In Latin, there are different cases of nouns, so that 'boy' could be puer, pueri, puero, or puerum depending on its use in the sentence. 'Boys' could be pueri, puerorum, pueris, or pueros. This can be a bit confusing to learn, but once you have a firm grasp on it, grammar becomes easier. For example, in Latin the noun that receives the direct object is written in the dative case. In English, the recipient of the direct object is sometimes the indirect object, but at other times it is the object of a preposition.
In both of the following sentences, 'boy' receives the direct object 'homework'. In Latin it is in the dative case in both sentences; in English it's the indirect object in sentence one and an OP in sentence two.
1. The mean teacher gave the boy homework.
2. The mean teacher gave homework to the boy.
As you can see from the following clip from The Life of Brian, this made things difficult for the graffiti writers in ancient Rome.
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3 comments:
That was interesting and cool. I dont even now what im supposed to say, but i am ready for the english test. Since u tald us not to post too much stuff on the web im leaving you with this.
clemson is awesome
do you know who i am???
Man, poor fellow writing ALL of that ALL night would be horrible but i dont understand why thoes guards chased him off at the end.
He just did that for some other guards' so why was he chased?
Ohhhhh now i get it he wrote the same thing as the first time
Christopher Gould
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