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- "Hello, Marcus and Livia."
"Hello, Marcus and Livia."
Translation:Salvete, Marce et Livia.
112 Comments
917
Marcus is second declension (-us) and Livia is first declension and here they are in the vocative singular form. Second declension (-us) nouns take -e ending for the vocative case, while first declension uses the -a which matches the nominative case. If I remember correctly, only the second declension (-us) nouns take a vocative form that is different than the nominative.
680
Because Marcus ends in -us in the nominative, and in -i in the genitive, and Livia ends in -a in the nominative, and in -æ in the genitive.
In an "inflected" language ( = where the ENDING of a word conveys meaning), you can't really learn vocabulary without simultaneously learning the grammar.
I guess they've shown you 3 different forms of the name "Marcus" by now:
Marcus = HE, Marcus (as subject of a verb, when he IS or DOES something), the nominative
Marcum = HIM, Marcus (as direct object of a verb, "we see Marcus", or as object of certain prepositions, "we run towards Marcus"), the accusative
Marce = Hey, YOU (Marcus!), the vocative, only used when addressing him directly.
917
Do you have access to the notes? Declensions are mentioned in the notes for the first lesson as far as I can tell.
You can find them all here if you want to read through them: https://duome.eu/tips/en/la
917
Salvete is the plural form and you are addressing two people, Marcus and Livia. You would use salve when addressing one person.
917
When directly addressing someone or something we make use of the vocative case. This is done here since we are saying 'hello' directly to Marcus and Livia. The reason Marcus changes to Marce is because it is second declension and the nominative singular ends in -us. With these types of nouns the vocative singular ending is -e.
680
Yes; Latin is a declinable language; the name of a person (that is a noun) can change according to the case.
Declension of Marcus (second declension, masculine):
Case | Name |
---|---|
Nominative | Marcus |
Genitive | Marci |
Dative | Marco |
Accusative | Marcum |
Ablative | Marco |
Vocative | Marce |
Hehe... in a way, sure, it can be OH. MY. GOD., but then again, I'd say don't worry about it, so you'll get some people's names wrong here and there for a bit, or for a while maybe, but... as you keep at these lessons, and as Latin becomes more and more easy and instinctive to you, the mind is now freed to focus, or even subconsciously deal with all of this declensions thing-a-ma-jiggy, and will eventually piece it all together, and maybe even faster than you would have guessed if later on you read up a bit about declensions.
Exposure and/or immersion is the key... time, basically.
No fret :-)
917
The order doesn't really matter. The order given above (the order I am most used to) and the order you gave both seem to be fairly common.
Notice that it's not only -us NOUNS (of the 2nd decl; there are also -us nouns of the 4th decl., and some -us neuters of the 3rd decl., to which this rule does not apply) that switch the ending to -e in the vocative case; but also the -us adjectives. Salvē, Rōmāne! (Hello, Roman male person!) Minimē, sceleste! (No way, you wretch!--from scelestus, a, um, adj., wicked, evil).
For whatever reason, the noun deus (god) keeps that form (deus) in the vocative. (Probably for euphony.)
It must be mentioned that there are -ius nouns of the 2nd declension, like the family name Iūlius; in the vocative, -ius is replaced by -ī: Ō Iūlī , "O Julius".
692
Do all names declinate to a vocative even if they are post Roman, foreign or current names? I guess Livia is also in vocative even though it doesn't change its form from the nominative one.
Can you provide a link to more info on Latin names?
680
Yes, Livia is vocative too, because it is a feminine noun of the first declension:
Case | Noun |
---|---|
Nominative | Livia |
Genitive | Liviæ |
Dative | Liviæ |
Accusative | Liviam |
Ablative | Liviā |
Vocative | Livia |
An easy link to the Latin declension:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_declension
The first declension is explained in the section First declension (a stems).
However, I recommend you read a decent Latin grammar if you want go deeper.
Marcus is the subject-form of the name, when Marcus IS something (Marcus est fessus, "Marcus is tired") or DOES something (Marcus ad forum it, "Marcus goes to the forum"). Marce is the direct-address form of the name, when someone talks to Marcus directly: "Hey, Marcus, where are you going? What are you doing? Where is Livia?", etc. We have nothing like it (changing the name, for direct address) in English, but you can think of it as the "Hey, YOU!" form of his name.
I had this same issue! When I entered "Salve, Marcus et Livia," it corrected me with "Salvete, Marce et Livia." Obviously I used the wrong form of Marcus there. However, when I entered what it had told me was the correct sentence, it considered it wrong and corrected me with "Avete, Marce et Livia," which was considered incorrect when I answered with that thereafter. Finally, it decided to accept "Salvete, Marce et Livia."
Is there a linguistic reason for this debacle that I am simply not understanding, or should this be reported as a bug?
680
That is because there are two persons, Marcus and Livia. Salve and ave are only for one person; they are singular imperatives; instead, salvete and avete are plural imperatives.
659
Inserting a completely different correct word is something Duolingo does in some languages when we make a mistake and it wants to show us the/a correct answer. Why this is done, or happens, who knows?
Salvē! means "Be well!" or "Greetings!" addressed to one person; when you're talking to more than one, you add the plural ending -te: Salvēte!
(Formally, these words are commands or imperatives. In Latin, they are always distinguishable by singular vs. plural endings.
"Go away, Marcus!" would be, "Abī, Marce!"; whereas "Go away, Marcus and Livia!" would be "Abīte, Marce et Līvia!"
Or, to think of some verbs we've learned in Duolingo: "Wash me!" (sing) = Mē lavā! "Wash me!" (plur) = Mē lavāte!
644
I typed Marcus for Marcus and it said i shpuld have typed Marce?? The sentence itself says Marcus
Is Marcus "HE" in the sentence? Use Marcus (= nominative case, for subject of the verb. "Marcus sees the drunk parrot": Marcus psittacum ēbrium videt .)
Is Marcus "YOU" in the sentence? Use Marce ( = vocative case, for the person directly addressed. "Where are you coming from, Marcus?" Unde, Marce, venīs?)
We don't have ending-changing vocatives in English, but we certainly can understand when Marcus is being spoken to , and called (in effect) "you," and so we'll use Marce in Latin under those circumstances.
917
Salvete is the plural form and you are addressing two people, Marcus and Livia. You would use salve when addressing one person.
If you scroll around on this page, I think you'll find several attempts to answer this question.
Here goes another: The Romans had a form of each noun (and a name is also a noun!) used for "direct address," or talking directly to a person. I call it the "Hey, YOU!" form, in my Latin classes.
So, there's a noun (TEACHER) that, in Latin, has different forms: nominative (magister), when the teacher does something (SUBJECT of verb: The teacher explains everything badly .); accusative (magistrum), when someone affects the teacher (DIRECT OBJECT of verb: They blame the teacher .); genitive (magistrī), when the teacher possesses something (It's the job of the teacher to explain things well .); and so forth. One such use of "teacher" is to speak to him ("direct address"): _ Hey, teacher ! I need help! . This use is called the VOCATIVE form of the noun. For this noun, magister, the vocative is identical to the nominative. For most nouns in Latin, the vocative and nominative are identical in appearance (obviously different in use). This explains why the name _Livia doesn't change, between nominative and vocative. All plural nouns are identical in nominative and vocative, too. The ONLY nouns that change, between nominative and vocative, are: 2nd declension nouns that end in -us, like Marcus: vocative Marce; 2nd dec. nouns that end in -ius, like Iūlius: vocative Iūlī.
(Most Latin methods try to introduce the extremely common change of nomin. in -us to vocative in -e very early on; that's why Duo has the sentences with vocative Marce.)
917
We have to use the form Marce since we are directly addressing Marcus (and Livia). This is called the vocative case which is normally the same as nominative, as seen with Livia.
917
Marcus is the nominative case and is used when Marcus is doing an action (he is the subject of the sentence).
Marce is the vocative case and is used when Marcus is being directly addressed by the speaker (like "Hey Marcus!").
343
Marcus, Stephanus, Brutus, all transformed to an -e ending. Are there only male names that are affected this way, or are there any -us female names? -us is only a male name ending, is that correct?
Personal names that end in -us (or -ius) are all masculine, yes.
There are also masculine names that don't end in -us or -ius. Kaesō is an unusual masculine personal (given) name, or praenōmen . Many of the surnames (cognōmina) are either 1st declension (like Seneca or Cinna) or 3rd declension (Cicerō , Caesar , Mūs ).
331
I understand what you say about salvage
I understand what you say about salvete being plural but I don't understand about Marcus
917
Are you asking why it becomes Marce?
This is because we have to use the vocative case when we are directly taking to someone. The vocative case is usually just the nominative except for second declension nouns that have a -us ending in the nominative (like Marcus). These get the ending -e in the vocative.
quick pronounciation question : if my name was, for example, Selviara (i couldn't think of a good name so i made one up) and my original language was english and all that stuff, would it still be pronounced with the "W" sound in latin even though that would literally be an incorrect pronunciation of "my name"? or would it be pronounced with the v sound like it's supposed to be even though it's being spoken in latin?
246
What is declension ? I have never before come across such a word! Why marcus is not accepted. How to go forward without answering this question ?
Declension means "set of nouns following the same pattern of endings."
For example, there is a set of nouns (a declension) like puella , where the singular subject-form (or "nominative") ends in -a, the plural subject-form (for "they, the girls") would end in -ae (puellae), the singular direct-object form (or "accusative") ends in -am.
Another declension is the type of noun like Marcus : nominative singular ends in -us, nominative plural ends in -ī, accusative singular ends in -um, and so forth.
There are a total of five declensions for nouns, and three for adjectives, in Latin.
917
Singular vs plural form. If that was what you meant, this has been asked.
salve is used when greeting one person Salve, Marce!
salvete when greeting more than one person, as seen here.
917
The 'hello' is directed at two people so we have to use the plural form salvete. Salve can only be used when saying hello to one person.