"Ego a California venio."

Translation: I come from California.

[Carol252291]

Please change these towns / cities to roman towns and cities

[SeaverC]

I agree 100%. No Roman would know what Novum Eboracum or California were, much less what continent they were on! They are artificial Latin constructs that can easily be substituted for the real thing.

[PolyglotyrixRex]

You obviously haven't heard of the Roman state of Californium, have you? It was lost at around the same time Pompeii was devastated by a pyroclastic flow.

[Theo639847]

Indeed, it helps us to feel more at home in the classic environment.

[henricasb]

California puellae

[JaJsemAdam]

I'd say "Californiae puellae" (making "California" genitive - lit. "girls of California").

[Athalawulfaz]

Puellae Californienses.

[1e7nx0WG]

At least two pronunciation errors, I think:

The a on the end of California should be long, since it is the ablative case.
The e in venio should be short in the present tense.

I've reported this as "The audio does not sound correct."

[EricRied]

Ok, so why can't I say "California venio"? Shouldn't there be enough meaning in "Venio" to chop off Ego and A? Or just Ego?

[justprettygay]

You definitely can leave out the ego! and you would naturally do so, in latin you only every use personal pronouns when you want want to really stress the subject.
"A" is still needed, though - it literally translates to "from". Venire in itself only means "to come", so ommiting it would make as much sense as the English "I come California"!

[marcdaniel16]

Whats the difference between A and Ab?

[-Copernicus-]

They mean the same, but "a" is used if the next word starts with a consonant, and "ab" if it starts with a vowel. (Similar to "a/an" distinction in English.)

[Theo639847]

Use Ab when the next word starts with a vowel.

[Theo639847]

It is ablativus and then you have to put in this case a before it.

[Phaidon012]

I feel uncomfortable with the male voice. It changes the way words sound in regards to the female one. Words get chopped into syllables and the ones that sound like "venio" get turned into "wen- e (as in elephant) - o". Are both pronunciations acceptable? Thanks in advance.

[Talos_the_Cat]

I'd say the male one needs to re-record almost everything. The female one isn't perfect either but it's much more consistent, so advising that you follow that one. A word of caution about the pronunciation errors in the recordings... the words that we would think of as having h-digraphs (th, ch, ph) are sometimes pronounced incorrectly.
⟨th⟩ is [tʰ] not [θ]
⟨ch⟩ is [kʰ] not anythinɡ else
⟨ph⟩ is [pʰ] not [f]

[jjbaroff]

Does "come from" have only a directional meaning, e.g. 'I am driving from California'? Does "come from" fill the same role as in English, where one can say "I live in Texas but I come from New York" meaning that I grew up there?

[Martin358481]

I suspect only the directional meaning.

[STRADS1551]

If "ego" is left out (which I think is acceptable), is the sentence starting with "A" in "A California venio" acceptable?

[-Copernicus-]

Yes, that's fine. Actually, "ego" would typically be left out, unless the speaker wanted to put special emphasis on it.

[STRADS1551]

Thanks for claifying

[Timo22160]

Why is it sometimes 'a' and sometimes 'ab'

[Talos_the_Cat]

'ab' before vowels. Some speakers also don't pronounce initial 'h' and would treat it as a vowel (but that shouldn't be a piece of concern for this course).

[kai247906]

Strange pronounciation

[Talos_the_Cat]

Here, it should be:
Egō ā Californiā veniō
[ˈɛ.ɡɔ(ː) aː ka.liˈfɔr.ni.aː ˈwɛ.ni.ɔː]
(can also be [ka.liˈfɔr.njaː] based on preference/talking speed)