> [in Latin] With a compound sentence, would each part of the compound
sentence be
> translated by itself first like they were two different sentences, and
> then joined?
> In other words, would all the words before the comma go together and
> all the words after the comma go together?
It's not entirely clear what you mean, Michael. If I understand you
correctly, then the answer is yes, in general. At your level, you're
fairly safe taking all the words before the conjunction or subordinating
word together, and all the words after it together, and the usual practice
in texts at your level is for the editor to insert a comma before the
conjunction. However, in real Latin, it is common practice for a word to be
brought out of the second clause and placed before the conjunction. In
poetry, it can even be several words. Commas are also rarer in more recent
scholarly texts.
You might have already met a simple example of this (depending on the course
you are using) in sentences such as "Caesar, postquam...."
Hope that helps - if not, get back to me. And good luck with the Latin!
Peter