The English translations of two sets of relative pronouns
convey the case usage:
Image #1: genitive case
Genitive: whose
[i] Singular (all genders): cuius
Puer cuius patrem iuvābāmus est miser. │ The boy whose
father we used to help is unfortunate.
- cuius does not agree with ‘patrem’ even though it looks like it might; cuius agrees with ‘puer’ because it is the boy’s father being referred to; literally: the boy, the father of whom we used to help …
Note: unlike the other relative pronouns neither cuius
nor the plural quōrum and quārum are affected
by the relative clause, but only agree in gender and number with the
antecedent.
[ii] Plural (masculine / neuter): quōrum; (feminine): quārum
Puerī quōrum tabulās Flāvius spectat ānxiī sunt. │ The
children whose tablets Flavius is looking at are anxious.
- quōrum is masculine plural because it agrees with ‘puerī’; literally, the children, the tablets of whom Flavius is looking at …
Fēminae quārum virī magnam pecūniam habent multa
ōrnāmenta ā virīs suīs accipiunt. │ Women whose husbands have a lot of
money receive a lot of jewelry from their husbands.
- quārum is feminine plural because it agrees with ‘fēminae’; literally, women, the husbands of whom have a lot of money …
Dative: to whom
[i] Singular (all genders): cui
[ii] Plural (all genders): quibus
Vir cui pecūniam dedī mihi grātiās ēgit.
In formal English, the ‘to’ should come before the relative
pronoun.
The man to whom I gave the money thanked me.
It is more common in English, however, to express this as
follows:
The man who I gave the money to thanked me.
The second version cannot exist in Latin because
Latin only uses one word to convey the idea. Of course, the less formal English
translation can be used.
Puellae, quibus respondēbam, clāmāvērunt. │ The girls
to whom I was replying [= who I was replying to] shouted.
No comments:
Post a Comment