I am trying to write "there are many islands" in Latin. How do you say there? Or can you just start with "are"? Would many islands count as a predicate nominative, or is it would you go into the accusative tense? Thanks!
I recall something like
Plurae insulae sunt.
check the ending on "plurae"
Insulae multae sunt.
To say "There are many islands" in Latin, you would use the phrase "sunt multae insulae." Here's a breakdown of the translation:
1. "Are" in Latin is "sunt." It is the third person plural form of the verb "esse" (to be), used to indicate existence or possession.
2. "Many islands" in Latin is "multae insulae." "Multae" means "many" and is an adjective agreeing with the feminine plural noun "insulae" (islands). The adjective "multae" matches the gender and number of the noun it modifies.
In this sentence, "insulae" acts as the subject of the sentence, and "multae" describes the quantity or quality of the subject. Since "insulae" is plural, the verb "sunt" agrees with it in number and shows that there is more than one island.
Regarding the use of "there," Latin does not have a direct equivalent of the English word "there" when used as a pronoun to introduce the existence of something. Instead, Latin typically relies on the verb form itself (in this case, "sunt") to indicate existence.
Therefore, you can simply start the Latin sentence with "sunt multae insulae" to express "There are many islands."
It's important to note that Latin does not have cases for tense. In this sentence, since "many islands" is the subject (nominative case), you don't need to use the accusative case.
Hope this explanation helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.