Imperfect and Perfect Practice
The following are the sentences from the pictures at
the beginning of Stage 6. Pay attention to the tense
of the verb.
Translate the sentence from Latin to
English BEFORE you click to see the
translation.
I’m not kidding!
servī per viam ambulābant.
The slaves were walking through the street. (nom
plural + imperfect tense AND viam is the OOP of
per)
canis subito latrāvit.
Suddenly a dog barked. Subito is an adverb. From
what principal part does latravit come?
Grumio canem timēbat.
Grumio was fearing the dog.Yes, it is okay to say,
“Grumio was afraid of the dog.” Right now, though,
think about how I want you to get used to translating the
imperfect!
“pestis!” clamāvit coquus.
“Pest!”, shouted the cook. It is okay to say, “the cook
shouted.” Either way works. For those of you in
certamen, did you spot that pestis is in the vocative
case?
Clemens erat fortis.
Clemens was brave. It is okay to translate fortis
as strong – whatever you think better fits the
situation. erat is imperfect, but it does not have –
ba in it. Remember, the verb to be is an irregular
verb, and it does not follow all the rules!
sed canis servum superāvit.
But the dog overpowered / overcame /
conquered the slave.
Quintus per viam ambulābat.
Quintus was walking through the street.
iuvenis clamorem audīvit.
The youth heard the shout / uproar. Apparently,
there is some sort of Bat-signal in Pompeii.
canis Clementem vexābat.
The dog was bothering Clemens. We get the English
word vex from vexare. If you don’t know the word,
look it up. Be sure to use it at least once over break!
Quintus canem pulsāvit.
Quintus hit the dog. I know. I don’t approve of
violence against animals either, but it was attacking
Clemens.
servī erant laetī.
The slaves were happy. Look at the number, gender,
and case of laeti. Why? Remember that adjectives
must agree with their nouns in number, gender, and
case. Why is laeti in that case?
Predicate nominative
servī Quintum laudāvērunt.
The slaves praised Quintus. Eugepae! Quintus is a
hero!
These sentences showed a simple
Latin sentence structure.
Subject + Direct Object + Verb
Nominative + Accusative + Verb
The book wants you to focus on verb tense – not sentence structure.
Refer back to these sentences when you want to think about how/why
the imperfect and perfect are used.