You'll find all kinds of items in this vocabulary review, but an emphasis is on the dative forms. Using the slideshow, you can check yourself by looking at the cat slide that follows the slide with the blank(s). Especially as we advance farther with the lessons, there is more and more repeated vocabulary, which means it is more and more important to keep reviewing past vocabulary.
And don't forget: on the slides with the English translation, the English is linked to the original blog post if you want some help in understanding the grammar of the saying.
Here is a link to the full-size show, and the show is embedded in the blog post below.
If you want to do even more reviewing (you cannot review too much!), here are the vocabulary review slideshows from previous weeks.
And... here's a random cat (with a new cat when you reload the page):
The focus for today's lesson is more practice with Latin passive verbs, and this time the proverbs contain prepositional phrases, so it is a good review of the ablative case too.
Remember: most Latin prepositions take the ablative case, but there are a few prepositions that take the accusative case instead. You'll see one of those accusative prepositions, ad, below. The preposition ad takes the accusative, but the prepositions a, ex, and sine, all of which you will see in today's sayings, take the ablative case.
I also need to say something about passive verbs and word stress! When you add the -tur ending to the verb stem, that means the verb theme vowel is in the next-to-last position (penultimate position), the critical position for determining the word stress. When that next-to-last position is occupied by a long vowel, that syllable is stressed, but when it is occupied by a short vowel, it is not stressed and the next-to-next-last syllable (antepenultimate) is stressed.
So, for passive verbs that belong to the 1st, 2nd, and 4th conjugations, the next-to-last syllable is stressed:
dicit ~ dicitur. "is said" — pronounced: DI-citur.
And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before; you have seen almost all of the words in today's proverbs before!
Now here are today's proverbs:
1. A digito cognoscitur leo. (A) lion is-recognized by (its) claw.
a DI-gito cog-NOS-citur leo.
You know all the words in this saying!
The verb cognoscitur is the passive form of cognoscit, meaning "is known, is recognized."
The word digito is the ablative form of the noun digitus, which normally means "finger" or "toe," but in this saying, it has the sense of "claw."
2. Ex arte cognoscitur artifex.
From (the) art (the) artist is-recognized. ex arte cog-NOS-citur artifex.
You know all the words in this saying except for one: the noun artifex, "artist, craftsman," which gives us English words like "artifice" and "artificial."
The verb tenetur is the passive form of tenet, meaning "is known, is recognized." The subject is artifex. The word arte isthe ablative form of the noun ars, used here with the preposition ex.
3. Ad impossibile nemo tenetur. Nobody is-held to (the) impossible.
ad impos-SI-bile nemo te-NE-tur.
You already know all the words in this saying too!
The verb tenetur is the passive form of tenet, meaning "is known, is recognized." The subject is nemo.
The word impossibile is the accusative form of the neuter adjective impossibile (remember: neuter nouns and adjectives have the same nominative and accusative forms); the preposition ad is one of those prepositions that take the accusative case.
4. Aliud ex alio malum gignitur. One bad (thing) is-produced from another.
A-liud ex A-lio malum GIG-nitur.
The adjective aliud, "other," is neuter, agreeing with malum, "bad (thing)." You haven't seen this form of the adjective before, but you've seen the masculine form alius. The verb gignitur is the passive form of gignit, meaning "is produced, is born." The subject is aliud alum.
The word alio is the ablative form of the adjective aliud, used here with the preposition ex.
In Latin, the aliud...alio construction is the equivalent of the "one...another" construction in English.
5. Nemo athleta sine sudore coronatur. No athlete is-crowned without sweat.
nemo ath-LE-ta sine su-DO-re coro-NA-tur.
The noun athleta gives us English "athlete," and it is originally a Greek word that was adopted by the Romans. As often with Greek nouns in Latin, this masculine noun belongs to the first declension; it is a masculine noun, but it ends in -a.
The word nemo can stand by itself meaning "no one," but when it is combined with another noun, it just means "no" as it does here: nemo athleta, "no athlete." The verb coronatur is the passive form of coronat, meaning "is crowned," which includes the crown of victory awarded to winners in a race or other athletic competition. The subject is nemo athleta.
The word sudore is the ablative form of the noun sudor, "sweat," used here with the preposition sine. The words sudor and "sweat" both come from the same Indo-European root, which is *sweyd-.
And English: "Hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once."
This is like the English saying, "Seeing is believing," and it's also a bit like "A picture is worth a thousand words," although that's more about pictures and written words, rather than seeing the thing itself versus hearing with your ears about it. I did find this cute image at a blog for French-speaking learners of Japanese, with French parallels that are like the English parallels I cited here! From haiku, I'm used to "mi" as the pronunciation of this kanji 見, so it was good to learn "ken" today.
With this lesson, we start on one of my very favorite topics in Latin: passive verb forms. It's easy to create the passive form of the 3rd-person present active verbs you have learned: you just add -ur.
amat ~ loves || amatur ~ is loved
movet ~ moves || movetur ~ is moved
frangit ~ breaks || frangitur ~ is broken
Pretty easy, right? So that's the difference between a Latin active verb and a Latin passive verb.
But here's where things get exciting! The Latin passive verb can also be equivalent to an English intransitive verb. Before I show you how that works in Latin, make sure you understand how the English intransitive verbs work; the English verbs are kind of weird when you think about it, but as a native speaker of English you might never have thought about it:
transitive: The wind moves the windmill. intransitive: The windmill moves. passive: The windmill is moved by the wind.
transitive: Romeo's death breaks Juliet's heart. intransitive: Juliet's heart breaks. passive: Juliet's heart is broken by Romeo's death.
Here's how that would work in Latin: the English transitive verb is a Latin active verb, and the English passive verb is a Latin passive verb... but the English intransitive verb is also a Latin passive!
movet: The wind moves the windmill. movetur: The windmill moves. movetur: The windmill is moved by the wind.
frangit: Romeo's death breaks Juliet's heart. frangitur: Juliet's heart breaks. frangitur: Juliet's heart is broken by Romeo's death.
I'll have lots more to say about Latin passive verbs in the coming weeks, but I wanted you to start thinking about this from your very first Latin passive verb lesson: you will usually translate a Latin passive verb with an English passive verb, but sometimes you might translate it with an English active (intransitive) verb.
To get ready for today's sayings, here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:
So, here are today's proverbs:
1. Honoratur arbor ob umbram. (A) tree is-honored because-of (its) shade.
hono-RA-tur arbor ob umbram.
The subject of this sentence is arbor, "tree," as in "Arbor Day" in English.
The word honoratur is the passive form of the verb honorat, "honors." You haven't seen this verb before, but you have seen the Latin noun honor.
The word ob is a preposition meaning "about, because of," and it takes the accusative case: umbram is the accusative form of umbra.
In this sentence, the Latin passive verb honoratur is equivalent to an English passive verb, "is honored."
2. Senex bos non lugetur. (The) old ox is-not mourned.
senex bos non lu-GE-tur.
The subject of this sentence is bos, a masculine noun which takes a masculine adjective, senex.
The word lugetur is the passive form of the verb luget, "mourns, grieves." You can see this same root in the English word "lugubrious."
In this sentence, the Latin passive verb lugetur is equivalent to an English passive verb, "is mourned."
The ox is a proverbial hard worker, but when the ox gets old, he is no longer able to work, and so his passing is not mourned.
3. Nihil discitur repente. Nothing is-learned suddenly.
nihil DIS-citur re-PEN-te.
The subject of this sentence is nihil.
The word discitur is the passive form of the verb discit.
The word repente is an adverb, "suddenly, immediately, at once." In this sentence, the Latin passive verb discitur is equivalent to an English passive verb, "is learned."
This is a good saying to remember as a language-learner: all learning takes time... especially learning a new language!
4. Vas malum non frangitur. (A) bad pot doesn't shatter.
vas malum non FRAN-gitur.
The subject of this sentence is vas, "pot, container," which you can see in the English word "vascular."
Because vas is a neuter noun, it takes a neuter adjective: malum.
The word frangitur is the passive form of the verb frangit.
In this sentence, the Latin passive verb frangitur is equivalent to an English active (intransitive) verb, "shatters."
The idea here is that the good pot is the one that shatters; the bad pot, perversely, doesn't shatter. Compare the English saying, "Only the good die young."
5. Funis triplex non rumpitur. (A) triple rope doesn't break.
funis triplex non RUM-pitur.
The subject of this sentence is funis, "rope, cord," a masculine noun. You can see this root in the English word "funicular."
The masculine adjective triplex, "three-fold," agrees with funis. You can see this root in the English word "triplicate."
The word rumpitur is the passive form of the verb rumpit.
In this sentence, the Latin passive verb rumpitur is equivalent to an English active (intransitive) verb, "breaks."
As you can imagine, the symbolism of "three" made this a popular saying in Christian Latin culture, with its doctrine of the Trinity.
And English: "Covering your head, but not covering your butt."
This is like the ostrich with its head in the sand: if you cover up your head but leave your butt sticking out, that's not good; you are not protected that way. I wasn't sure what image I could use for this, but when I googled the saying in Japanese, lots of images came up: this must be a popular saying in Japan! And there are other people, like me, who obsess about cat images ha ha. Here's one I found as an illustration for this proverb... the page has lots of cute pictures, but I liked this one best:
And English: "Even a dog, if it goes walking, can run into a pole."
The idea is that there are hazards everywhere: even a dog just going for a walk can run into a pole. Life is full of unexpected events! I was on the receiving end of some unexpected events this week, so I could definitely relate to this saying.
Below is this week's catch-up post to help you review any lesson(s) you missed over the past two weeks of lessons and/or to work on whatever kind of practice is most useful to you. These are the lessons covered in today's review:
And this is the slideshow with all the sayings from the week. You can read out loud, first with the English to remind you of the vocabulary... and then read out loud again with the cat!
I also made a printable crossword PDF as usual; screenshots below. The answers are all dative nouns and adjectives!
