"Ille psittacus suaviter cantare potest."
Translation:That parrot can sing sweetly.
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This is a humorous sentence, because in Classical Latin, when «ille» is placed either before or after a name, it can mean “the illustrious” or “the famous”, like «Alexander ille» or «ille Alexander». Cf. Cicero, Pro Archia, 24: «Quam multos scriptores rerum suarum magnus ille Alexander secum habuisse dicitur!». [It is said that the great Alexander had with him many writers of his deeds]. Of course in this sentence «ille» means "that", but I suppose the parrot has reached new heights with his status that we could now refer to him as «ille psittacus (ebrius)»!
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iste could be used as a pejorative.
iste psittacus could be translated as "That no good parrot!" I think.
785
Question about english sentence: since "that parrot" is third person singular, why there is no a "-s" suffix in this sentence?
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The verb 'can' does not take an 's' in the third person singular. Modal verbs tend not to take the 's' in the third person. "That parrot can sing", "that parrot may sing", "that parrot must sing", etc.