Text
(Cornelia waits in front of the Marcellus theatre for Marcus.
Suddenly her friends Tullia and Aemilia appear...)
T: Cur hic sedes, Cornelia? Num Marcum exspectas?
C: Non erras, amica. Marcum exspecto, sed iam timeo, quod cessat.
(Tullia et Aemilia rident)
C: Cur ridetis, amicae? Cur vos tam laetae estis?
A: Ridemus, quod tam stulta es, quod hic sedes et amicum exspectas.
T: Nos numquam amicos exspectamus, nos non tam stultae sumus.
Amici nos exspectant.
C: Libenter Marcum exspecto, quod amicus fidus et bonus est.
A: Amici fidi et boni rari sunt. Fortasse Marcus iam aliam amicam amat;
nam non solum ludi clari et forum antiquum et theatra Marcum invitant,
sed etiam formosae puellae! (Cornelia tacet)
T: Cur taces, Cornelia? Num erro?
C: Certe erras, pessima, nam ibi Marcus stat, me exspectat!
Oh, quam laeta sum! - Hic sum, Marce, hic te exspecto!
---------------------------
Reading vocabulary you needn't learn:
cessat: he/she/it has people wait
formosae: pretty, beautiful
pessima: "you snake" (pessimus: the worst)
Vocabulary
| errat | he/she/it errs, is wrong | err |
| timet | he/she/it is afraid | timid |
| alius, alia, aliud | a different one |
alias
|
| antiquus, -a, -um | old, venerable |
antique
|
| clarus, -a, -um | light, clear, famous |
clarity; D: klar
|
| laetus, -a, -um | happy | |
| rarus, -a, -um | rare, isolated | rare |
| nos | we; us (Accusative) | F: nous, I: noi |
| vos | you (Plural); you (Plural Accusative) | F: vous, I: voi |
| num? | by chance? Hopefully not? (question particle that suggests the answer "No") | |
| numquam | never | |
| tam (with adjectives and adverbs) | so, to such degree, in such manner |
tantamount; F: tant
|
| quam (with adjectives and adverbs) | how |
Practise the vocabulary of this lesson by matching it.
Grammar
You can find a lot of new verb forms in this lesson's text, because this is a conversation
and during conversations, you address people directly, using the 2nd person singular or
plural ("you"). You also talk about yourself, using the 1st person singular ("I"), or your
group, using the 1st person plural ("we"). Just like most European languages, Latin
requires a different verb form for each of these persons. In order to build the correct form
for a different person, you do just like you did for the 3rd person plural: You take the
word stem as basis (that means you substract the person ending that is already on the
verb, usually -t) and add the person ending for the person you want. Here's a table with
all person endings that can be found in the text, including the ones you know already:
Person |
Ending |
Examples |
| 1st person singular ("I") | -o | sedeo, exspecto (if the last letter of the word stem is an a, the ending isn't -ao but -o, likely for sound reasons) |
| 2nd person singular ("You" / "Thou") | -s | sedes, exspectas |
| 3rd person singular ("He/she/it") | -t | sedet, exspectat |
| 1st person plural ("We") | -mus | sedemus, exspectamus |
| 2nd person plural ("You") | -tis | sedetis, exspectatis |
| 3rd person plural ("They") | -nt | sedent, exspectant |
This is one of the most basic schemes in Latin and it's complete now, so try to memorise it. It explains the forms sedes, exspectas, erras, exspecto, timeo, cessat, rident, ridetis, etc... ...but not "estis" and "es" in lines 5/6, and also not "sumus" (line 8) and "sum" (line 16). These are the forms of the irregular verb "to be", of which we already learned "est" and "sunt". By the endings, you can probably guess how the conjugation of "to be" goes: sum - I am; es - you are (singular); est - he/she/it is; sumus - we are; estis - you are (plural); sunt - they are; You now know everything there is to know about the verbs in -are and -ere in the present tense. You might want to print this card, which shows you all the present tense endings at once (and even those of the Consonantic Conjugation, and some irregular verbs which will be introduced later). With this card, you can revise the conjugations everywhere you go. One more explanation for today: there's the concept of a Vocative case, which should be used when addressing somebody, as in "Where are you, Marcus?". This concept was already obsolete in Roman times, so nearly all Vocative forms are exactly the same as the Nominative ones, with one exception: words ending in -us transform it to -e. So the translation of this question should be "Ubi es, Marce?". You can notice this change in the last line of this lesson's text, so no, Cornelia doesn't have another boyfriend, by the name of Marce. Now would be a good time to review translation technique, taking into account the new grammar you have learned since lesson 4. Exercise Transform the verbs according to the instructions. Example: rogo: into 2nd person (rogas) -> into plural (rogatis) -> into 3rd person (rogant) -> into singular (rogat) -> into 1st person (rogo). 1. timeo: into 3rd person -> into plural -> into 1st person -> into 2nd person -> into singular -> into 1st person. 2. sum: into 2nd person -> into plural -> into 1st person -> into 3rd person -> into singular -> into 1st person
Information: Marcellus theatre
Exercise answers: 1. timeo: timet -> timent -> timemus -> timetis -> times -> timeo 2. sum: es -> estis -> sumus -> sunt -> est -> sum