Sentence Attack

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced student, "sentence attack" is the key to translation.  Apply the following rules to sentences and you can't go wrong.  Remember that the Latin word order must be translated into the English word order, subject-verb-direct object, etc. 

SENTENCE ATTACK RULES: 

I.  Verbs, nouns (nom. & acc.), adjectives & prepositional phrases.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE 1: Amici bonos viros in agro vident.

1.  Find the verb(s) in each sentence and analyze the person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), number (sing. or pl.), tense (present, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, or future perfect), and mood (indicative, the mood we use  most often, states a fact, as in "I see," "you see," "he sees"); the infinitive (the second principal part, meaning "to see"), and imperative (command, meaning "See!").

In Ex. Sentence 1 above, the verb is vident.  It is 3rd person pl. present indicative and means "they see."

2.  If the verb has a 1st or 2nd person ending, the subject does not need to be stated.  The ending will tell you the subject is "I," "You," "We," or "You-all.) If the verb has a 3rd person ending, it is translated "he, she, it" or "they" unless a nominative subject is specified. If there is a nominative noun, it is always the subject and replaces the "he, she, it, they."

In Sentence 1, amici is the subject.  It is nominative plural and matches the 3rd person plural ending of the verb vident.  So far the translation is 

"The friends see..."

3.  Every noun in the sentence has a relationship either to the verb or another noun.  After you've found the subject and verb, look for the direct object (accusative) and identify the gender, no., & case.  In Ex. Sentence 1,  viros is m. pl. accusative.  It means "men" and will be the DIRECT OBJECT of the verb, not the SUBJECT.  So far the translation is:

"The friends see the men."   

4.  An adjective may be used to describe a noun.  It will agree with the noun it modifies in gender, no., and case.  In the sentence above, bonos is an adjective and means "good."  Identify the gender, no., & case to see what noun it describes.  Bonos is masc. sing. acc. and modifies the noun viros.  So far the translation is 

"The friends see the good men."

5.  Some nouns are objects not of verbs but of prepositions.  Prepositions (in, with, without, into, towards, etc.) can take either the acc. or the abl.  You have to memorize the the preposition with the case it governs.  In the sentence above, in agro is a prepositional phrase.  The translation of Sentence 1 is:

"The friends see the good men in the field."

II.  Nouns (gen., dat., & abl.)

EX. Sentence 2:  Philosophiam magni magistri mihi libris tuis docuisti.

1.  Identify the verb form and subject as in the first sentence.  Docuisti is the 2nd. person sing. perfect indicative of doceo and means "You taught" or "You have taught."  "You" is the subject so we don't have to look for a nom. noun (though in somce cases you might see Tu).

2.  Identify the direct object.  Philosophiam is f. acc. sing.  So far the sentence says:

"You taught philosophy..."

3.  Identify the other forms of nouns and adjectives one by one.  

a.  Magni magistri is an adjective-noun phrase.  In this sentence, the phrase is gen. sing. and shows possession.  A genitive is always used to describe another noun.  In this case, magni magistri shows possession of philosophiam and means "of the great teacher" or "the great teacher's.)  So far the sentence says,

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher..."

b.  Mihi is the dative singular form of the pronoun ego.  It is the indirect object of the verb means "to me." The sentence now says

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher to me..."

c.  libris tuis is abl. pl.  It is an ablative without a preposition, hence the abl. of means, and means "with or by your books."

"You taught the philosophy of the great teacher to me."

Presto!  It's not so hard, is it?  I will put up a "Sentence Attack" exercise post over the weekend.