# What time will you be ready?



## Alxmrphi

Hi all,

I was just wondering about some comparisons with Italian and Latin and figuring out how to say a few modern things in Latin.
I know this isn't a translation service but I really have got no clue where I'd start, except by going from Italian to Latin.
So it'd be "A che ora sarai pronta?" in Italian, but what about Latin? Any ideas?

Thanks
Alex


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## uchi.m

Cui horae habetis in promptu?


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## Scholiast

Greetings

I don't understand why utchi.m (#2) puts the question "at what time [/hour]...?" into the dative case. Classical Latin uses either the accusative or the ablative for time-expressions, and the ablative (usually) for time "when(?)". One would therefore expect:

_qua hora...?_

(or, more simply, _quando...?_)

Also, "habetis in promptu" is (a) plural (the It. "sarai" is singular), and (b) idiomatically odd (_in promptu habere_ means "to *have* something ready / to hand" - and would call for a direct object in any case). You could just about say _quando/qua hora in promptu eris?_, but more simply:

_qua hora parata eris_?


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## Maioneselover

Hi, Alxmrphi.
Maybe 'cause I'm italian, I share your opinion that Italian is the key to comprehend Latin.
But you should consider prepositions in Italian and in other Romance languages are used most largely than in Latin, due to the drop (right term?) of declensions.
So, "a che/quale ora", "all'una/alle due...", "di mattina/giorno...", "a notte fonda" etc.. are all complement of time, not dative nor genitive.

I find explanatory this comparison: in most Romance languages "de" is used for the genitive case, while in Latin you'd express it by declining the word.


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## Fred_C

Scholiast said:


> _qua hora parata eris_?



Hi.
That is not quite correct.
It should be «*quota* hora paratus(a) eris».
"Quotus, ta, tum" is the interrogative adjective asking a question which must be answered with ordinal numbers like "first", "second", "third", etc.
(Using those numbers is required in latin, when it comes to speaking about time)


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## Scholiast

Greetings.

Fred_C (#5) is perfectly correct, "quota hora" is most strictly correct, anticipating an ordinal number (_prima_, _quinta_ &c.) by way of response. But just as it is perfectly proper to use a demonstrative such as "illa" or "ea" with _hora_, so it is grammatically acceptable to use the correlative interrogative, _qui_/*quae*/_quod_. Compare e.g. _*qui* vir praemium accipiet?_ [answer:] _*primus* (qui metam perveniet)_.


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## Fred_C

Hi,
Your argument could be used to demonstrate that the following sentences are perfectly correct to ask about time :

“Quale ora è?”
“Welche Uhr ist es?”
“How many o’clock is it?”

But they are not.
In every language, there is hardly one way to ask for time, and the use in latin is this one.


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## Scholiast

salvete amici!

quod Fridericus noster Gallus dixerat (#5), id stricto sensu recte dicit. Et valde probanda est pictura illa horologii, quam citat. necnon apud Horatium legimus (_Sat._ 2.6.44) "quota hora est?"

manet nihilominus, ut linguam in usu orali atque quotidiano tractamus, lectio (immo, dictio) _ea hora_, et idcirco _qua hora? _usus communalis.

argumentum meum nullo modo exempla illa errata



> “Quale ora è?”
> “Welche Uhr ist es?”
> “How many o’clock is it?”



iustificare potest. (memini scaenam illam, in pictura moventi "Casablanca", quo maritus Vindobonensis cum uxore sua linguam Anglicam exercet et falso "How much clock?" inquit - "Wieviel Uhr?").


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