Writing Latin

[Renee]

How does one make a sentence in latin? It's a basic sentence I want to translate, I know the words, I just can't figure out the order in goes in. For example, English is Subject/Verb/Object while Japanese is Subject/Object/Verb. I think Latin is arranged like Japanese, SOV, but I'm not sure. Can anyone help me out?

P.S. If this is the wrong fourm, I apologize. I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it! :)

[Mitch]

[size=1][color=red] Latin isn't arranged in any certain way. It doesn't matter where you put the verb, subject, direct object, indirect object. Instead of having to put words in a certain order, Latin uses cases to denote a word doing a certain thing in a sentence. There's the Ablative case, which is for prepostitions. There's the nominative, which is for subject; the genitive, which is used to show possession; there's accusative, which is used to show a direct object. It works like that. So it doesn't matter what comes when. Latin isn't like our language of English.

Usually, I find, the verb actually comes last in Latin. This makes it so that me, one whose native language is english, has to jump all over a sentence searching for the verb, and then looking at the cases, and so on. It's a lot like a jigsaw puzzle.

If you need help, I'm in first year Latin and all you need to do is post the sentence here and I can help you out.

Ego sum nihil; ego sum nemo. Ego cogito igitur ego sum. [/size][/color]

[oshi]

I've wondered about Latin sentence structure, too. It confuses me (like French), because I can never figure out exactly how it gets to be the sentence that the translation says it is. Mitch, you say the verb usually goes to the end. Would it be easier to understand if one tries to look at it in comparison with German?

[AzureWolf]

[font=Georgia][color=blue]The [i]ending[/i] of every word is what is important in Latin, not the order. The ending tells you everything you need to know about the word.[/color][/font]

[font=Georgia][color=blue][i]Agricol[b]a[/b] = farmer[/i][/color][/font]
[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Agricol[b]ae[/b] = of the farmer[/color][/font][/i]
[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Agricol[b]am[/b] = farmer is the object of the verb (not used for linking verbs)[/color][/font][/i]
[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]etc. etc.[/color][/font][/i]

[font=Georgia][color=blue]Additionally, Latin doesn't have articles, and pronouns are only used for emphasis since they are implied if there is no noun present (like in english imperative sentences). Although there is no order requirement, having a verb anywhere but at the end of the sentence is generally used for emphasis. I'm going to steal Mitch's sentence since it's been four years.[/color][/font]

[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Ego sum nihil = I am nothing (strongest emphasis made)[/color][/font][/i]
[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Ego nihil sum = I nothing am = I am nothing[/color][/font][/i]
[i][font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Nihil sum = Nothing I/he/she is = I/He/She is nothing.[/color][/font][/i]

[font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]As you can see, they all mean the same thing, but emphasises are changed based on what is implied and what is said/written.[/color][/font]

[font=Georgia][color=#0000ff]Hope that helped. It's easier than you think, [b]MUCH [/b]easier than what most people will admit to.[/color][/font]