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- Topic: Latin >
- "Is est Marcus."
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Literally, yes, since these are technically demonstratives being used as pronouns, but that's not the most appropriate translation given the context.
I heard here on the forum of "weak" demonstrative. The way I understand that, is that they are only considered as demonstrative when it's impossible for them to be personal pronouns.
In other terms, each time they can be personal pronouns, they are.
If they are next to a noun, they are naturally more susceptible to be pronouns, (forming a couple demonstrative-noun)
Here they are next to a verb, and no nouns.
It's the way I understood that, I expect more info from a more advanced user than me.
That's actually really helpful. I was wondering if it could translate to "This is Marcus" as in an English introduction. I presume such an introduction would use the same wording in Latin with the situation to give context?
917
Often courses that use recorded audio instead of computer generated audio don't have a slowed down version. I am not sure why but I am sure a contributor may know.
I'm not a contributor, but with computer-generated audio, you just need to tweak a setting and you can have a file of any speed. With human-recorded audio, this doubles the number of recordings they need to make and significantly slows down production time.
I'm pretty sure you also can have a file at any speed with human-generated audio, with an algorithm. The only thing is that they didn't planned it. I noticed a lot of "slow down" button, and stuff disappears when they revamped the site, complaining that it was too heavy on their servers.
Yes, it's totally acceptable to use either "is" or "ille", to mean "he".
Proof here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/33937280/Ille-est-benignus
"Is" is the personal pronoun: In reality, there is no real personal pronoun to mean the 3rd person in Latin, there is only demonstrative weaker than the others, and "is" is the weakest, so the closer from a modern "he".
So, in Latin, the demonstrative "ille" (masculine "that") can be also used as a personal pronoun (here it's masculine, so it's "he"). It's weird for us, but it's the way it is, and we have only to learn it, and apply it, without trying to understand too much. I think the "he" meaning for the masculine "that" is a bit like saying "the latter is..." which is, in my opinion, the historical etymology of the personal pronoun, how they entered the Human language.
As I said, "is" is closer from a personal pronoun than "ille" (but "ille" is still right), and it brings different connotations.
But don't ask me what is the subtile difference in the meaning between "is" and "ille" when they mean "he", at my little level, I just use them to mean "he", but maybe a very advanced user could explain it.
A sentence like "The latter is big but the former is small" can be translated as "Hic est grandis sed ille est parvus". There are (many) other ways, such as "Alter est grandis sed prior est parvus".
Is means this or that masculine person or thing; iste means that masculine person or thing near you, or perhaps which you have just mentioned; ille means that masculine person or thing over there. Iste is sometimes used disparagingly. Hic means this masculine person or thing. Hic, haec, hoc are masculine, feminine and neuter respectively. Same goes for is, ea, id, and iste, ista, istud, and ille, illa, illud.
Yes, Latin is generally SOV, but when it's the copula "esse" it's frequently SVC. "Is est Marcus" or "Est Marcus".
It doesn't matter, provided that the context makes the meaning clear.
Is, ea and id are masculine, feminine and neuter respectively. In the accusative they become eum, eam, id.
