I received this inquiry:
In Visual Latin 38, it has “Die tertio” translated as, “On the third day.” Shouldn’t it be “In die tertio”?
It has recordabat and recordat. I always thought that Recordor was the passive endings but only used in the active. So wouldn’t it be Recordabatur and Recordatur. Btw I am very confused about this topic so could you help me?
Here is my reply:
Latin does not use a preposition when dealing with time. This means you can say “on the third day” without a preposition… die tertio. All you have to do is make sure it is in the ablative case.
As for the deponent verbs in chapter 38, they confuse everyone. In fact, I removed them from the later editions of Visual Latin. I replaced the deponent verb recordor with the regular cogitat. The sentences should read:
“Tunc rex de ministris suis qui sunt in carcere cogitat.”
“Sed pincerna non cogitat de Joseph.”
It all still means the same thing. Just translate with cogitat, instead of a version of recordor. Of course, it does not help that I made a mistake with those verbs. They should have passive endings. You are correct.
