Latin Questions!!!

[Freeman]

I have a few questions:

1) The translation of "who would you be if you don't know who you are" is

Quem eris si quem non scris quid es, correct?

2) These are stupid grammar questions, but what is the dative, genitive, ablative, etc? I know the nominative and accusative, but these I don't know...

3) The perfect is past tense, imperfect general past, future is just that, but how would one conjugate the conditional? IS there a conditional?

[Dave]

Blimey, this takes me back a bit - studied Latin for 5 years up to GCSE level so I'm a bit rusty.

 

The dative, genative and ablative are basically different ways of saying the vowel depending on the context of the sentence.

 

If I remember correctly:

genitive - when you're referring to the object being owned by someone.

dative - indirect object, can't remember really, hardly ever used it

ablative - according to google: "expresses the means or tools by which one accomplishes something"

 

Yes, there is a conditional tense, called the subjunctive which comes in present, past, and future tense. Can't remember how you formulate it now though.

[Sayonara]

Having studied Latin for the same period as Dave, my first thoughts are that this isn't really "learn it in one post on a forum" material.

 

Unless of course you really only want the specific answers to those questions.

[Dave]

It also depends completely on the context of the sentence. Through my limited reading, I've not seen the ablative used all that much, nor the dative. Genitive is used a heck of a lot though.

[apathy]

oo oo

 

before you latin guys leave can I ask a question?

it has to do with the literal translation of:

"Novo ordo seclorum" from the great deal of the US

 

novo = new

ordo = order?

seclorum = ????

 

what does this mean?

[JaKiri]

"New Order of the Ages"

 

It's a sort-of quote from Virgil, and possibly the most mistranslated piece of latin on the internet, usually by people who assume that the final word is related to 'secular'.

 

Here's an explanatory link.