Latin, Lesson 2-Genitive and Dative

Noun Tables

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

Exercise 1

Indicate the word in the genitive:

• Flavia's dog is good.
• 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

'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

• ↑ Note how the word "meus" become "meo" in order to agree with "amico".
• ↑ Note that the pronouns have a dative case as well, which can be reviewed in the chapter on pronouns.

Exercise 2: Translate into English

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

• Do librum amico.
• Amicus meum librum legit et mihi librum reddit.
• Scribo epistulas Imperatori.
• Meae epistulae Imperatori placent.

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

• I give the book to a friend
• The friend read my book and returned the book to me.
• I am writing letters to the Emperor.
• 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.

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.

Exercise 3

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

• III homines me salutant
• magistro II libros reddo
• D senatoribus multa (many things) dico
• 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.

• tres homines me salutant
• magistro duos libros reddo
• quingenis senatoribus multa (many things) dico
• tres horas diligenter laboro

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