, too!
Kilmeny