Because Ceasar never gave honor to Sheetrock...

December 9, 2009 4:56 PM

Is this Latin correct? or Perhaps: How incorrect is this Latin?

I have been writing back and forth to a friend in Latin, very basic.

This is stretching it, but if someone could redirect me or correct me I would really appreciate it.

"Next week I will have hung all of the drywall."

"instrvero cvnctvs laminae gypsi hebdomas proxima "
instruero cunctus laminae gypsi hebdomas proxima

Oh man, on one hand I am so proud of myself for getting so much vocabulary (I have only been doing this on my own part time since March!) but I am just now getting the feel for how the parts are starting to work. The next few months are taking all of the vocabulary and trying to apply them using more complex structures.

Thoughts? Ideas? I thought it seemed best to use instrvere, because other words I know would call for a more complicated structure. Should I be using "laminae gypsum" instead?

At this point I am just stringing things together the best I can like a 4 year old trying to make the declensions feel right. This is just a little fun for us, so no pressure. I need them (not Cicero) to understand "sheets of drywall" and the general idea.

posted by Tchad to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

In a teach-you-to-fish spirit:

You are the subject of the sentence, so nothing else in the sentence should be in the nominative case.

Instruero is a simple future; "I will have Xed" expresses a future perfect so that's how you should conjugate it.

The direct object of the verb -- i.e. "cunctus" -- should be in the accusative.

Genitive is a fine way to modify the direct object -- "all (acc.) *of* the drywall(gen.)" Both words should be in the genitive.

"Next week" is the time when that will have happened -- so both of those words should be in the "ablative of time when".
posted by xueexueg at 5:07 PM on December 9, 2009 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: OK, that is what I was going for anyway.

I thought that -ero was the future perfect ending for an -ere 3rd conjugation, 1st person. Wouldn't instruam be the simple future for the 3rd conj? Oh man, don't tell me I memorized the chart wrong...

Genetive of both : f lamina n gypsum I think is fg lamin.arum & ng gyps.orum

cunctus: 1st declension plural accusative: m cunctos, f cunctas, n cuncta but which? My inclination is to use the neuter, but I honestly don't know/remember the rule for when one is feminine and the other is neuter.

hebdomas... f... I think the ablative would be: hebdom.ade


So how about:
instruero cuncta laminarum gypsorum hebdomade proxima.

Better? It seems like I should be using gypsum as an adjective, but my mind is a little slow right now.

I will check back in tomorrow, because of all of the lamina gypsum.
posted by Tchad at 6:58 PM on December 9, 2009

Ah, good work on instruam -- my bad, you're right.

I would keep cunctum laminae gypsi in the singular -- plural makes it kinda weird.

You might enjoy the Grex Latine Loquentium, Smith's English-Latin Dictionary, or Bennet's New Latin Prose Composition.
posted by xueexueg at 7:56 PM on December 9, 2009 [1 favorite]