[katie.welte]

My son has translated the sentence: “Populi in terram Sennaar eunt et in campo habitant.” to “The people on earth go to Shinar and live in the fields.” And the answer listed is “The people go into the land of Shinar and live in the plain.”

I apologize for this question if the answer seems very obvious, I’m having trouble explaining why this sentence is translated this way and what to watch for to help with the rest of this lesson. ANY ANY advice for this (no-latin-experience) new Latin homeschool teacher would be fantastic!!

• This discussion was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  katie.welte.

[Ben Crist]

Hi Katie! First of all, your son did well; you’re not as far off as it may seem.

“in terram” must be translated as “into the land” because when the preposition “in” is followed by its object in the Accusative case (here, terrAM), “in/on” changes to “into/onto.” “Sennaar” is then an appositive renaming the “terram”. Technically, “into the land Shinar”, which sounds like the KJV or Elizabethan English, right?

“in campo”, then, follows the other side of that rule: when “in” is followed by its object in the Ablative case (here, campO), “in/on” is the correct translation. Your son only forgot to translate field as a singular noun (it would have been campIS for plural). Field/plain are interchangeable translations at this stage of the game.

Hope that helps!