Am I taking crazy pills or:
Is the the declension of the gerund and the declension of the same word in the gerundive (if the word is in the masculine) the same except for Nominative Singular which would then be -us vs the infinitive form (in the gerund)?
Is there a stem issue I am missing? Is there something really simple I am overlooking?
As I enter the final count down to my Latin exam, my remaining issues for speed and accuracy (required for the test) is being able to recognize and use gerunds, gerundives, and infinitives. Any basic tips as you translate from Latin into English?
Thanks.
Al
Salve alypie,
Both gerund and gerundive are built the same way, except that the gerund can only have the endings ‘-i’, ‘-o’ and ‘-um’, that is: it only occurs in the genetive, dative, accusative and ablative cases and only in singular. A gerund in the nominative case does not exist. A gerundive on the other hand can be declined as any other adjective of the 1. and 2. declension. So if you see ‘laudandae’ you can be sure, that this is a gerundive.
If you cannot distinguish them by their form alone, rembember that a gerund is a substantive, whereas a gerundive is an adjective: ‘Caesar signum proelii committendi dedit’.
I hope I understood your question correctly and could be of some help.
Regards
Yes, you understood it correctly and it sounds like I am not taking crazy pills. In other words in Genetive, Dative, Accusative, and Ablative Singular situations it will rely upon discerning the context to determine whether it is a gerund or a gerundive. Right? This is what I thought, but it can still be maddening.
Al.
Thanks for your reply!