Latin

= The Genitive =

The genitive case is a descriptive case. The genitive case describes the following features of the described noun:


• Possession e.g. The Dog of Marcus (Canis Marcī)
• Origin e.g. Marcus of Rome (Marcus Romae)
• Relation e.g. A thing of beauty (Rēs pulchrae)
• Quantity e.g. A gallon of water
• Quality e.g. Day of wrath (Diēs irae)

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Latin Examples

	1st declension		2nd declension
	-a		-us/er		-um (neuter)
	SINGULAR	PLURAL	SINGULAR	PLURAL	SINGULAR	PLURAL
nominative	puell-a	puell-ae	serv-us/puer	serv-ī	bell-um	bell-a
genitive	puell-ae	puell-ārum	serv-ī	serv-ōrum	bell-ī	bell-um
accusative	puell-am	puell-ās	serv-um	serv-ōs	bell-um	bell-a
dative	puell-ae	puell-īs	serv-ō	serv-īs	bell-ō

Latin				English
canis	puerī malī	est	bonus	The dog	of the bad boy	is	good
nominative noun	genitive	verb	nominative adj.	nominative noun	genitive	verb	nominative adj.

Latin				English
canis	puerōrum malōrum	est	bonus	The dog	of the bad boys	is	good
nominative noun	genitive (plural)	verb	nominative adj.	nominative noun	genitive	verb	nominative adj.

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Exercise 6

Indicate the genitive:

1. Flavia's dog is good.
2. The man has athlete's foot.
3. Māter Flāviae est domina.

Adjectives which describe genitive nouns must have suffixes which are in the genitive case, matching the number, and gender.

= The Dative =

The dative case, also known as the indirect object case indicates:


• For whom, e.g., I made this car for him
• To whom, e.g., I gave this car to him
• Of whom (Possessive Dative)
• Predicative Dative (which shall be dealt with later).


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Example 1

Demonstration: The Dative in Use

He	made	the desk	for	his friend
nominative noun	verb	accusative	dative prep.	dative

'he' is in the nominative, 'made' is the verb, 'the desk' is the accusative, 'for' is the preposition indicating a dative^, 'his friend' is the dative.

^ For can be used in some other constructs. To determine whether it is dative, analyse the meaning of the sentence (see Example 3). Practice will enable you to quickly spot the case of a noun in the sentence without much effort.

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Example 2

Demonstration: The Dative in Use

He gave the book to John or; He gave to John the book; He gave John the book

This demonstrates how English can use prepositions to change word order and even 'presume' a certain preposition exists that has been left out, giving a dative construct.

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Latin Examples

I gave my friend a gift. Ego dono amico meo donum.

• Note how the word "meus" become "meo" in order to agree with "amico".

He brought me a pen.

Feret mihi stylum.

• Note that the pronouns have a dative case as well, which can be reviewed in the chapter on pronouns.

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Exercise 8: Translate into English

1. Do librum amico.(Dare-to give;Librum-book;amicus-friend)

1. Scribo litteras Imperatori.(Scribere-to write; Litteras-Letter/Letters(This is a word which can mean both the letter of an alphabet in the singular, or in the plural either an individual letter, as in message, or many letters.) Imperator, imperatoris-m.-General/Emperor.)

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Roman Numerals

The Romans did not use the Hindu-Arabic numerals we use today. They used their own symbols and own numeric system. We still use Roman Numerals today.

Roman Numeral	Latin Number	English Number	Hindu-Arabic Numeral	Spanish Number	French Number	Italian Number	Portuguese Number
I	ūnus -a -um	one	1	uno	un	uno	um
II	duo -ae	two	2	dos	deux	due	dois
III	trēs, tria	three	3	tres	trois	trei	três
IV	quattor	four	4	cuatro	quatre	quattro	quatro
V	quinque	five	5	cinco	cinq	cinque	cinco
VI	sēx	six	6	seis	six	sei	seis
VII	septem	seven	7	siete	sept	siete	sete
VIII	octō	eight	8	ocho	huit	octo	oito
IX	novem	nine	9	nueve	neuf	nove	nove
X	decem	ten	10	diez	dix	dieci	dez
XV	quindecim	fifteen	15	quince	quinze	quindici	quinze
XX	viginti	twenty	20	veinte	vingt	venti	vinte
XXV	viginti quinque	twenty-five	25	veinticinco	vingt-cinq	venticinque	vinte e cinco
L	quinquaginta	fifty	50	cincuenta	cinquante	cinquanta	cinqüenta
C	centum	one hundred	100	cien	cent	cento	cem
D	quingentī, -ae, -a	five hundred	500	quinientos	cinq-cents	cinquecento	quinhentos
M	mille	one thousand	1000	mil	mille	mille	mil