Saturday, April 20, 2024

28.03.24: the imperfect tense [10]

This is a short follow-up on the previous post; here are examples of the imperfect tense of eō, īre which appear in the works of the authors.

[1] At ego ad tē ībam. (Plautus.) │ But I was on my way to see you

[2] Ībam forte Viā Sacrā (Horace)  I happened to be going along the Sacred Way

[3] Quō nunc ībās? (Plautus) │ Where were you going just now?

[4] Ībat forte domum (Lucilius) │ He happened to be going home

[5] Quid intereā? ībatne ad Bacchidem? (Terence) │ What <did he do> in the meantime? Did he used to visit Bacchis?

And the verb can have prefixes which change the meaning, but the imperfect will be the same:

[1] Itaque ab¦ībam invītus (Plautus) │ That’s why I was leaving (going away) unwillingly

[2] Ad¦ībam ad istum fundum (Cicerō) │ I was approaching (going to) that estate

[3] Quom [= cum] ex¦ībam domō (Plautus) │ When I was going out of the house

[4] Ubī forās cum aurō illīc ex¦ībant (Naevius) │ As they were going outside from that place with gold

[5] Cum Gallus amōre per¦ībat (Vergil)  When, for love, Gallus lay dying

[6] Id Helvētiī ratibus ... trāns¦ībant. (Caesar)  The Helvetians were going across that (river) with rafts.

No comments: