Activity 29b

1. Cubiculum, in quo ancillae crines dominae curabant, non magnum erat.

Main sentence: cubiculum - neuter subject of was, imperfect tense of esse; magnum agrees with cubiculum as a predicate nominative adjective. The relative clause is introduced by in quo; its subject is ancillae, nominative plural form, with the verb curabant in the imperfect 3rd pl, to follow the plural 3rd person (ancillae = they) subject. What were they caring for: the hair of their mistress. Hair is always plural; it is 3rd declension accusative, thus the -es ending. Of the mistress: possessive and genitive singular. Back to the choice of relative pronoun: the antecedent is cubiculum therefore you need a neuter singular form of the pronoun in the ablative case to follow the preposition in.

2. Syra, cuius manus tremebat, dominam vexabat.

Syra, nominative sg. subj., dominam, accusative sg. direct object and vexabat, imperfect 3rd pers. sg. to show a continuous or ongoing action. The relative clause is introduced by the possessive form of the relative pronoun (whenever you see whose, assume the need for a genitive form.) Since the antecedent is singular, the choice must be cuius. Manus is the subject of the relative clause and again the verb is in the imperfect because the trembling is ongoing.

3. Nemo porcum qui e manibus servi effugit poterat capere.

Pig is the antecedent of the relative pronoun, masc. sg. accusative because it is the direct object of the main verb. That escaped from the hands of the slave is the relative clause. That is the subject of the relative clause and thus masculine singular. effugit is in the perfect tense to show the pig is gone. poterat is in the imperfect and capere is the infinitive following poterat. One must always have an infinitive after a form of posse.

4. Homo obesus, cuius lectica elegantissima erat, librum legebat.

Man is the subject of the main clause with the adjective fat modifying it, thus obesus is in the masculine sg. nominative form (adjectives must agree in case, number and gender). Book is the direct object of the main clause and thus in the accusative sg. masc. form (liber, libri m. - book). Was reading is in the imperfect; he may still be reading. Whose is the possessive genitive form and in the singular because the antecedent, man, is also singular. Masculine, feminine and neuter forms of the genitive singular are all the same. Litter is the subject of the relative clause, it is feminine and singular, thus elegantissima, the predicate adjective, agrees with it.

5. Aurelia, cui mercator glires vendidit multam pecuniam portabat/ferebat.

Aurelia, the subject of portabat, is nominative singular and feminine. Portabat is in the imperfect, as with several of the previous sentences, to show ongoing action. Pecuniam is the direct object, that which she was carrying, and multam agrees with it in the accusative, feminine singular form. The relative clause has mercator as the subject of the perfect (finished action verb) vendidit (vendo, vendere, vendidi, venditus - note the relationship to do, dare, dedi, datus) and what the mercator has sold is dormice. To whom did he sell them? to Aurelia, thus whom must be singular dative. As soon as you ascertain that a dative singular form is necessary you can stop the search since all dative singular forms are indeed cui.