I think on the basis of that review I am glad that I've bought Jenny the book I have done for a Christmas present, and not the one reviewed. The one I have got is called "Laughable Latin" and apparently has lots of jokes in it and not much else. She also has a mythology book, each page featuring a well-known myth in Latin translation, with pictures.
Don't want to put her off by the gerund at this early stage! (Do you remember that book "the hunting of the gerund"? Was it a book or an article? It might have been in one of those Molesworth books "How to be Topp" etc. Illustrations by Ronald Searle -- I seem to recall that the gerund was a pretty scary looking beast).
I'm a bit bemused by the reviewer's big criticism that the hapless author calls the "fourth part of the verb" the supine, and treats it as a past participle. But this is what it is, surely; I was always taught amo amare amavi amatum, the 4th being the "supine", out of which one gets the participle [neuter = supine; others end in -us -a]. So what's the bother?? Supine can be used instead of the infinitive, and in the ablative to mean "by means of"; so??
I think on the basis of that review I am glad that I've bought Jenny the book I have done for a Christmas present, and not the one reviewed. The one I have got is called "Laughable Latin" and apparently has lots of jokes in it and not much else. She also has a mythology book, each page featuring a well-known myth in Latin translation, with pictures.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to put her off by the gerund at this early stage! (Do you remember that book "the hunting of the gerund"? Was it a book or an article? It might have been in one of those Molesworth books "How to be Topp" etc. Illustrations by Ronald Searle -- I seem to recall that the gerund was a pretty scary looking beast).
I'm a bit bemused by the reviewer's big criticism that the hapless author calls the "fourth part of the verb" the supine, and treats it as a past participle. But this is what it is, surely; I was always taught amo amare amavi amatum, the 4th being the "supine", out of which one gets the participle [neuter = supine; others end in -us -a]. So what's the bother??
ReplyDeleteSupine can be used instead of the infinitive, and in the ablative to mean "by means of"; so??