My book translated the sentence "They report the victory by means of a letter" into "Litteris victoriam nuntiant." Why is it litteris, not litterae. In the English sentence, letter was never pluralized. Why is it now? Thank you so much for explaining this.
In the singular, littera means a letter of the alphabet. In the plural, it can mean 1) letters of the alphabet if modified by an adjective such as multae, 2) literature, or 3) a letter (epistle) written to someone.
Are you sure it's litteris, though? It would show up in ablative plural without a preposition to convey the meaning "be means of." How do you spell the ablative plural of that word?
In Latin, nouns have different forms called declensions. The form of the noun used depends on its role in the sentence, such as whether it is the subject or object.
In your example sentence, "litteris" is in the ablative case, which is used to indicate the means or instrument by which something is done. The noun "litterae" is the nominative form, which is used for subjects or when the noun is the one performing the action.
In English, when we say "by means of a letter," the word "letter" remains singular because we do not change the form of the noun based on the grammatical case. However, in Latin, since "litteris" is in the ablative case, it takes the plural form "litterae."
To determine the correct form in Latin, you need to consider the role of the noun in the sentence and look up the appropriate declension in a Latin grammar reference or dictionary. In this case, the ablative form "litteris" is used to indicate the means or instrument of reporting the victory.