if you build it, they will come /  by Anthony Gibbins

This is, by far, the most memorable line from the 1989 film A Field of Dreams, in which Kevin Costner’s character, corn farmer Ray Kinsella, invokes the 1919 Chicago White Sox by building a baseball diamond in his fields. Ray hears a voice telling him that if he builds it, they will come. He builds it and *spoiler alert* they come.

If you build it, they will come is an example of a Conditional Sentence. If the condition is met, the outcome will occur. In programming speak - and the last programming I did was with BASIC in 1987 - if x then y. Simple. But I want to talk a little about the Tenses used in this particular Conditional.

It stands to reason that the White Sox will not come until after the field is built. Latin has a way of making this very clear - in a way that is far more precise than English. The Latin sentence is the equivalent of if you will have built it, they will come. Nice, yes? If you will have built it… There is, of course, a Tense that specifically means will have built. It is the Future Perfect Tense. Remember, Perfect just means finished. So, this is a Tense that says something will have been finished at some time in the future. Awesome.

The Verb I would use to mean build is aedifico, aedificare, aedificavi, aedificatum. The Future Perfect Tense is built - no pun intended - on the Third Principal Part; aedificaveris you will have built. They will come, as you might expect, is just good ol’ simple Future Tense; veniemus they will come. si id aedificaveris, illi venient if you will have built it, they will come.

There is a Conditional Sentence of this type on today’s page. The Condition contains two Future Perfect Verbs; rapueritis if you will have seized and dederitis if you will have given. If and when, Hadrian says, these two conditions have been met, I myself will bring a suitcase to you. feram I will bring is in the good ol’ Future Tense.

Make a journey to the town and visit the bank. If you seize this gem and give it to me, I myself will bring a suitcase to you.

for many years now /  by Anthony Gibbins

Chapters seven through nine of The Oxford Latin Course contain a brief and (relatively) simple retelling of the Trojan War. Here is just a taste of it. I will put a translation at the post’s end.

deinde Achilles hastam summa vi conicit; volat hasta per auram et Hectorem transfigit. ille ad terram cadit mortuus.

accurit Achilles et dirum facinus facit. Hectorem mortuum ad currum alligat et circum muros trahit. pater et mater e muris spectant. Hecuba clamat: ‘o Achilles,’ inquit, ‘tandem ab ira desiste: filium nobis redde. sed Achilles eam non audit; Hectorem ad naves trahit et eum relinquit in terra iacentem.

One things you will notice is that the story is told completely in the Present Tense. The Oxford Latin Course does not introduce tenses other than the Present until Book II. (Above all else, Book I concentrates on Noun Cases.) So when I first encountered this next sentence I thought it was a bit of a work around.

decem annos Graeci urbem obsident sed eam capere non possunt.

I understood that what it wanted to say was for ten years the Greeks have been besieging the city but they have not been able to capture it but I wasn’t totally convinced that the Latin could be correct; surely have been besieging and have been able require something other than the Present Tense obsident they besiege and possunt they are able. It turns out that I was wrong. In Latin, past action that continues into the present is described with the Present Tense. It is a phrase like decem annos for ten years that tells the rest of the story.

On today’s page we see Hadrian say of a precious gem multos iam annos hanc gemmam desidero I have desired this gem for many years now. desidero is Present Tense; I desire.

I do not yet trust you, however. Therefore, listen. In a far off town there is a bank that holds a precious gem. I have desired this gem for many years now.

Translation of Oxford Passage: 

Then Achilles hurls a spear with the utmost force; the spear flies through the air and pierces Hector. He falls to the ground dead.

Achilles runs up and does a terrible deed. He ties the dead Hector to his chariot and drags him around the walls. (His) mother and father watch from the walls. Hecuba shouts: ‘o Achilles,' she says, 'at last cease from (your) anger: return (our) son to us. But Achilles does not hear them; he drags Hector to the ships and leaves him lying on the ground.

Amanda propaganda agenda /  by Anthony Gibbins

What do these three words have in common? They all began life as a Gerundive of Obligation. Let me explain. There is a very unusual form of a Verb in Latin called a Gerundive. It has a couple of jobs, one of which is expressing obligation. Take the Gerundive legendus for example; it means something like needing to be read. It comes from the Verb lego, legere, legi, lectum to read. If I said liber est legendus I would basically be saying the book needs to be read. It is the root of our word legend.

On today’s page Hadrian says liber est inveniendus the book needs to be found. The Gerundive comes from the verb invenio, invenire, inveni, inventum to find. You may have already guessed that this Verb gives us our word invention. But who has to find this book? In Latin the Gerundive of Obligation is often paired with a Noun or Pronoun in the Dative Case, as here with vobis to you. We might read liber vobis inveniendus est as something like to you a book is needing to be found. But we should understand that as meaning something closer to you need to find a book.

Now what of amanda, propaganda and agenda? These English words began life as the Gerundives of amo, amare, amavi, amatum to love; propago, propagare, propagavi, propagatum to spread; and ago, agere, egi, actum to do. You may notice that these Gerundives all in in an -a. amanda ends in an -a because it is Feminine Singular. propaganda and agenda end in -a because they are Neuter Plural. (Yes, they have the same ending: eheu!) So, to make a long story short, amanda means she who needs to loved, propaganda means things that need to be spread and agenda means things that need to be done.

Miranda, too, is a Gerundive of Obligation. It means she who must be wondered at or admired.

You need to find a book of great importance, lost throughout many generations. I recently obtained a map which will show you where the book is.

remember /  by Anthony Gibbins

memini meminisse to remember is an interesting Verb, as you can see just by looking at its Principal Parts. They appear to be in the Perfect Tense. Or, as The Oxford Latin Dictionary explains it, they are Perfect Forms with Present force. So, while cognovi means I found out and cognovisse means to have found out, memini and meminisse mean I remember and to remember respectively.

memini is a rather versatile Verb. It can be used with a straight up Object in the Accusative Case; tuam fabulam memini I remember your story. Indeed, that is how it is used on today’s page; omnia memini I remember everything.

It can be used with an Indirect Statement, usually to recount the direct memory of an eyewitness; memini nautam advenire I remember a sailor arrived.

It can be used with an Indirect Question; memeni ubi sarcina sit I remember where the suitcase is.

Or it can stand alone; memini I remember!

And that is only the tip of the iceberg. It can even be used in the Imperative form memento, along with an Infinitive Verb, to remind someone to do something; memento revenire Remember to come back!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my call for names yesterday. I liked many of them, but have chosen one. I finished writing the first draft of Episode Eleven last night - the name features prominently within.

Jessica pauses a little. Miranda and Marcellus watch her intently. At last, she continues. ‘I remember everything well. These are the very words which Hadrian said to them:

those two from the roof - Ravena and .... /  by Anthony Gibbins

So, it turns out that Jessica’s backstory is also the backstory of Ravena and… hmmm. What is that guy’s name?

Sorry to be so brief, but this weekend I've been busy with that article for PRIMA that I mentioned. Yet I would like to thank everyone who responded to my plea for help, on Twitter, on Facebook and here on the website. It certainly improved the article to include your accounts of using Legonium in the classroom, or indeed in your own learning.

As for, um, what’s his name… If you have an idea for a nomen, please post it as a comment. Crowd sourcing is fun!

Soon I heard three voices in the library. I was able to see nothing, but I heard Hadrian conversing with a man and a woman through the closed bookcase.

Legonium needs your help /  by Anthony Gibbins

salvete comites. We interrupt our standard schedule to ask for your help. I am writing an article for a Classics magazine called PRIMA. They are particularly interested in hearing how Legonium is used as a resource for people both teaching and learning Latin. Not surprisingly, I have left this to the last minute - the deadline is May 15. I would appreciate any and all help you can give me with this; do you use Legonium in either your teaching or in your own learning? If so, how? You can leave your response as a comment below. A brief two sentences would be a thousand times better than nothing at all.

Thank you so much,

Anthony

ps. How cool is that sliding bookcase?

Therefore, I secretly returned into his house. I silently entered the library and crept to the bookcase. For the bookcase of Hadrian conceals a secret door. With the door opened, I hid myself inside.

the three tenses of the infinitive /  by Anthony Gibbins

The infinitive of a Verb is the Form that means, when translated into English, to run or to sleep or to read or to help. They are easily enough recognized in Latin as - for all Regular Verbs at least - they end in an -re; currere to run, dormire to sleep, legere to read and iuvare to help. There are a handful of Irregular Verbs in Latin, and these can have unusual looking Infinitives, such as esse to be. When looking up a Latin Verb in a dictionary you will be given the Verb’s Four Principal Parts, the second of which is the Infinitive. If you have a Latin dictionary, give it a try.

curro, currere cucurri, cursum to run; to hasten, fly

lego, legere, legi, lectum to gather, pick; to choose, select, to read, recite

sum, esse, fui to be, exist (no fourth Principal Part)

The Infinitive Verb is very useful in ‘filling-out’ an idea begun by another Verb. Here are some examples; currere debeo I ought to run currere constituo I decide to run currere possum I am able to run currere cupio I want to run currere nequeo I am unable to run currere nolo I refuse to run currere amo I love to run

Infinitive Verbs also play an important part in Indirect Statements. Here is a Direct Statement; Jessica currit Jessica is running. Now, let’s turn that into the Indirect Statement Miranda sees that Jessica is running Miranda videt Jessicam currere. A more literal translation would be Miranda sees Jessica to be running. Think ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident…’.

Latin has three tenses of the Infinitive, and while they do turn up in other places, their most common use in in Indirect Statements. They are currere to run, cucurisse to have run and cursurus esse to be going to run.

Miranda scit Jessicam currere Miranda knows that Jessica is running.

Miranda scit Jessicam cucurisse Miranda knows that Jessica ran.

Miranda scit Jessicam cursuram esse Miranda knows that Jessica will run.

The Future Infinitive is a smidge more complicated than the others, because cursurus has to change its form to cursuram to Agree-With Jessicam. eheu!

However, it seemed certain to me that a book of such importance was not the property of one man but of all people. Soon therefore I decided that I myself would find the book.

 

I really like this picture /  by Anthony Gibbins

This image (to me at least) is the essence of somebody taking a stand; calling wrong out for what it is and refusing to be a part of it. I like that about it.

He, very angry, said that he would find another associate. Moreover, he ordered me to immediately leave his house nor to ever return there. I departed.