Writing School Work and Poems

About The Langauge I: Stage 5

A. In the first four Stages, you have met sentences like these:

puella sedet             /    servus laborat                 /  Leo currit                       /  

The girl is sitting          The slave is working       The lion is running       

mercator dormit

The merchant is sleeping

Sentences like these refer to one person or thing, and in each sentence, the form of both words (the noun and the verb) is said to be singular. 

B. Sentences which refer to more than one person or thing use a different form of the words known as the plural. Compare the singular and plural forms in the following sentences:

Singular:                                                                          Plural: 

Puella laborat                                                               puellae laborant

The girl is working                                                     The girls are working

servus ridet                                                                    Servi rident

The slave is laughing                                                 The slaves are laughing

leo currit                                                                          Leones currunt

The lion is running                                                       The lions are running

mercator dormit                                                          mercatores dormiunt

The merchant is sleeping                                         The merchants are

                                                                                              sleeping

Note that in each of these sentences both the noun and the verb show the difference between singular and plural. 

C. Look again at the sentences in section B and note the difference between the singular and plural forms of the verb.

Singular:                          Plural:

Laborat                            Laborant

Ridet                                 Rident 

Currit                                Currunt

Dormit                              Dormiunt

(Never make the mistake I just made. You don't see it? At the beginning of a sentence, the first letter is never capitalized. Actually, it is never capitalized unless you are referring to somebodies' name. But I am too lazy to fix it)

In each case, the singular ending is -t and the plural ending is  -nt. 

D. Notice how Latin shows the difference between is and are.

Singular:

mercator est in via 

The merchant is in the street

Plural:

Mercatores sunt in via 

The merchants are in the street.

(One of the first Latin phrases I learned was: "Marcus in via dormit." Now, by ruining your life and constantly reading these, tell me what does that phrase mean.)

E. Further examples:

1. amicus ambulat. amici ambulant

2. actor clamat. actores clamant

3. feminae plaudant. femina plaudit

4. venalicii intrat. venalicius intrat

5. ancilla respondet. ancillae respondent

6. senes dormiunt. senex dormit