I have a lot of trouble translating, and with the agreement of adjectives and their nouns.
Propter culpas malorum patria nostra non valebit.
I translated it as: Because of evil faults our country will not be strong.
LeFleur translates it: Because of the crimes of wicked (men), our nation will not thrive.
Malorum must be a substantive. Is experience the only way of getting the grammar right? I don’t care that I didn’t get LaFleur’s new vocabulary meanings. I just want to be able to translate correctly. It’s very frustrating.
malus, a, um is an adjective. As LeFleur hints, hominum is implied.
How would evil fault be in Latin? Can you write all the cases, both in the singular and the plural?
Absolutely I can decline 1st-2nd including -er. and the neuter forms. Also the imperfect and perfect. And of course, evil fault can be in Latin, not good Latin, but Latin. Also the imperfect and perfect tenses, plus the forms of esse. So a little less condescension please. As I said, I have trouble translating. I have very little confidence, and had hoped I had found a place to ask questions. However your post has made me feel that I’m too much of an idiot even for the learning Latin forum.
Maybe I didn’t express myself clearly, but there was no condescension. I recommended you decline culpa + malus/a/um as an exercise. in order for you to see how “evil faults” would appear in the sentence and that your translation cannot be right. It’s up to you.
This is a place to ask any question you like. Bedwere is never condescending to anyone. He was just offering some advice on how you might think about the problem you have.
The latin for “evil fault” would be perfectly fine latin.
Because you translated initially culpas malorum as evil crimes it shows that your grasp of the cases is a shaky. Malorum is a genitive plural therefore it can’t be qualifying culpas which is an accusative plural.
B. was just offering a way for you to work this out for yourself.
So in a way experience is the only way of getting the grammar right. But you have to have a firm understanding of the cases and their function in the sentence.
Making mistakes is the only way to make progress. We all make mistakes however advanced we are in our study. Dont feel bad about it.