jfish1936 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 At school I learnt Latin; it's a fun language, because you can mix up the words in a sentence. Each word has an ending that tells what part of the sentence it is, so : Amat puella canem/ Puella amat canem/ Canem puella amat all mean "the girl loves the dog" Puellam canis amat (and all variants) means "the dog loves the girl" The "m" ending means it's the one getting loved (amat = loves, puella = girl, canis= dog) These are called Nominative (who does it?) and accusative (who gets it done to them) Now the only place we use these forms in English is in the personal pronouns: I / me, He/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, who/whom. A fundamental rule is that if two or more people do something, they must be in "nominative" case. If two or more have something done to them, they must both be in accusative case. So "He, she and I went out shopping" is correct, all three "nominative". as is "We went out". "Us went out " is only acceptable in back-country dialects. "The rain fell on me, her and him" is correct, as is "the rain fell on us". "The rain fell on him and I" "the raim fell on Mary and I" are both wrong; remember, "Mary and I" = WE, "Mary and ME" = US. Or, just take out the other people. "It fell on (Jim and) ME". Surely you wouldn't say "It fell on I" so whty change just because Jim stuck his nose in? I've been moved to put finger to keyboard because I'm getting fed up of Australian newspapers and magazines getting this wrong; alas, Americans and Brits are doing it now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGDINNERS Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 But why do we need to be taught Latin at school,nobody uses it any more except the Pope:loopy: I made my daughter swap German lessons for Spanish,only the Germans speak German as their 1st language,while Spanish is the second most popular spoken language in the world(used in more countries as first tongue)and think Spanish would offer more in the future. Which countries have English as their 1st language Uk Ireland Usa Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa?? I cant think of anymore Not a lot really when you think about it and consider all the south/Latin American countries that speak Spanish as a first language:huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megalithic Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I'd prefer they taught lessons in how not to gozz all over, and how to use a bin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms Macbeth Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 At school I learnt Latin; it's a fun language, because you can mix up the words in a sentence. Each word has an ending that tells what part of the sentence it is, so : Amat puella canem/ Puella amat canem/ Canem puella amat all mean "the girl loves the dog" Puellam canis amat (and all variants) means "the dog loves the girl" The "m" ending means it's the one getting loved (amat = loves, puella = girl, canis= dog) These are called Nominative (who does it?) and accusative (who gets it done to them) Now the only place we use these forms in English is in the personal pronouns: I / me, He/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, who/whom. A fundamental rule is that if two or more people do something, they must be in "nominative" case. If two or more have something done to them, they must both be in accusative case. So "He, she and I went out shopping" is correct, all three "nominative". as is "We went out". "Us went out " is only acceptable in back-country dialects. "The rain fell on me, her and him" is correct, as is "the rain fell on us". "The rain fell on him and I" "the raim fell on Mary and I" are both wrong; remember, "Mary and I" = WE, "Mary and ME" = US. Or, just take out the other people. "It fell on (Jim and) ME". Surely you wouldn't say "It fell on I" so whty change just because Jim stuck his nose in? I've been moved to put finger to keyboard because I'm getting fed up of Australian newspapers and magazines getting this wrong; alas, Americans and Brits are doing it now! I dislike the misuse of I, me, them, us etc. I wasn't taught Latin, but was taught to speak reasonably well by my parents and at school. Even worse (IMO) than 'him and me went shopping' is 'me (and him) went shopping'! When 'and him' is taken out its so obviously wrong! However, the more recent change that really irritates me, is the misuse of 'myself'. Instead of saying 'Bob and I went shopping' some people now say 'myself and Bob went shopping'. It sounds pretentious and awful. ---------- Post added 25-04-2013 at 07:16 ---------- I'd prefer they taught lessons in how not to gozz all over, and how to use a bin. That too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyfriday Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 At school I learnt Latin; it's a fun language, because you can mix up the words in a sentence. Each word has an ending that tells what part of the sentence it is, so : Amat puella canem/ Puella amat canem/ Canem puella amat all mean "the girl loves the dog" Puellam canis amat (and all variants) means "the dog loves the girl" The "m" ending means it's the one getting loved (amat = loves, puella = girl, canis= dog) These are called Nominative (who does it?) and accusative (who gets it done to them) Now the only place we use these forms in English is in the personal pronouns: I / me, He/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, who/whom. A fundamental rule is that if two or more people do something, they must be in "nominative" case. If two or more have something done to them, they must both be in accusative case. So "He, she and I went out shopping" is correct, all three "nominative". as is "We went out". "Us went out " is only acceptable in back-country dialects. "The rain fell on me, her and him" is correct, as is "the rain fell on us". "The rain fell on him and I" "the raim fell on Mary and I" are both wrong; remember, "Mary and I" = WE, "Mary and ME" = US. Or, just take out the other people. "It fell on (Jim and) ME". Surely you wouldn't say "It fell on I" so whty change just because Jim stuck his nose in? I've been moved to put finger to keyboard because I'm getting fed up of Australian newspapers and magazines getting this wrong; alas, Americans and Brits are doing it now! I've just learnt more about the conjugation of Latin verbs than I did in 5 years of studying it at school, thanks Dr Fish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matsalleh Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Discipuli picturam spectate,the first and only words I ever learnt.I lost interest at conjunctivitus and all that amo amas junk.Being an English speaker I now know more Latin than school ever taught me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halibut Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I learnt Latin at school and I'm very pleased I did; it's undoubtedly useful in the way that jfish1936 suggests, but also in broadening the depth and breadth of my knowledge of words and word meanings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyboy Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 But why do we need to be taught Latin at school,nobody uses it any more except the Pope:loopy: I made my daughter swap German lessons for Spanish,only the Germans speak German as their 1st language,while Spanish is the second most popular spoken language in the world(used in more countries as first tongue)and think Spanish would offer more in the future. If your daughter does Chemistry she won't thank you as much of the early literature is in German and not a lot in Spanish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfish1936 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 But why do we need to be taught Latin at school,nobody uses it any more except the Pope:loopy: I made my daughter swap German lessons for Spanish, consider all the south/Latin American countries that speak Spanish as a first language:huh: 1/. Latin teaches the discipline of parts of speech; it's hard to say "him hit me" if you've learnt nominative and accusative. 2/. very wise; wish I'd learnt Spanish at school, we get lots of Spanish speaking migrants in Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumkin Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 But why do we need to be taught Latin at school,nobody uses it any more except the Pope:loopy: I made my daughter swap German lessons for Spanish,only the Germans speak German as their 1st language,while Spanish is the second most popular spoken language in the world(used in more countries as first tongue)and think Spanish would offer more in the future. Which countries have English as their 1st language Uk Ireland Usa Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa?? I cant think of anymore Not a lot really when you think about it and consider all the south/Latin American countries that speak Spanish as a first language:huh: English is an official language or is predominantly spoken in the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda Australia Bahamas Barbados Beliza Botswana Canada Fiji Gambia Ghana Grenada Guyana India Jamaica Kenya Kiribati Liberia Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Micronesia Namibia New Zealand Nigeria Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Philippines Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore South Africa Swaziland Tanzania Trinidad and Tobago United Kingdom United States Vanuatu Zambia Zimbabwe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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