Subject: I can help with 'carus unus'...
Author:
Posted on: 2015-06-12 22:03:00 UTC

This expression is a classical example of a negative transfer, where the rules and the principles of your native language (L1) influence your translation of the foreign language (L2).

Yes, carus unus does literally mean 'dear one', but it has several mistakes:

Carus is a masculine nominative meaning (who?) 'beloved'. It is used only to men. Calling a woman your beloved would be cara.

Another thing - unus does mean 'one', but as a numeral (one, two, three - unus, duo, tres), not as a pronoun (the big one; the green one; etc.)

So, yeah, in conclusion - this is a failed attempt. The author could've used so many actual expressions: carissime, dilecti, etc.
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Well, what do you know - it was worth studying linguistics. Gimme a moment, I may be able to analyze the longer problem.

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