[Shiloh]

Hi! I had a question about a problem I’ve been having for a couple weeks now with the worksheets. Whenever a variation of the sentence “Ad oppidum eo ut sororem meam videam’ appears, I translate it with the pronoun ‘he’ while Mr. Thomas translates it with the pronoun ‘I’. I looked at my VL 1 book and eo is a third person personal pronoun, so am I missing something else in the sentence that makes the pronoun first person? Thank you!

[Andrea Wang]

Hi Shiloh! The confusing thing about the word eo is that it has two meanings. One of them, which you are correct about, is a third person personal pronoun in the ablative case (appears Lesson in 20). The other meaning comes from the verb eo, ire, ivi(ii), itus, meaning to go. Eo would be the first person present indicative verb form, which would be translated I go, I am going, or I do go (appears in Lesson 19).

Now let’s go back to your sentence: Ad oppidum eo ut sororem meam videam. How do you know which translation to use? Well, if eo is translated as the noun (him), what is the main verb of the sentence? It can’t be videam because that is the verb of the dependent subjunctive phrase/clause, so that doesn’t work. Besides, eo as a third person pronoun is in the ablative case, which would require a preposition somewhere. That doesn’t make much sense in this context. Now take a look at the other definition of eo. This translation works well—I am going to the town to see my sister.

Hope this was helpful!

[Shiloh]

Ohhhh ok that makes a lot of sense, I forgot about that other meaning of ‘eo’. Thank you!!