2 Comments

  1. Kerri Clark says:

    Excellent explanations! Can you explain why Pugno is an intransitive verb. Why can’t I use it in the following example?
    Caesar fights the Gauls.
    Can it only be worded, “Caesar fights with the Gauls.” strictly because it is considered intransitive?
    Thanks so much for your thoughts!

    1. Hi Kerri, I’m so glad the explanations are helpful! As for your question: for whatever reason, “pugnō” is primarily used intransitively. If you look at Latin texts, you will see you can fight “with” people (cum + ablative) or “against” people (in / adversum + accusative), but we don’t see “pugnō” + the accusative.

      It’s kind of like how in English, we have to say “look AT someone”; you can’t “look someone”, without the “at.” It’s just not how the verb works.

      If I wanted to translate “Caesar fights the Gauls” into Latin, I would use “pugnō,” but I would insert a preposition: “Caesar cum Gallīs / adversum Gallōs pugnat.”

      I hope this helps!

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