Latin Lesson #234: Wrapping up the 4th declension

Today is the last round of practice with those fourth declension nouns, the sneaky ones ending in -us, with -um for the accusative, but with -us (-ūs) for the genitive, -ui for the dative, and -u (-ū) for the ablative. In today's sayings, there is a mix of accusative and ablative forms.

And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Nemo ante obitum beatus.
Nobody (can be called) happy before (their) death.
nemo ante O-bitum be-A-tus.

You have not seen the adjective beatus, "blessed," before, but you have seen the superlative form: beatissimus, "most blessed."

The word obitum is the accusative form of the noun obitus, "encountering, reaching, reaching the end," as in reaching the end of life; the accusative is being used here with the preposition ante. This is one of those 4th-declension nouns that is form from a verb: obit. And yes, this is the root of English "obituary." 

This is a very common idea in both Latin and Greek proverbial wisdom: you never know what tomorrow could bring, so you cannot say that someone has had a blessed (lucky, fortunate, etc.) life until they reach the end of their life. It is a quite pessimistic saying in that sense: the idea is that things can always get worse, not that they can always get better!

2. Nec semper arcum tendit Apollo.
Apollo doesn't always stretch (his) bow.
nec semper arcum tendit A-POL-lo.

You know all the words in this saying!

The word arcum is the accusative form of the noun arcus; it is the object of the verb tendit, and the subject is Apollo. Remember, his name belongs to the 3rd declension, so this is the nominative form; the stem is Apollin- (like many 3rd declension nouns, you can't always see the stem in the nominative form).

The metaphor of the "bow stretched tight" is used in both proverbs and fables to represent the person who never relaxes, who never takes a break. Apollo was the most renowned archer among the gods, so the idea is that if even Apollo takes a break sometimes, you need to do the same!

3. In portu naufragium facis.
You're-making (a) shipwreck in port.
in portu nau-FRA-gium facis.

The noun naufragium, "shipwreck," is new, but you have seen a related word: naufragus, "a shipwrecked person." With neuter nouns like naufragium you cannot tell just from looking at the word whether it is nominative or accusative because the forms are the same, but from context here, you can tell it has to be the accusative object of the verb, facis, because the subject of the verb is "you."

The word portu is the ablative form of the noun portus, which means "harbor, port," just as you would expect! It is in the ablative case with the preposition in. Note that there is also a feminine noun formed from this same root, with a similar meaning: porta, meaning "gate, passage, door."

This saying about a project that has taken an unexpected turn for the worse: it's one thing for a ship to sink during a storm at sea, but something else to sink right there in the supposedly safe harbor!


4. In pulicis morsu deum invocat.
(He) invokes (a) god for (a) flea bite.
in PU-licis morsu deum IN-vocat.

The new word in this saying is pulicis, the genitive form of pulex, which means "flea." The words are cognates, i.e. both Latin pulex and English "flea" come from the same Indo-European root, plews.
The word morsu is the ablative form of the noun morsus, another example of the ablative case with the preposition in. 

The word deum is the acccusative form of deum, the object of the verb invocat.

The subject of the verb is not expressed, as often in Latin; the idea is that the proverb can be used to refer to "anyone" who is engaged in this foolish behavior.

Like many proverbs, this one echoes an Aesopica fable about a man who foolishly calls on a god for help when he is bitten by a flea: The Man, the Flea, and Heracles. The idea of course is that you should not bother the gods for such trivial things.

5. Somno, esca, potu, nemo carere potest.
Nobody can-do-without sleep, food, (and) drink.
somno, esca, potu, nemo ca-RE-re potest.

It's long, but you know all the words in this saying too! 

The word carere is the infinitive of the verb caret, used with the verb potest: "can lack." The subject is nemo, "nobody," which is another one of those 3rd-declension nouns with a sneaky stem: much like Apollo has the stem Apollin-, the word nemo has the stem nemin-.

The verb takes an ablative complement, so somno is the ablative of the masculine noun somnus (2nd declension), while potu is the ablative of the masculine noun potus (4th declension), and esca (escā) is the ablative of the feminine noun esca (1st declension).

I'm glad somno was included in the list. Nobody would be foolish enough to go without food or drink, but some people seem to think that they can get away without enough sleep!


Here's a recap:

• Nemo ante obitum beatus.
• Nec semper arcum tendit Apollo.
• In portu naufragium facis.
• In pulicis morsu deum invocat.
• Somno, esca, potu nemo carere potest.

And here is today's audio:



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Latin Lesson #233: More practice with 4th-declension nouns

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with 4th-declension -us nouns. You'll see them in the nominative case, -us, and in the accusative, -um, and in the ablative too, -u.

And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Casusne? Deusne?
(Was it) chance? (Was it) god?
ca-SUS-ne? de-US-ne?

The particle -ne is added to the end of a word to indicate that the statement is a yes-or-no question. Remember: Latin did not have punctuation like English, so they did not have a punctuation mark. Instead, they had this handy little particle to indicate yes/no question. (There are some other particles and also words used to form questions in Latin; you will see some of those later  on.)

The word casus, "chance," is a noun from the verb cadit, "it falls." (This is one of those 4th-declension nouns that is formed from a verbal stem.) So, in Latin, "chance" is the way things fall. Like in dice! You can see Latin casus in English "case" and "occasion," and also "casual." 

These words are found in Vergil's Aeneid! And, of course, for mere mortals, it is very difficult to tell whether events are happening by chance or whether there is a god at work.



2. Erinaceus partum differt.
(The) hedgehog puts-off giving-birth.
eri-NA-ceus partum differt.

The word erinaceus, "hedgehog," is the subject of the verb differt, and the word partum, the accusative of the 4th-declension noun partus, is the object of the verb.

You've actually seen a variation of this saying before: Echinus partum differt, where echinus is another way to say "hedgehog" in Latin. Here's the explanation again: The idea is that the prickly hedgehog experiences pain when she gives birth to the prickly baby hedgehogs, so she puts it off! But this just makes things worse: the longer she puts off giving birth, the more prickly the baby hedgehogs will be. She needs to just give birth to those babies and call it done... just like you might have some unpleasant task you keep putting off, and it just gets worse the longer you wait. Don't be like the hedgehog: get it done now!


3. Mirabile dictu.
Amazing to-say.
mi-RA-bile dictu.

The word mirabile, "wonderful, amazing" is a neuter adjective, referring to something in general, something that is wonderful. You can see this Latin root in English "admirable." This Latin word is also the origin of English "marvel."
The word dictu is the ablative form of the verbal noun dictus, from the verb dicit, "says."

Compare the English saying "sad to say."

You can also say something is amazing to-see, mirabile visu, with a verbal noun from the verb videt, "sees."

Coincidentally, the phrase mirabile dictu also appears in Vergil's Aeneid.


4. Colubram foves in sinu.
You're-nourishing (a) snake in (your) breast.
CO-lubram foves in sinu.

You know all the words in this saying! And you've also seen a variation on this saying before: Serpentem in sinu foves. Instead of serpentem, accusative of serpens, you have colubram here, the accusative form of colubra, another word for snake, which is also the origins of English "cobra."

Compare the English saying, "to nourish a snake in your bosom."


5. Ex fructu proprio cognoscitur arbor.
From (its) own fruit, (the) tree is-known.
ex fructu PRO-prio cog-NOS-citur arbor.

The word fructu is the ablative of the 4th-declension noun fructus, with the preposition ex. The adjective proprio is the ablative form of the masculine adjective proprius, agreeing with fructu.

The verb cognoscitur is the passive form of the verb cognoscit.

This is a saying echoed in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Here is how it appears in Luke: Non est enim arbor bona, quae facit fructus malos: neque arbor mala, faciens fructum bonum, Unaquaeque enim arbor de fructu suo cognoscitur, "For there is no good tree which produces bad fruits, and there is nota  bad tree, making good fruit. For each tree is known by its fruit."


Here's a recap:

• Casusne? Deusne?
• Erinaceus partum differt.
• Mirabile dictu.
• Colubram foves in sinu.
• Ex fructu proprio cognoscitur arbor.

And here is today's audio:



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Week 81 Vocabulary Review

The review this week is... passive 3rd-person verbs. Remember those? The 1st conjugation has -atur, 2nd conjugation has -etur, and the 3rd conjugation has -itur (short i), and the 4th conjugation has -itur also, but with a long i: ītur, so the stress is on the ī. As usual, there's a quiz slideshow, a crossword, and a self-check quiz afterwards too. :-)

For each saying, you will try to supply the missing word. You can check yourself by looking at the cat slide that follows the slide with the missing word(s). 

You can also begin at the end and work backwards, giving yourself a different kind of quiz: seeing the slide without English and trying to supply the English, checking your answer on the next slide, reviewing with the cat slide, and then seeing if you can fill in the blank. 

Plus don't forget: on the slides that contain the English translation, the English is linked to the original blog post if you want some help in understanding the grammar of the saying.

I also made a printable crossword PDF as usual, and the same prompts for the crossword and slieshow are used in the quiz questions below. Enjoy!

______ aliquando ius, moritur numquam.
fill in the blank:

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dormit

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Maiorque videtur et melior ______ seges.
fill in the blank:

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vicina

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______ tuetur.
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deus

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______ nimium tensus frangitur.
fill in the blank:

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arcus

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Arguendo et disputando ______ invenitur.
fill in the blank:

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veritas

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______ aegre offertur, facile amittitur.
fill in the blank:

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Occasio

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Vultus Fortunae mutatur imagine ______.
fill in the blank:

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lunae

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Aquila non venatur ______.
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muscam

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Avis a ______ dignoscitur.
fill in the blank:

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cantu

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Fur male furatur, cum fur ______ dominatur.
fill in the blank:

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domui

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Nemo athleta sine ______ coronatur.
fill in the blank:

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sudore

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Esuriens stomachus fertur ______ optimus esse.
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coquus

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Vas ______ non frangitur.
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malum

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Ex ______ cognoscitur coquus.
fill in the blank:

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cultro

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______ triplex non rumpitur.
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funis

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A digito cognoscitur ______.
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leo

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Homo a suo ______ cognoscitur.
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socio

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Nemo cum ______ iocatur impune.
fill in the blank:

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diabolo

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Mons cum ______ non miscetur.
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monte

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Cattus saepe satur cum capto ______ iocatur.
fill in the blank:

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mure

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And here's a random cat:

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Latin Lesson #232: Spiritus sayings

The focus for today's lesson is the 4th-declension noun, spiritus. Remember: these 4th-declension nouns look like the familiar 2nd-declension nouns in the nominative, spiritus, and the accusative, spiritum. But in the other cases, they look different than 2nd-declension nouns. For example, the genitive form is spiritus! Yes, the nominative spiritus and genitive spiritus are spelled the same but, to the ancient Roman ear, they sounded different because the genitive -ūs ending has a long vowel: spīritūs. Since the words are written in the same way, that means you have to decide each time from context whether spiritus is nominative or genitive, as you will see in today's sayings. 

You will also see the ablative form of spiritus, which is spiritu.

And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Veni, creator spiritus!
Come, creator spirit!
veni, cre-A-tor SPI-ritus!

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the "you" that is the subject of the verb veni.

You have not seen the Latin word creator before, but this is a word we used in English too, "creator." You have also seen the Latin word for "creation," creatio.

These words are from one of the most famous hymns of the Middle Ages; you can see the rest of the lyrics at Wikipedia: Veni, creator spiritus!

2. Nutrimentum spiritus liber.
(A) book (is) nourishment of-the-spirit.
nutri-MEN-tum SPI-ritus liber.

The word spiritus here is in the genitive case, with the word nutrimentum: a book is the nutrimentum, "food," spiritus (spīritūs), "of the soul."

You haven't seen this noun, nutrimentum, before, but you have seen the verb it comes from: nutrit.

You can see these words at the entrance to the Alte Bibliothek (Old Library) of Berlin!

3. Spiritus promptus, caro vero infirma.
(The) spirit (is) ready; (the) flesh in-fact (is) weak.
SPI-ritus promptus, caro vero in-FIR-ma.

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the subject of the implied verb, est. The word caro is also in the nominative case, and each of these words has a predicative adjective.

The spirit is promptus, "ready, quick, brave," as opposed to the infirma, "un-strong, weak," flesh. The word spiritus is masculine, so promptus is masculine; the word caro is feminine, so infirma is feminine.

The words come from the Gospel of Mark.


4. Absens corpore sed praesens spiritu.
Absent in-body but present in-spirit.
absens COR-pore sed praesens SPI-ritu.

The point of this saying is the contrast between absens, "away+being," i.e. "absent," as opposed to praesens, "in-front+being," i.e. "present." The paradox is the idea that one could be absent in body, corpore, the ablative form of corpus, but at the same time present in spirit, spiritu, which is the ablative form of spiritus.

These words also come from the 1 Corinthians in the Bible.


5. Littera occidit; Spiritus autem vivificat.
(The) letter kills; (the) Spirit, however, gives-life.
LIT-tera oc-CI-dit; SPI-ritus autem vi-VI-ficat.

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the subject of the verb vivificat. You haven't seen this verb before, but you have seen the verb vivit and the verb facit. This new verb combines those two roots: "makes alive, gives life."

So, the spirit gives life, but the "letter," littera, takes life away: it "kills," occidit. 

These words, meanwhile, come from 2 Corinthians.


Here's a recap:

• Veni, creator spiritus!
• Nutrimentum spiritus liber.
• Spiritus promptus, caro vero infirma.
• Absens corpore sed praesens spiritu.
• Littera occidit; Spiritus autem vivificat.

And here is today's audio:



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Latin Lesson #231: More 4th-declension -us nouns

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with the -us nouns from the 4th declension. Most of them are masculine nouns, but there's another one here that is feminine, acus, "needle." You can add that to the other feminine 4th-declension nouns you've seen already: domus, "house," manus, "hand," and quercus, "oak."

And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Abusus non tollit usum.
Abuse doesn't cancel use.
a-BU-non tollit usum.

There are two fourth declension nouns here: usus, "use," and also abusus, "abuse, misuse." The word usum is the accusative form of usus, the object of the verb, and abusus is the subject.

The idea here is that even if something can be abused, that doesn't mean it cannot be useful too!


2. Sapientia est filia usus et memoriae.
Wisdom is (the) daughter of-experience and or-memory.
sapi-EN-tia est FI-lia usus et me-MO-riae.

You already know all the words in this saying!

The word usus (ūsūs) is the genitive form of the word usus (ūsus). The fact that the nominative and genitive forms of these nouns look the same is one of the tricky things about the 4th declension. 

You get a clue that usus is genitive because the word memoriae is the genitive form of memoria.

Because sapientia is a feminine noun, that is why it is the filia, daughter, of experience and memory.

Notice that usus has a wide range of translations into English. As often, because Latin has a much smaller vocabulary than English, a single Latin word often covers a wide range of meanings in English, and you have to select the best English meaning based on the context.


3. Ferreus assiduo consumitur anulus usu.
(An) iron ring is-worn-away by-regular use.
FER-reus as-SI-duo con-SU-mitur A-nulus usu.

The word anulus, "(little) ring," is a diminutive of the word anus, "ring," and yes, this is the source of the English word "anus."

The adjective ferrus agrees with anulus; you haven't seen this adjective before, but you have seen the noun that it comes from: ferrum, "iron."

The word usu is the ablative form of the noun usus, which is used with the passive verb: consumitur usu, "worn away with use." 

The adjective assiduo is also in the ablative case, agreeing with usu. You haven't seen this masculine adjective before, but you have seen the feminine form: assidua.

This saying comes from a poem by the Roman poet Ovid, Ars Amatoria, which explains the very intricate word order with the subject noun phrase, ferreus...anulus, being interwoven with the ablative phrase, assiduo usu, both phrases being wrapped around the verb!


4. Canis revertitur ad vomitum.
(A) dog returns to (its) vomit.
canis re-VER-titur ad VO-mitum.

The word vomitus is a 4th-declension noun, and vomitum is the accusative form, with the preposition ad. And yes, this is the source of the English word "vomit."

The verb revertitur, "returns," is one of those verbs with a passive form that is active in meaning in English. Specifically, it is the intransitive form of the verb: the dog "returns" (i.e. goes back).

Truth be told, cats do this too! But the Bible doesn't have sayings about cats; the Egyptians were the people who kept cats, and the practice of keeping cats eventually spread throughout the Mediterranean, but that took time.

This is a saying from the Biblical book of Proverbs; the full verse goes like this:  Sicut canis qui revertitur ad vomitum suum, sic imprudens qui iterat stultitiam suam, "As the dog who returns to its vomit, so the is the reckless man who repeats his foolishness." 


5. Facilius est camelum per foramen acus intrare.
(It) is easier (for a) camel to go-through the hole of-a-needle.
fa-CI-lius est ca-ME-lum per fo-RA-men acus in-TRA-re.

This is another famous verse from the Bible; it appears in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and it even appears in the Koran. You can find out more at Wikipedia.

The word intrare is from the verb intrat, "enters."

The word acus (acūs) is the genitive form of the noun acus, a feminine 4th-declension noun.

The word foramen, "hole," is a neuter noun in the accusative case with the preposition per. You can see this Latin root in the English word "perforate."

Here's a recap:

• Abusus non tollit usum.
• Sapientia est filia usus et memoriae.
• Ferreus assiduo consumitur anulus usu.
• Canis revertitur ad vomitum.
• Facilius est camelum per foramen acus intrare.

And here is today's audio:



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Week 80 Catch-Up Day

Here is the new catch-up day post for the past two weeks of sayings. As usual, there is a cat-show of those sayings, plus a link to the downloadable crossword and the self-quiz. Plus, in case you missed it: A New Beginner's Latin: THE AENEID.

• #227: You want - vis.
• #228: More sayings with vis
• #229: The 4th Declension
• #230: More 4th Declension

So, let's start with the slideshow with all the sayings. 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, and the same prompts for the crossword are used in the quiz questions below. Enjoy!

Si vis scire, ______.
fill in the blank:

reveal/hide answer

doce

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Morsus ______ ducit.
fill in the blank:

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morsum

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______ bene dum vivis, post mortem vivere si vis.
fill in the blank:

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fac

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Si vis regnare, ______.
fill in the blank:

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divide

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Si vis pacem, ______ iustitiam.
fill in the blank:

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cole

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Si vis pacem, ______ bellum.
fill in the blank:

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para

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Audire vis bene? ______ male dicere.
fill in the blank:

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abstine

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Avis a ______ dignoscitur.
fill in the blank:

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cantu

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______ aliquid, si vis aliquid esse.
fill in the blank:

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aude

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______, si vis accipere.
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da

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______ vas totum, si vis cognoscere potum.
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ebibe

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______, vide, tace, si vis vivere in pace.
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audi

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Calumniae ______ nullum remedium.
fill in the blank:

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morsui

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Non uno ______ cadit quercus.
fill in the blank:

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ictu

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Vita hominis ______ est ad mortem.
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cursus

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Abluit manus ______.
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manum

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Mente ______ praesto.
fill in the blank:

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manuque

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______ Fortunae mutatur imagine lunae.
fill in the blank:

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vultus

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Non ______ hoc corpus sed hospitium breve.
fill in the blank:

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domus

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Fur male furatur, cum fur ______ dominatur.
fill in the blank:

reveal/hide answer

domui

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And here's a random cat:

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