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- Topic: Latin >
- "Duae sorores sunt Romae."
15 Comments
Is there a grammatical difference between saying "The two sisters" vs "Two sisters" ? Would either one work?
Given the lack of greater context, either ought to be equally valid.
Semantically in English, though, they mean slightly different things. "The two sisters" is referring back to two specific sisters we already mentioned. "Two sisters" is any two arbitrary sisters.
Thanks, that's what I was trying to get at. Is there a way to make that semantic difference in Latin or would you use this sentence in both contexts and it would be implied?
You would probably use a demonstrative that more strictly translates as "these" or "those". If I understand things correctly, that is where the definite articles in the Romance languages came from.
Frater meus est romanus. Fratres mei sunt romani.
Soror mea est romana. Sorores meae sunt romanae.
No, "are Roman" is not possible, here.
Romae is only the locative (also a genitive and a dative, but not in this sentence), and Romanae only the plural feminine adjective.
Given that the nominative plural of Roma looks just like the locative, that would have to be an accepted answer. If it isn't, flag it and report it.
All right, that's a fair point. I was confusing the noun form with the adjective form.
The audio is terrible on this one. I was hearing Youai and not Duae and I replayed atleast 10 times, I hope they fixe this, otherwise, excelent course!
You need to flag the lesson before you continue and report a problem with the audio. Just saying "I hope they fix this" in the learners' forum won't get the message to the right place.
I hear a 't' not 'd'. Strangely enough, my phonetic "Tuae sorores sunt Romae" is accepted. It probably shouldn't be. I reported it.
I don't know if the course contributors can do anything about that. It sounds like the correction algorithm was being a bit lenient. It does allow for one wrong letter per word to slide by as a typo, although it is supposed to mark it wrong if that makes a bad translation. In reality, the algorithm is inconsistent when it marks that wrong and when it accepts it as a typo.
