"Vinum professorem sanum facit."

Translation: Wine makes the professor healthy.

[NeonMoogle]

I know a few professors that would probably claim that was true. :)

[SeanMeaneyPL]

That is my argument, m'lud, and I'm sticking to it.

[teacon7]

I can confirm this to be an accurate statement. :)

[ShanePatri14]

Another translation could be: "He makes the healthy professor into wine."

Sort of a strange concept, but, still a valid translation.

[Queen-Rina]

Better to make a healthy professor into wine than a sick one...

[CrowCuss]

Wouldn't vinum need a preposition of some sort to create that sentence though?

[HinjakuHinjaku]

I wrote "The healthy professor is making wine".
I am unable to understand how the endings change the meaning.
Can anyone explain how the Latin sentence works ?

[ShanePatri14]

So, in Latin, there are 5 main cases* (and a couple more rare ones). They are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative. Nominative is used mostly for subject and predicate nominative. Genitive is used to show possession. Dative, usually translated with "to/for", is used for indirect object and some other things. Accusative is used mainly for direct object and object of a preposition. Ablative is kind of a catch all case that can do a lot of things.

For more information, look here: http://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/case-endings-five-declensions

In this sentence, the healthy professor is in the accusative, so he must be the direct object. Vinum can be nominative or accusative, but because professor is already the direct object, Vinum is probably the subject.

[HinjakuHinjaku]

Thanks for explaining.
So, in this sentence are both professorem and sanum in accusative or only one of them is ?

[ShanePatri14]

They both are; sanum is modifying professorem and so has to agree with it in case and number.

[jaiirapetjan]

Thank you so much. And what are the "five declensions" mentioned in your reference (dickinson)?

[-Copernicus-]

A declension is just a conjugation pattern. "First declension" nouns are the ones that end in "-a" ("femina," "sella") and conjugate based on that first chart. "Second declension" nouns (usually) end in "-us" or "-um" or "-er" ("vinum," "lupus," "magister") and follow that second chart. And so on.

[MaryAnn899704]

Nouns (as well as adjectives and pronouns) are declined; verbs are conjugated.

[Isaac3972]

This statement is true.

[EdwardVanc1]

Sounds like my Latin professor.

[VLADIMIRSO720310]

One of the few normal examples in this course.

[DuolityOfMan]

Back in the day, water was full of bacteria, so wine actually was healthier.

[Cornil1]

Why is "vinum" in the accusative case here ?
It definitely should be a nominative according to me.

[ShanePatri14]

It is nominative. It is neuter, and so the nominative and accusative cases look the same. So, you, the translator, must discern based on the context what case it is.

[jaiirapetjan]

It just seemed to me that the nominative would be "vinus." I looked it up and apparently it is an alternate form...

[-Copernicus-]

Some second declension nouns are neuter and end in "-um" instead of "-us" in the nominative. Other examples are "templum" and "donum," which don't have that alternate form.

(These words will also end in "-a" in the nominative and accusative plural ("templa"), but otherwise the conjugation is the same.)

[Richi946080]

This is somewhat strange. I would translate this as "Wine makes the healthy professor" which has little sense.
The English sentence really means that wine makes the professor become, or stay, healthy

[Andrew48]

The Latin has the same meaning. It is just that the word order is different, which makes it seem like the natural English pronunciation is less accurate, but that is not the case.