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Latin Grammar / 03.05.2018

Imparasyllabic nouns are those which have one more syllable in their Genitive Singulars than in their Nominative Singulars. The majority of such nouns are in the Third Declension, and within this declension there are two groups, or categories, of nouns (and related adjectives) which are of significance in relation to the length of syllables at the end of words, i.e. final syllables: 1) Imparasyllabic Third Declension nouns with nominative Singulars ending in '- es', which have a short penultimate syllable in the Genitive Singular. In almost all Latin words...

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Latin Grammar / 23.01.2012

Preface: On 6 March 2010 Sabidius issued on this blogspot a short item concerning the use of Gerunds (verbal nouns) and Gerundives (passive verbal adjectives) in Latin; and on 17 January 2011 he followed this up with an article entitled "Nunc est bibendum", which was a detailed discussion of the controversy concerning whether the "bibendum" in this famous quotation was a Gerund or a Gerundive, and thus the alternative possibilities for its translation. Now, having just completed a translation of Book XXX of Livy's history (see article dated 26...

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Latin Grammar / 17.01.2011

"Nunc est bibendum", of which "Now it is time to drink" is but one of the many possible translations, is one of the most famous quotations from Latin literature. It comes from the first line of carmen XXXVII of Horace's Odes, Book I, a poem written to celebrate the news of the death of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, in 30 B.C. Sabidius' purpose in this article is to analyse the grammatical significance of this short clause and, in particular to discuss whether 'bibendum' is a gerund or gerundive.
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Ancient Greek, Greek Grammar / 23.11.2010

Of the various parts of speech, the verb is perhaps the most interesting. In their Finite forms (i.e. when verbal substantives and verbal adjectives are excluded) verbs are 'limited' or 'modified' by the concepts of Person, Number, Tense, Mood and Voice. This short monograph by Sabidius sets out to analyse the use and function of 'Tense' in the deployment of verbs with reference to English, Greek and Latin. Learners of Latin are familiar with the following six tenses in the Indicative Mood: Present; Future Simple, Imperfect, Perfect, Future...

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Ancient Greek, Greek Grammar / 22.07.2010

When, speaking English, we often ask questions which are looking for a simple, answer 'Yes' or 'No', and the manner in which we pose the question sometimes signals clearly to the respondent which answer we are expecting to receive, often indicating thereby the attitude or viewpoint of the questioner. Set out below is an analysis of the three types of such questions. Each example in English is translated into Latin and Greek. You will note that English has different forms of asking these questions, depending on the degree of emphasis the questioner wishes to inject. Readers with no previous knowledge of Latin, but who have heard references to 'Nonne' or 'Num' questions, will now be able to decipher what this distinction means.
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Ancient Greek, Greek Grammar / 11.02.2010

Types of accent and the relation to the position of syllables. In Ancient Greek, there are two basic accents: i) the acute; and ii) the circumflex. However, where an acute accent falls on the final syllable, known as the 'ultima', it becomes a grave accent, unless it is immediately followed by a punctuation stop or an enclitic word. An acute can fall on any of the last three syllables of a word, i.e. the antepenultimate, penultimate or final syllable. The circumflex can fall on either the penultimate or final syllable. No accent can fall further back than the last three syllables of a word.
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Ancient Greek, Greek Grammar / 03.01.2010

Introduction: the analysis and purpose of conditional sentences. In any language, the ability to construct or translate conditional sentences is amongst the more demanding challenges which grammar sets us. Conditionals are more complex than other types of adverbial clause, because in the sentences in which they occur, careful attention has to be given to both clauses. A Conditional sentence consists of two clauses: (i) a subordinate adverbial clause, called the 'protasis', which expresses the condition or premise; and (ii) a main clause, called the 'apodosis' or consequence, which states what stems from that condition and therefore naturally follows after it in order of time. The 'protasis', in English the 'if-clause', is dependent, and expresses a supposition or imaginary event; the 'apodosis' is the principal clause, and states what will be the outcome if the 'protasis' is realised.
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