ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR NOTES

PLEASE NOTE: THIS GRAMMAR SECTION IS A WORK IN PROGRESS (AS ARE THE GIST TRANSLATIONS) AND WILL BE CONSTANTLY ADDED TO AND HOPEFULLY IMPROVED UPON but I thought it might be of some use even as it progresses.

ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR NOTES ARRANGED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

ABLATIVE: This is one of the six CASES, sometimes called the ‘by,with or from’ case, as when a noun is in the ablative case it can imply, by, with or from that noun. For example, ‘glaudio’ can mean with a sword in the sentence, he killed him ‘with a sword’ (masculine singular ablative of second Declension noun ‘gladius’ – sword, SEE DECLENSION). In ‘The girl was loved by the boy (a puero) the noun is accompanied by the PREPOSITION a. The ablative is often accompanied by a Prepositions in Latin e.g.; ex, out of or from; cum, with; a or ab by. See PREPOSITIONS for more.

ACCUSATIVE CASE is used when the noun is the direct object of the verb as in ‘The girl chased the boy (puerum). The boy in th is sentence is not ‘doing the verb’ it is the girl who is ‘doing the chasing’ and the boy is at the other end of the verb, he is receiving the acion. In ‘The boy kicked the ball’, it is the ball which would be put in the accusative case.

ADVERBS can qualify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. In the sentence 'she walked quickly' quickly is an adverb telling you something about how she walked.  In Latin most adverbs are formed in a predictable way from adjectives as follows:

1  For adverbs derived from adjectives of the first and second declension you find the stem and add e; carus (adj) 'dear' becomes care adverb 'dearly'.

2  For adverbs derived from third declension adjectives you find the stem and add iter unless the stem ends in ‘nt’ when you just add er. fortis (adj) 'brave' becomes fortiter 'bravely' and sapiens 'wise' with a genitive of sapientis gives the stem sapient which becomes sapienter 'wisely'.

IRREGULAR ADVERBS: the following are some of the most common irregular adjectives and adverbs.

POSITIVE DEGREE    COMPARATIVE DEGREE     SUPERLATIVE DEGREE

ADJ               ADV      ADJ                 ADV                 ADJECTIVE   ADVERB

bonus,-a,-um    bene      melior,melius     melius                optimus,-a,-um  optime

malus              male       peior, peius        peius                  pessimus          pessime

magnus       magnopere  maior, maius      magis                 maximus          maxime

multus         multum       —, plus             plus                   plurimus           plurimum

parvus        parum         minor, minus      minus                 minimus          minime

CASE: When a noun is found in a sentence it will be in one of SIX CASES: NOMINATIVE, when it is the subject of the sentence e.g. The Boy (Puer), in ‘The boy chased the girl’ ; VOCATIVE, when the noun it is being addressed, as in ‘Oh boy (Puer) why are you chasing that girl?’; ACCUSATIVE when the noun is the direct object of the verb as in ‘The girl chased the boy (puerum); GENITIVE which means ‘of the boy’ as in : ‘The father of the boy (Latin pueri) saw him chasing the girl’; DATIVE meaning ‘to the boy’, when the noun is the indirect object of the verb, as in ‘The girl gave a present to the boy (puero)’ and finally ABLATIVE sometimes called the by,with or from case, as in ‘The girl was loved by the boy (puero)’. Sometimes which CASE is used depends on the preposition which is with the noun (see PREPOSITIONS).
CLAUSE A clause is a group of words including a subject and a finite verb that does not necessarily constitute a sentence. A MAIN CLAUSE is a clause that can stand alone as a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate with a finite verb, as ‘I was at home’ in the sentence ‘I was at home when the parcel was delivered.’ A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE modifies the main clause or something in the main clause. COORDINATE CLAUSES are of equal importance in a sentence and are joined by coordinating CONJUNCTIONS (e.g. and, or) as in ‘The sun came out and the ice started to melt’.

CONJUNCTIONS are words which connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, such as but, and. Below are listed many of the common conjunctions:

an, conj., or (in questions).

ante-quam, conj., before than, sooner than, before.

at, conj., but.

atque or ac (the latter never used before words beginning with a vowel or h), conj., and; after words of comparison, as, than.

aut, conj., or; aut ... aut, either ... or.

autem, conj., moreover; but, however; now.

cum, conj., when, while, after; since; although.

dum, conj., while, as; as long as; until.

enim, conj., for.

et, conj., and; et ... et, both ... and.

et-sí, conj., even if, although.

igitur, conj., therefore.

nam, conj., for.

nam-que, conj., for.

né, adv., not; né ... quidem, not ... even; conj., that not, lest.

neque or nec [ne-, not + -que], conj., and not, nor; neque ... neque, neither ... nor; neque enim, for ... not.

néve or neu [né + -ve, or], conj., and that not, and not, nor.

nisi [ne-, not + sí], conj., if not, unless.

post-quam, conj., later than, after, when.

prius-quam, conj., before than, sooner than, before.

quam-quam, conj., however much, although.

quasi [quí + sí], conj., as if.

que -que, enclitic conj. (which means it is joined to another word and does not stand on its own as in ‘terra marique’ = ‘by land and sea’.

quín, conj., so that ... not, but that, but.

quod [quí], conj., that, in that, because.

quoniam [cum + iam], conj., since now, since.

sed, conj., but.

sí, conj., if.

sí-ve or seu, conj., or if; síve ... síve, whether ... or.

ubi, adv., where; conj., when.

ut, conj., as; when; that; ita ut, as.

DATIVE CASE This is one of the six CASES, meaning ‘to’ or ‘for’ the noun, as in ‘to the boy’, in the sentence ‘The girl gave a present to the boy (puero)’ The noun in this sentence is said to be the indirect object of the verb, or is in the Dative Case. The Direct Object in this sentence is the present and the Subject of the sentence is the girl. 
VERBS WHICH TAKE THE DATIVE CASE: There are some verbs which take the dative case.  Listed below are some of the most common of these verbs: gratias agere (to thank); appropinquo are, avi + dat. verb I approach, come near to ;confido, confidere – trust (be trusting to) ; faveo, favere – be favourable to ; ignosco – grant pardon to; pardon, forgive ; impero – give orders to; command ; inquit ; invideo, ere - envy; insidior – to waylay, ambush; licet, – it is permitted, one may; metuo, metuere, metui – to fear, dread; minor, ari – threaten; noceo – do harm to; nubo – marry;  obedio, ire – be obedient to; obsequor – I obey; parco – be lenient to; spare; pareo, ere – obey; permitto -ittere, allow; persuadeo ere – persuade; placeo – please; prosum, prodesse – benefit, do good to resisto, ere – resist; servio, ire – be of service to, serve; studeo – study; suadeo, ere – advise; subvenio, ire – help; tradire – to hand over

DECLENSIONS: All nouns (see Nouns) belong to one of five families of Declensions. These families are grouped according to the way they form the GENITIVE singular. The FIRST DECLENSION nouns (most are FEMININE) end in ‘a’ in the Nominative singular) and have GENITIVE ending in ‘ae’ as in puella (Nominative), puellae (Genitive = of the girl). SECOND Declension Nouns are mostly masculine ending in ‘us’, or ‘er’ or neuter nouns ending in ‘um’, in the Nominative singular and have GENITIVE Singular ending in ‘i; The words belonging to the THIRD Declension have many different endings in the Nominative but all have GENITIVE ending in ‘is’; THE FOURTH Declension has words ending in ‘us’ and ‘u’ with GENITIVE ending in ‘us’ and the FIFTH Declension has (very few) words endding in ‘es’ in the nominative ending with a GENITIVE ending in ‘ei’. It’s not as difficult or confusing as it sounds as most words belong to the first three Declensions and you soon get used to the odd ones as they are frequently used. Below you will find a table of Declensions for easy reference.

	1st	2nd			3rd			4th	5th
Singular
Nom	carta	dominus	puer	vinum	rex	civis	jus	redditus	res
Voc	carta	domine	puer	vinum	rex	civis	jus	redditus	res
Acc	cartam	dominum	puerum	vinum	regem	civem	jus	redditum	rem
Gen	cartae	domini	pueri	vini	regis	civis	juris	redditus	rei
Dat	cartae	domino	puero	vino	regi	civi	juri	redditui	rei
Abl	carta	domino	puero	vino	rege	cive	jure	redditu	re
Plural
Nom	cartae	domini	pueri	vina	reges	cives	jura	redditus	res
Voc	cartae	domini	pueri	vina	reges	cives	jura	redditus	res
Acc	cartas	dominos	pueros	vina	reges	cives	jura	redditus	res
Gen	cartarum	dominorum	puerorum	vinorum	regum	civium	jurum	reddituum	rerum
Dat	cartis	dominis	pueris	vinis	regibus	civibus	juribus	redditibus	rebus
Abl	cartis	dominis	pueris	vinis	regibus	civibus	juribus	redditibus	rebus

GENITIVE CASE which means ‘of the noun’ as ‘of the boy’ in the sentence: ‘The father of the boy (Latin pueri) saw him chasing the girl’, or as we would probably say ‘The boy’s father etc.’. We sometimes call this the possessive case as it shows who something belongs to as in the boy’s father; the boy’s dog, the boy’s pen etc.

HIC HAEC HOC - DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE AND PRONOUN

hic, haec, hoc  Has two meanings  ‘This’ ‘These’ when its an adjective – describing a noun e.g. hic vir = this man, haec femina = this woman, hoc templum = this temple etc.  ‘He, she, it, them when its a pronoun – standing in for a noun. e.g. video eos = I see them (masc pl).

You will find in your reading that the neuter hoc is sometimes spelled with a long o and sometimes with a short o and the inconsistency is quite simply often historical: grammarians of the nineteenth and early twentieth century often spell nominative neuter hoc with a long o whereas the modern tendency is to use a short o and Classicists wishing to reproduce Classical Latin use the short o.  Compare say, Wheelock and Cambridge which use short o with this excerpt from Allen and Greenhough, (also early twentieth century).

146 hīc, this

		SINGULAR			PLURAL
	M.	F.	N.	M.	F.	N.
NOM.	hīc	haec	hōc	hī	hae	haec
GEN.	hûius	hûius	hûius	hōrum	hārum	hōrum
DAT.	huic	huic	huic	hīs	hīs	hīs
ACC.	hunc	hanc	hōc	hōs	hās	haec
ABL.	hōc	hāc	hōc	hīs	hīs	hīs [*] Note 1.-- Hīc is a compound of the stem ho- with the demonstrative enclitic -ce. In most of the cases final e is dropped, in some the whole termination. But in these latter it is sometimes retained for emphasis: as, hûius-ce , hīs-ce . In early Latin -c alone is retained in some of these ( hōrunc ). The vowel in hīc , hōc , was originally short, and perhaps this quantity was always retained. Ille and iste are sometimes found with the same enclitic: illic , illaec, illuc; also illoc . See a, p. 67. [*] Note 2.--For the dative and ablative plural of hīc the old form hībus is sometimes found; haec occurs (rarely) for hae .

I STEM THIRD DECLENSION NOUNS

Some third declension nouns have the genitive plural ending ‘-ium’, (not um).

This happens when the noun is:  

parasyllabic in the nominative and genitive singular, i.e. they have the same number of syllables. Examples are: civis, civis (citizen m), navis, navis (ship f) ; clavis, clavis (key f) , nubes, nubis (cloud f),  classis, classis (fleet f); finis, finis (end m).  Be careful! common exceptions to the ium genitive plural include: pater, mater, frater, juvenis, senex, canis.

monosyllabic nouns with stem which ends with two consonants. Examples include: pars, partis (part f); urbs, urbis (city f); mens, mentis (mind f); gens, gentis (nation f). , pons, pontis (bridge m)

Neuter nouns where the nominative singular is the stem plus e.  These nouns have genitive plural in ium and ablative singular ending in i and neuter plural ending ia. Examples include: ancile, ancilis (shield n); mare, maris (n) (sea n); hastile, hastilis (spear n); sedile, sedilis (seat n).

ILLE, ILLA, ILLUD are personal pronouns meaning that man, that woman, or that thing, or simply he, she, it.  They are declined as follows:  

ille  illa  illud (Nominative masc, fem, neut)

illum illam illud (Accusative)

illius illius illius (Genitive)

illi illi illi  (Dative)

illo illa illo (Ablative)
Plural as follows: illi  illae  illa (Nominative meaning 'those men/women/things' or simply 'they'); illos  illas  illa (Accusative, meaning 'them'); illorum –arum –orum (Genitive menaing 'of them'); illis (Ablative menaing 'by, with, or from them')

IPSE, IPSA, IPSUM  : these are emphatic pronouns meaning himself, herself, itself, themselves, not to be confused with personal reflexive pronoun. It underlines or emphasizes the noun it is modifying or replacing. For example 'ipse id fecit' means 'he himself did it' not 'he did it himself' which means he did it all by himself, or 'he did it to himself.' It declines as follows:

Singular     Masc   Fem     Neuter

Nominative ipse    ipsa     ipsum

Accusative ipsum  ipsam  ipsum

Genitive     ipsius          ipsius   ipsius

Dative       ipsi     ipsi     ipsi

Ablative     ipso    ipsa     ipso

Plural                 

Nominative ipsi        ipse     ipsa

Accusative ipsos      ipsas    ipsa

Genitive     ipsorum  ipsarum ipsorum

Dative       ipsis       ipsis     ipsis

Ablative     ipsis       ipsis     ipsis

IS, EA, ID are personal pronouns meaning he, she it.  They are declined as follows:
     is       ea      id      (Nominative case for masc, fem and neuter)
     eum    eam   id      (Accusative case masc etc.)

     eius    eius   eius    (Genitive case - of him, her, it or his, hers, its )

     ei        ei      ei      (Dative case - to or for him, her, it)

     eo       ea     eo     (Ablative case - by, with, from him, her, it)
Plural as follows: ii    eae   ea (Nominative masc, fem, neut); eos eas ea accusative);      eorum earum eorum (Genitive); Eis (iis) (Ablative)

NOMINATIVE, One of the six CASES. When the noun is the SUBJECT of the sentence it is said to be in the NOMINATIVE CASE e.g. The Boy (Puer), in ‘The boy chased the girl’.

NOUN A noun is the name we give something. ‘Table’ is a noun and ‘Tom’ and ‘beauty’. Some nouns we can touch such as table, these are concrete nouns and others, like beauty, which we can’t touch are called abstract nouns.

OBJECT. The object of the sentence is the name of the noun which is receiving the action of the verb. In ‘The boy chased the girl’ the boy is the Subject as he is doing the chasing and the girl is the Object as she is at the end of the verb; she is receiving the action; she is being chased.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS 
The most common personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she it, we, you (plural) and they.

I, WE, US :

Singular

Nom    ego      I

Acc      me       me

Gen      mei      of me

Dat       mihi     to me

Abl       me       (from) me

Plural

Nom    nos      we

Acc      nos      us

Gen      nostri/nostrum} of us

Dat       nobis       to us

Abl       nobis    from us

YOU:

Singular

Nom    tu       you

Acc      te         you

Gen      tui        of you

Dat       tibi       to you

Abl       te    from you

Plural

Nom    vos       you

Acc      vos       you

Gen      vestri/vestrum} of you

Dat       vobis       to you

Abl       vobis    from you

IS, EA, ID are often used for he, she it.  They are declined as follows: 
is       ea      id      (Nominative case for masc, fem and neuter)    
eum    eam   id      (Accusative case masc etc.)

eius    eius   eius    (Genitive case - of him, her, it or his, hers, its )

ei        ei      ei      (Dative case - to or for him, her, it)

eo       ea     eo     (Ablative case - by, with, from him, her, it)
Plural as follows: ii    eae   ea (Nominative masc, fem, neut);
eos eas ea accusative);     
eorum earum eorum (Genitive);
Eis (iis) (Ablative)

ILLE AND ISTE can also mean he, she and it:

Sing He, she, it ille  illa  illud illum illam illud illius illius illius illi illi illi illo illa illo	He she it iste       ista       istud istum    istam    istud istius     istius     istius isti        isti        isti isto       ista       isto
They, them etc illi  illae  illa illos  illas  illa illorum –arum –orum illis	isti    istae   ista istos  istas  ista istorum -arum -orum istis

PERSONS When we talk about persons in grammar in the context of talking about verbs we mean the following: The first person singular is I ; first person plural is WE; second person singular is You (when talking to one person); second person plural is YOU (when talking to more than one person; the third person singular is HE, or SHE or IT, and the third person plural is THEY.

PREPOSITIONS Prepositions are linking words that are used before nouns and pronouns to make phrases which modify verbs, nouns or adjectives and typically show a spatial, temporal or other relationship between the words. The following is a list of all the common prepositions in Latin and the CASE they are accompanied by:

a, ab, prep. with abl., away from, from; of; by.

ad, prep. with acc., to, toward; at, near; for.

ante, prep, with acc. and adv., before.

apud, prep, with acc., among, with.

circiter, prep. with acc. and adv., about.

circum, prep. with acc., around.

contrá, prep, with acc., against, contrary to.

cum, prep, with abl., with.

dé, prep, with abl., down from, from, out of; about, concerning, of.

ergá, prep, with acc., toward, for.

in, prep, with acc., into, in, to, upon; with abl., in, on.

inter, prep, with acc., among, between.

intrá [inter], prep. with acc., within.

ob, prep. with acc., on account of, for; in compounds, to, against.

per, prep, with acc., through, by means of.

post, adv., after, later; prep. with acc., after, behind.

praeter [prae, before], prep. with acc., before, past, by; besides, except.

pró, prep. with abl., before, in front of; for, in behalf of; for, as; in return for, for.

propter, prep. with acc., on account of, because of.

sine, prep. with abl., without.

sub, prep. with acc. and abl., under; sub vesperum, towards evening.

suprá [superus, upper], adv. and prep. with acc., above, before.

tráns, prep. with acc., across, over.

PRONOUNS take the place of nouns. For example: In the sentence 'this is my brother he is tall' he is a pronoun referring to my brother. 'he, she it, they, you are all pronouns.  some of the most commonly used pronouns in Latin can be found under the following headings: PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 

QUIDAM, QUAEDAM, QUODDAM These are masculine, feminine, and neuter indefinite pronouns and adjectives meaning 'a certain'. They are declined as follows:

Singular     Masculine   Feminine    Neuter

Nominative quidam      quaedam    quoddam

Accusative quendam    quandam    quoddam

Genitive     cuiusdam   cuiusdam   cuiusdam

Dative       cuidam      cuidam      cuidam

Ablative     quodam     quadam     quodam

Plural               

Nominative quidam      quaedam    quaedam

Accusative quosdam    quasdam    quaedam

Genitive     quorundam quarundam quorundam

Dative       quibusdam quibusdam quibusdam

Ablative     quibusdam quibusdam quibusdam

SUBJECT. The SUBJECT of the sentence is the name of the noun doing the main verb, as in ‘The boy chased the girl’ it is the boy who is the Subject. In Latin the subject of the sentence is put into the NOMINATIVE Case.

TENSES The following is necessarily simplistic but as a rule of thumb might prove useful to you. There are six tenses of the Indicative: Present (amo - I love), Imperfect (amabam - I was loving), Future (amabo - I shall love), Perfect (amavi - I have loved), Future Perfect (amavero - I shall have loved) and Pluperfect (amaveram - I had loved). The Subjunctive mood has only four tenses: Present (amem - I may love); Imperfect (amarem - I might love); Perfect (amaverim - I may  have loved); Pluperfect (amavissem - I should/might have loved).

VOCATIVE CASE is used when the noun it is being addressed, as in ‘Oh boy (Puer) why are you chasing that girl?’