Latin/Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative

Latin
Intro:	1 • 2
Chapter 1	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6
Chapter 2	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8
Chapter 3	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8
Chapter 4	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10
Chapter 5	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9

Noun Tables

	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-ōrum
accusative	puell-am	puell-ās	serv-um	serv-ōs	bell-um	bell-a
dative	puell-ae	puell-īs	serv-ō	serv-īs	bell-ō	bell-īs

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 or Marcus's dog (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)

Quite simply, a word in the genitive case is translated with the preposition "of". Note that Latin does not have a separate form for the possessive genitive (Marcus's dog vs The dog of Marcus), as English does. A word in the genitive case showing possession can be translated either way.

Latin Examples

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.

Exercise 1

Indicate the word in the genitive:

1. Flavia's dog is good.
2. The man has his mother's good taste.

Agreeing with the Adjectives

When adjectives are used to describe nouns in the genitive case, they must have the same case, number, and gender as the noun to which it refers.

Example

A road of beautiful Rome → Via Romae pulchrae.

If we look at the bare necessities, namely nouns, in this phrase, then we get "road of Rome," which is translated as "via Romae." Now, let's look at the adjective: beautiful (pulchra). Its antecedent (the noun it modifies) is Rome. Since Rome is in the genitive case, pulchra also needs to be in the genitive case. Both are already feminine, so we don't need to change that.

To make pulchra in the genitive singular case, we replace the final "-a" with a "-ae," and we get pulchrae.

It's that simple.

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.

Latin does not distinguish between "to" or "for", though this is sometimes the case in English:

• I made this car for him. ↔ I made him this car.
• I gave this car to him. ↔ I gave him this car.

Example 1

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

'For' is the preposition indicating a 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.

Example 2

He gave the book to John; He gave to John the book; or 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. Also, the dative is used only for a noun

Latin Examples

Latin			English
Donō	amīcō meō	donum.	I gave	my friend	a gift.
verb	dative noun/adj. pair	accusative	verb	dative noun/adj. pair	accusative

Latin			English
Feret	mihi	stylum.	He brought	me	a pen.
verb	dative pronoun	accusative	verb	dative pronoun	accusative

Exercise 2: Translate into English

Latin	English
dō, dāre	to give
reddō, reddĕre	to give back
liber, librī (m.)	book
amīcus, -ī (m.)	friend
scrībō, -ĕre	to write
epistula, -ae (f.)	letter, message
Imperator, Imperatoris (m.)	Emperor
placeo, -ēre (+dat.)	to please, be pleasing to

Note that placeo requires the dative case, as opposed to the accusative case. Verbs such as this are denoted with (+dat.) or similar abbreviations.

EXERCISE • Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative • Questions

1. Do librum amico.
2. Amicus meum librum legit et mihi librum reddit.
3. Scribo epistulas Imperatori.
4. Meae epistulae Imperatori placent.

SOLUTION • Latin/Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative • Questions

1. I give the book to a friend
2. The friend read my book and returned the book to me.
3. I am writing letters to the Emperor.
4. My letters are pleasing to the Emperor.

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	tre	três
IV	quattuor	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	sette	sete
VIII	octō	eight	8	ocho	huit	otto	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	cinquenta
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

Note the declensions of the first three numbers. Nullus is the Latin equivalent of zero, for example: nullam puellam in agro video means I see no girl in the field.

Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Ablative
nullus	nullum	nullius	nulli	nullo
nulla	nullam	nullius	nulli	nulla
nullum	nullum	nullius	nulli	nullo
unus	unum	unius	uni	uno
una	unam	unius	uni	una
unum	unum	unius	uni	uno
duo	duos	duorum	duobus	duobus
duae	duas	duarum	duabus	duabus
duo	duo	duorum	duobus	duobus
tres	tres	trium	tribus	tribus
tres	tres	trium	tribus	tribus
tria	tria	trium	tribus	tribus

Exercise 3

EXERCISE • Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative • Write the word form of the numbers in the following sentences in the correct case.

1. III homines me salutant
2. magistro II libros reddo
3. D senatoribus multa (many things) dico
4. III horas diligenter laboro

SOLUTION • Latin/Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative • Write the word form of the numbers in the following sentences in the correct case.

1. tres homines me salutant
2. magistro duos libros reddo
3. quingenis senatoribus multa (many things) dico
4. tres horas diligenter laboro