How do you tell in Latin what declensions are what? How to translate?

Question

I have this sentence I'm having a big problem with in a Latin translation I have to do. I'm having a problem with the endings that can match several different declensions. This is the sentence:

Troiani procella ad oppidum Carthaginem portati sunt.

My problem is that Troiani, ending in "i" could be a genitive singular, nominative plural in the 2nd declensions and/or a dative singular in the 3rd declension.

I've gotten as far as thinking it's Trojans and not something to do with Troy. But what are they carrying into Carthage?

Can someone help me with this translation? Thanks!

Answer 1

Latin's not the easiest language, so take heart.

In general, word order in Latin sentences is subject-object-verb. So it's a pretty safe guess that it's nominative plural. If so, then the nominative singular would beTroianus---second declension, and you can look it up in the dictionary to confirm. Another clue is the verb: "portati sunt" is a passive form from the 4th principal part of "portare", and it agrees in number with "Troiani". It's unlikely to be genitive singular since the verb is plural, so you'd need another explicit plural subject, and it's not dative singular because that's the wrong declension.

I'm not 100% sure about "procella", but I'm guessing it's in the ablative (does your original text have macrons?), meaning "storm", so you can think of the various types of ablative and which applies here.

Answer 2

The Trojans have been brought to the Carthaginian town by a storm.

Troiani - nominative plural subject
procella - ablative of means (by means of a storm)
ad oppidum Carthaginem - prepositional phrase
portati sunt - perfect passive 3rd person plural, modifies Trojans (they are receiving the action, not performing it - they are the ones being carried)

Answer 3

Portati is modifying Troiani. Whatever declension, gender, and tense portati is, Troiani should be. Or at least similar.