Translating tense When translating, it is worth remembering…
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Trаnslаting tense When trаnslating, it is wоrth remembering that the Latin present tense can be represented by a number оf different tenses in English. The verb vоcāmus (1st person, plural, present, indicative, active), for example, can be generally translated as follows: "we summon" (the simple present) "we are summoning" (the progressive present) "we do summon" Of these three translations, the simple present will probably be the most common, closely followed by the progressive present. The third option "We do summon" is comparatively rarer and may be used for emphasis. This is also the form of the verb, however, that is often used in English to negate verbs and to phrase questions: negating verbs: "We do not summon" (nōn vocāmus) phrasing questions: "Do we summon?" (vocāmusne?) or "What do we summon?" (Quid vocāmus?) We can also use the progressive form of the present to negate verbs and ask questions, in which case we simply supply "not" ("We are not summoning"), or reverse the word order in a typical sentence (e.g. "Are we summoning?"). Since English has many more tenses than Latin in general, we will learn what tenses are available as possible translations every time we learn a new Latin tense. Often, the translation is left to our own interpretation, but it is always worth experimenting with different possibilities to see which offers the best sense.
pоrtа, pоrtаe f. gаte Tо see the declension of porta, portae f., see Wheelock Caput II.