2.10 Agreement: Gender, Number, Case — Epoché
What you will be able to do Attach an adjective to its noun when several words stand between them. Use gender, number and case together as three independent clues. Read magnā vī and see that both words are in the same case. Recognise the one construction where an English reader is most likely to lose the thread. Read sentences like Domus illa mea est. [32] — That house is mine. — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 2.9 — adjectives of the first and second declensions. This is the lesson the syllabus marks as the place English speakers fall hardest. Everything in it follows from lesson 2.9 — agreement in gender, number and case — but with one condition removed: the adjective does not have to be next to its noun. English requires adjacency and Latin does not, and the habit of reading by adjacency is so deep that it survives being told about. So this lesson is mostly practice. The table Here is the same phrase written five ways. All five are ordinary Latin, and all five mean the same thing. Latin Where the adjective is magna vīs immediately before — the commonest order vīs magna immediately after — also common, often emphatic magna hominis vīs separated by a genitive: "a man's great strength" magnā cum vī the preposition inside the phrase: "with great force" magna est vīs separated by the verb: "great is the strength" And here is what the reader has to do. Three clues, checked independently: Clue What it rules out gender a masculine adjective cannot belong to a feminine noun number a singular adjective cannot belong to a plural noun case a genitive adjective cannot belong to an accusative noun How to read the table Three clues are usually enough to give one answer. Take magnā cum vī . magnā is feminine singular ablative — the long ā settles it. Is there a feminine singular ablative noun nearby? vī is the ablative of vīs , feminine. They match, and nothing else in the phrase does. The preposition cum sits between them, which in English would be impossible and in Latin is a normal, slightly elevated word order. The commonest separator is a genitive. magna hominis vīs — "a man's great strength". English has to say it in that order too, but English marks the possessive with 's and would never allow great a man's strength . Latin can, because hominis is unmistakably genitive and cannot be the partner of magna . The second commonest separator is the verb. Magna est vīs cōnsuētūdinis — "great is the force of habit", a line of Cicero's. The adjective is first, the verb second, the noun third, the genitive fourth. An English reader parses magna est as a complete statement and then finds another nominative, and has to go back. The way to avoid going back is to hold an unattached adjective in mind and keep reading rather than closing the phrase at the first opportunity. The hardest case is when a form is ambiguous. Latin allows separation because agreement disambiguates — but agreement does not always disambiguate completely. bonae could be feminine genitive singular, feminine dative singular or feminine nominative plural. In a long sentence with several feminine nouns, more than one attachment may be grammatically possible, and then the sense decides. Good Latin writers avoided such sentences; the ones you will read in the first three phases have been chosen so that they do not arise. There is one situation worth naming in advance, because it is common and because it looks like a mistake. When an adjective describes two nouns of different genders , Latin usually makes it masculine if any of the nouns is masculine, and neuter if they are things rather than people. So pater et māter bonī — "a good father and mother" — has a masculine plural adjective covering one masculine and one feminine noun. English does not have to choose and so has no instinct here. A final practical note. Because agreement is so informative, an adjective on its own can tell you about a noun that is not there at all. In lesson 2.8 you met Captae sumus , "we have been captured", where the feminine plural captae tells you the speakers are women although no noun appears. Latin routinely carries information in an ending that English can only carry in a word. When you are translating, that information often has to be added in English or lost. Seen in real Latin Latin English How the adjective attaches Illa puella valde pulchra est. [1] That girl is very beautiful. illa before, pulchra after an adverb — both feminine singular Domus tua valde pulchra est. [2] Your house is very nice. two adjectives on a 4th-declension feminine noun Feles valde pulchra est. [3] The cat is very beautiful. adverb and verb between noun and adjective Mater tua valde pulchra est. [4] Your mother is very beautiful! māter 3rd declension; both adjectives 1st Vinum valde bonum est. [5] The wine is very good. neuter, with two words between Illud vinum bonum est. [6] That wine is good. three neuter words, the verb last Haec domus pulchra est. [7] This is a beautiful house. haec and pulchra both attach to domus Nomen tuum verum scio. [8] I know your real name. two neuter accusatives agreeing with nōmen Nimis magna sunt. [9] They are too big. neuter plural with no noun at all Tam pulchra est quam mater. [10] She is as beautiful as her mother is. the adjective's noun is unstated; pulchra tells you it is feminine The eighth is the best small example. Nōmen tuum vērum sciō — three words before the verb, of which nōmen is a neuter noun and tuum and vērum are both neuter accusative singular. They cannot attach to anything else, and they need not be adjacent to each other. English has to say "your real name" in exactly that order; Latin could equally write vērum nōmen tuum or nōmen vērum tuum . The ninth and tenth show the other half of the skill: an adjective with no noun present. Nimis magna sunt is neuter plural — "the things are too big" — and the neuter tells you they are things rather than people. Tam pulchra est is feminine singular, so the unnamed subject