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Latin "should"

From:Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 30, 2003, 2:31
>(OT Latin: faciem illius agnosco -> "I recognize that >man's face", but does anyone know how to say "I SHOULD >recognize that man's face" in Latin? I'm not familiar >enough with the language to know it off hand and I >can't seem to figure it out from my scanty Latin >reference material.)
I was waiting for someone else to speak up, since I know that we have a couple of experts in Latin on the list, but, since no one else has, I've gotten my Latin reference grammars out, and I'll take a stab at it. From what I remember (and my reference material seems to confirm this), you need to use the future passive participle (this is the one ending in -ndus) together with a form of esse in a construction called the Second Periphrastic or Passive Periphrastic. (I've no idea what the first periphrastic is, nor ever have.) This "impl[ies] obligation, neccesity, or propriety (ought or must.)" (Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges) ("New" here is a relative term; the original copyright is 1888, and what I have is a revision of that - still well before my parents were born.) My high school Latin book tells me that "the person upon whom the obligation rests is in the dative." (Latin for Americans - Book Three) Given that information, I think that the sentence that you are looking for is this one: Mihi facies illi est agnoscenda. Somebody, *please,* *please,* *please* pe kind enough to correct my Latin, because I couldn't find a gender for "facies" but it appears to be fifth declension, and my first year book was polite enough to inform me that those are nearly all feminine. I'm sure I must have gotten something or other wrong in the sentence. Isidora

Replies

Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>