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- "Their father is aged."
"Their father is aged."
Translation:Pater eorum est senilis.
21 Comments
Why not Pater eorum senilis est? I feel like there is no continuum with the word order.
People, please, be patient, any word orders is okay, and you have to report when a possible answers is not accepted, but *not here, as it's useless, but this the reporting tool, the button.
It's the only way to have your possible answers added.
Complaining here, can make people agree with you, but is basically useless. (as it does nothing).
And once you did that, we have to wait, as it takes time (several weeks sometimes).
But sometimes, as new to the language, we do not want to " complaine" we just really don't know and ask questions. As I have read many of your excellent and detailed explanations I admire your work. I understand it must be tiredsome if we ask the same questions that moderators have answered a dosen times before...Sometimes, maybe, you do not have to give answers, but let other users with knowledge help to carry the burden...Hang in there! We appriciate!
I believe Perci is trying to say that, if in doubt report it, and the Duolingo Latin team will decide if it works accordingly.
I answered like that too and flagged that my answer should be correct. It is still in beta and there's bound to be errors.
416
I'm having trouble sorting out the numbers or declension that make "pater eorum" the right answer, and "pater eius" is wrong. Help?
I mean, I know it's plural "their" so that seems to go with a plural "eorum", but "pater" is singular so I wanted to use "eius" singular. But I'm really confused about third person possessives in general.
Here: http://www.dicolatin.com/FR/LAK/0/EORUM/index.htm
Eorum = plural genitive. (so it makes it "their"), for a masculine, mixed, or neutral owner.
Earum is the feminitive form, "their" for a feminine owner.
Eius (ejus) means his, her, its, as it's the singular gentive for the 3 genders.
The possessive case will be inflected by the owner, and not by the property. "Pater" may be singular masculine, but the owners are in plural masculine, so the possessive will inflect for plural masculine.
- 416
Doesn’t that mean “their father is an old man”? But “their father is aged” wants an adjective (senilis), not a noun (senex).
"Senex" is also an adjective. In fact, "senior" (= "older") is the comparative form of "senex".
Senilem is accusative. Adjectives agree with the noubs they modify in gender (masculine, feminine or neuter) number (singular or plural) and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative and locative). Since pater is nominative (i.e. the subject of est), the adjective has to be nominative as well (i.e. senilis, not senilem).
Why include the 'est'? How would we say the same thing without the 'est'? Would that require a different ending to the adjective?
The sentence doesn't work without a verb. Otherwise you would get "their father old," which doesn't work. Consider that senilis/aged in this case is an adjective only, even though aged in English can be an adjective or a verb.
- 302
Can anyone explain why the genetive is used here instead of the nominative? I've seen other possesives like 'pater meus' where the nominative is used.
I'm not English, so I'll probably do some (or many) mistakes.
Because the possessive adjective "suus" is only used to refer to the subject of the sentence (you can also translate suus as his/her own..), and "eius" (or eorum/earum) is used to refer to anyone or anything that is not the subject. E.g. Maritus amat uxorem suam ( the husband loves his own wife). Aemilia nummos numerat, et Marcus eam videt. Marcus videt nummos eius (in the last sentence Marcus is the subject, but the coins are of Aemilia, so we use "eius" . ) (The translation is: Aemilia counts the coins, and Marcus sees her. Marcus sees her coins.
depending on the context, "eorum" isn't necessarily required here, so i encourage others to report "pater est senilis" as an answer that should be accepted
