Three Ways to Read latus
A student compiling derivative lists from a passage about a river crossing meets three forms that the glossary files under one headword:
(1) Flumen erat latum et altum, neque milites id transire poterant. (2) Onera militum a servis lata sunt ad ripam. (3) Latus eius sinistrum sagitta ictum est.
The glossary offers latus, -a, -um 'wide'; latus, lateris n. 'side'; and latus as the perfect participle of fero. The student decides all three belong to the same entry and glosses (2) as 'the soldiers' burdens were wide at the bank', which makes no sense. A classmate suggests 'were carried', but the student objects that the participle of fero ought to look like feratus. For a vocabulary quiz the student must then assign six English derivatives - dilate, lateral, translate, collate, elated, latitude - to the correct Latin source, and two of them do not come from the same latus as the others.
1. Identify the form and function of the latus/lata/latum word in each sentence, and state what evidence decides each one.
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(1) latum is a neuter nominative singular adjective agreeing with flumen, predicate complement with erat and coordinated with altum: 'the river was wide and deep'. The agreement and the coordination with a plain adjective decide it. (2) lata sunt is a neuter nominative plural perfect passive participle agreeing with onera, with a servis supplying the agent: 'the soldiers' burdens were carried by slaves to the bank'. The passive auxiliary sunt, the agent phrase and the absurdity of 'wide burdens ... to the bank' all point one way. (3) latus is a neuter nominative singular noun, 'side', with eius as possessive genitive and sinistrum agreeing with it: 'his left side was struck by an arrow'. A participle could not take a possessive genitive or be modified by sinistrum in this way.
2. Answer the feratus objection and explain why one participle shape can serve more than one verb.
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The objection assumes that every verb forms its passive participle from its own stem, which fero does not. Fero, ferre, tuli, latus is a suppletive paradigm: the perfect and the perfect participle are supplied from a different root from the present system, so there is no classical *feratus. The same participle latus also serves tollo, tollere, sustuli ('lift, raise'), which is why a dictionary may list it twice. The practical lesson is that irregularity, not absurdity, is the default expectation with fero; the correct check is syntax and sense - passive auxiliary, agent phrase, agreement - rather than the shape of the ending.
3. Assign the six derivatives to their Latin sources and explain which two pattern with 'wide' rather than 'carried'.
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From latus, -a, -um 'wide': lateral (through latus, lateris 'side'), latitude (latitudo), and dilate (dilatare, dis- + latus, 'spread out wide'). From the participle latus of fero: translate (translatus, participle of transferre), collate (collatus, participle of conferre), and elated (elatus, participle of efferre, 'carried out', hence 'raised up'). The trap is dilate, which looks as if it should mean 'carry apart'; the prefix suggests separation, but the base is the adjective 'wide', and the sense 'expand' confirms it. The reliable test is not the prefix but the meaning the English word actually has.