Lectio decima

In dēversōriō

At the hotel

Salve, Caupō1! Potesne2 nōs accipere?

Hello, Keeper! Can you take us?

Salve, Domne! Vōs omnēs3 libenter accipiam. Locus nōn deest4!

Hello, Sir! I will take you[pl.] all with pleasure. Space is not lacking.

Opus est cubiculō cum lectō5 ūnō, et cubiculō alterō cum lectīs duōbus.

There is need of a room with one bed, and of another room with two beds.

Ecce! cubiculum decimum quārtum6 in tabulātō prīmō et cubiculum vīcēsimum sextum in tabulātō alterō7.

Here-you-are: room 14 (tenth fourth) on the first floor and room 26 (twentieth sixth) on the second floor.

Jōsēphe! Affer impedīmenta et mōnstra cubicula!

Joseph! Bring the luggage and show the rooms!

Ecce cubiculum! Per fenestram portum vidēre potes.

Here’s the room! Through the window you can see the port.

Quam caeruleum est mare! Quot nāvēs aspiciō!

How blue the sea is! [What a lot of] (How-many) ships I see!

Magna nāvis onerāria8, quae cursum in altum dīrigit, Graeciam petit.

The large freighter(fraktbåt) (ship of-burden) directing its course out to sea (which course in-the-deep it-directs) is headed for Greece (Greece it-seeks).

Cubiculum mihi placet. Quantī cōnstat?

The room pleases me (to-me). How much is it (Of-how-much it-costs)?

Hoc cubiculum octo francīs cōnstat; alterum duodecim.

This room costs eight francs; the other twelve.

Cubiculum, in cubiculō; cubicula, in cubiculīs.

The room, in the room; the rooms, in the rooms.

Notes

  1. Caupo, the landlord, the innkeeper; caupona, the inn; deversorium, the hotel.

  2. Potes, you can. You know by now that, when one addresses only a single person, Latin does not use the plural form of "you" as in French for courtesy, but respects the logical construction (singular): this is a nice simplification. However, if one wants to mark a certain deference with regards to one's interlocutor, one employs an appropriate title, as Domine, Lord, Master, or its abbreviation: Domne, Sir, Mister, which you will find in the following sentence.

  3. Nos omnes, all of us; vos omnes, all of you; nobis omnibus, for all of us; vobis omnibus, for all of you. We have already seen: ego, I; mihi, to me and tu, you; tibi, to you.

  4. Desum, dees, deest, deesse (I lack, you lack, he lacks, to lack) is yet another compound of the verb sum.

  5. Lectus, the bed (subject); video lectum, I see the bed; cum lecto, with the bed; cum lectis, with the beds. As Latin does not have an article, one can equally translate as a bed and as the bed, when the remainder of the sentence is not known. We will see later that the article is translated into Latin only if it has real usefulness, and that for that there are suitable words.

  6. Cubiculum decimum quartum (or quartum decimum): In many languages, of which one is Latin, one uses the ordinal numeral adjective where others use the cardinal adjective. Word by word: room tenth fourth (14th). Similarly, Henricus octavus (Henry 8th), in French: Henri VIII, but in English: Henry the eighth.

  7. Tabulato altero: one could have said tabulato secundo.

  8. Navis oneraria: navis is feminine. Think of the gender, also feminine, associated with ships in English! In Italian: la nave, is also feminine.

Exercitatio

Volō cubiculum magnum cum lectīs duōbus.

I want [a] large room with two beds.

Cubicula parva cum lectīs singulīs volunt1.

They want small rooms with single beds [one-each beds].

In dēversōriō illō dēsunt cubicula cum lectīs bīnīs.

In that hotel there [are not] (are-lacking) rooms with two beds.

In cubiculō magnō arcās collocat.

He places the chests in the large room.

Vōs omnēs cubiculō meō accipiam.

I will receive you[pl.] all in my room.

Quantī cōnstat hoc cubiculum cum tribus lectīs?

How much does this room with three beds cost?

Quīndecim francīs cōnstat.

It costs 15 francs.

Hoc dēversōrium mihi placet.

I like this hotel (this hotel to-me pleases).

  1. Singuli, bini, terni, quaterni, etc., are numeral adjectives which make it possible to say in ones, in twos, in threes. Here again Latin is more precise than English.