Translation of a Latin prose text into Spanish
This domain covers the versión: a short passage of Latin prose - historiographical, oratorical or epistolary, usually 50–80 words - that you must render into idiomatic Spanish. It carries roughly half the paper's marks, so a controlled method and natural Spanish decide the grade far more than a lucky guess at one word.
Method before you write a single word
- Underline every finite verb: the number of finite verbs equals the number of clauses.
- Locate the main clause first (nominative subject + finite verb in the main mood).
- Circle the subordinators: ubi, postquam, cum, dum, antequam, quod, quia, ut, ne, si, nisi, quamquam, etsi, quin.
- Treat every ablative absolute as a clause in disguise.
Constructions that decide the mark
- Accusative + infinitive (indirect statement): subject in accusative, verb in infinitive; Spanish needs que + a finite verb, with the tense shift (present infinitive → present/imperfect; perfect infinitive → pluperfect; future infinitive → conditional).
- Ablative absolute: his rebus cognitis → «conocidas estas cosas», «una vez conocidos estos hechos», «tras conocer estos hechos».
- Cum + subjunctive: temporal, causal or concessive; choose cuando, como, al, aunque from the sense, not from habit.
- Passive: render with Spanish ser + participle or with impersonal se, whichever reads naturally.
- Participles: expand into a relative clause or a gerund; do not imitate the Latin present participle mechanically.
Worked example
Caesar, ubi ea res nuntiata est, celeriter milites eduxit et, castris munitis, hostes adortus est.
- ubi ea res nuntiata est: temporal clause with a perfect passive - «cuando le fue comunicada esta noticia» (res = noticia, hecho).
- eduxit: perfect of educo; in a past narrative → preterite «sacó».
- castris munitis: ablative absolute → «una vez fortificado el campamento».
- adortus est: perfect of a deponent with active value → «atacó», never «fue atacado». Result: «César, cuando le fue comunicada esta noticia, sacó rápidamente a los soldados y, una vez fortificado el campamento, atacó a los enemigos».
Traps that cost marks
- Leaving a word untranslated: an incomplete clause is normally scored as an error.
- False friends: hostis (enemy, not guest), hospes (guest/host), necare (to kill), testis (witness).
- Flattening every subjunctive into an indicative, or confusing ut purpose with ut result.
- Forgetting that se refers to the subject and that suus, -a, -um agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor.
- Translating word by word and producing Spanish that no reader would accept; style is part of the mark.