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Some Latin prepositions Posted by leire on Dec 24, 2011
Accusative prepositions: Latin English Latin English Ad To, towards, up to, until Adversus Toward, against Ante Before Apud Among, in the presence of, at, at the house of Circa, circum,circiter About Contra Against, opposite Erga Toward, about Extra Outside, beyond Infra Under, below Inter Among, between Intra In Iuxta Close to, next to, near to…
Ancient Roman Idioms Posted by kunthra on Apr 11, 2011
Like with any language, Latin contains idioms that don’t make sense at first glance. Take for instance “ad calendas Graecas” which literally means “On the Greek day of the calends”. To understand the meaning of this idiom, the word calends has to be translated first. The ancient Romans used to label the first of every…
Prepositions Posted by kunthra on Jun 25, 2010
Can you spot the preposition in this sentence? Nautae circum īnsulam nāvigant = The sailors are sailing around the island The preposition here is circum. In this case, the word modified to circum is used in the accusative. That’s because cicum is one of those prepositions that use the accusative. Now try spotting the prepostion…
In, On, Into Posted by kunthra on May 22, 2010
Let’s compare the two sentences below : 1) In scholā sunt = They are in the school 2) In īnsulā sunt = They are on the island In the first sentence “In” means “in” in English, but in the second sentence “In” means “on” in English. Also, the words that modified “In” like scholā and īnsulā…
The Indirect Object Posted by kunthra on May 7, 2010
The indirect object states who is receiving or benefiing from the action being performed by the subject. So whenever you do something “to” someone or “for” someone, that’s the indirect object. The indirect object is also called the dative. We will look at the dative of the second declension. 1) Virō fābulam narrō = I am telling…
The Ablative Case : From Posted by kunthra on Apr 25, 2010
ā or ab can mean “from”. Can you tell when to use which from the two examples below? (1) Fēmina ā casā ad castrum aquam portat = The woman is carrying water from the house to the castle. (2) Puella ab īnsulā ad actam natat = The girl is swimming from the island to the seashore. In…
To, Toward Posted by kunthra on Apr 19, 2010
The prepostition “ad” can mean “to” or “toward”. When using “ad”, the word it refers to will be in the accusative form. Ad silvam ambulō. (silva = forest) The answer to the Latin phrase above is, “I am walking to the forest”. Silva ends in -am because it’s in the accusative form. Try translating these sentences…