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The Ablative Case

The ablative is the Modal case (Wikipedia) (or to define it more clearly the case of Circumstances which modify the predication adverbially). Besides its proper ablative functions (taken in Greek by the Genitive), it comprises those of the Primitive Instrumental (partly taken in Greek by the Dative) and most functions of the Locative Case.

Its uses may be conveniently taken in the following order:

1. Instrumental ablative: comprising Cause; Instrument; Agent; Price; Matter
2. Locative Ablative: comprising Respect; Difference; Manner; Condition; Quality; Time When; Place Where and by Which.
3. Ablative Proper: comprising Place Whence; Separation; Origin; Thing Compared.

The different uses of the ablative will be dealt progressively. For a summary of all forms of the ablative, please consult the Appendix.

Grammar Part 5: The Power of the Ablative Case

Ablative generally indicates position in time and/or space (i.e. when and where). It can also indicate the idea of ways of getting to a location, abstractly or concretely.

Ablative of Means

Exercise

How would you translate "I made the toga by hand"?

• Hint: You would not (and should not) use the genitive. The case you are studying right now can be used by itself for this goal.
• Hint: Remember that you won't need to use the pronoun "I," since Latin is based not on word order, but on the endings!
• Glossary:

  "to make" - Facio ("I make"), facere ("to make"), feci ("I made"), factus ("made")

  "toga" - Toga, togae feminine

  "hand" - Manus, manus feminine (This is fourth declension)

Answer

Answer: Togam manu feci.

In this case, the word "manu" is in the ablative (see fourth declension list) and thus means "by hand."

Exercise

I have my wisdom by means of my teacher.

• 'Glossary:

  "wisdom" - Sapientia, sapientiae feminine

  "to have" - Habeo ("I have"), habere ("to have"), habui ("I had"), habitus ("had")

  "teacher" - Magister, magistri masculine (This is a second declension word, despite the 'r' at the end, like puer.)

Answer

Answer: Habeo sapientiam magistro.

Ablative of Time

Exercise

How would you say: I will arrive at the 5th hour.

'at the 5th hour' is indicating position of time. 'the 5th hour' is extraneous. You could say 'I will arrive' as its own clause (it stands by itself). The ablative tells us that the concept to which the ablative case refers (the 5th hour) is outside, and different from the (accusative) direct object or the (nominative) subject.

In general, therefore, in order to say "In the morning", "At nine O'clock," or "In the tenth year," use ablative. It is generally used to refer to a specific time in which something has, does, or will occur.

Example: I will leave in the night.

Hint: Future tense can be looked up in the appendices of this Wikibook!

Hint: to leave- discedo, discedere; night- nox, noctis(This is a third declension word!)

Answer

Answer: Discedam nocte.

Note the simplicity in which Latin translates the six words into simply two. The ending based language completely negates the need for the words "I," "will," "in," and "the."

Ablative of Place Where

Naves navigabant mari. The ships were sailing on the sea.

The ablative is also useful for showing the location of things, in general where you would use the words on, in, or at. There is an exception for the slightly more archaic locative, which is used with the words domi (from domus, domus, f., home), ruri (from rus, ruris, n., country [as opposed to city]), and Romae (from Roma, Romae, f., Rome), as well as with the names of towns, cities and small islands.

Latin has its own way of handling prepositions depending on the nouns and their cases in the sentence, including the versatile in, which can take many different meanings depending upon the case of the object.

Here are a few prepositions that can take the ablative:

1. ↑ Means "into" or "against" when it governs the accusative
2. ↑ Has static meaning when it governs the ablative but connotes motion when it governs the accusative
3. ↑ Usually means "up to" or "up to the foot of" when it governs the accusative

As a general rule, when motion is implied, use the accusative, but when location is implied

Example 3

Servus ex agris venit.

"The slave came from the fields."

Note: Ager (ager, agri, m., field) must take an ablative suffix to match the preceding preposition, in this case e/ex.

Incidentally, both ager and campus mean "field," but ager, like its English derivative "agriculture", connotes a farming field, while campus (think "college campus" or "Champs-Elysees") means "open field." The Campus Martius was a large field in Rome used for military training.

The Vocative Case

While you will rarely need to ask Lupus where the bathroom is in Latin, you may find yourself reading either quotes or letters in which a person is being directly addressed. The case it will be in is the vocative.

For example, "Hail, Augustus" will appear in Latin as Ave Auguste, and not Ave Augustus.

Each declension has its own form of the vocative singular and plural. They are listed in the table below.

Furthermore, in all but the second declension, the nominative and vocative are exactly the same!

• In the second declension singular, there are three separate possibilities for the vocative, depending on its nominative ending. Hence, if it is a us word, it will become an e and so forth.

Examples for different declensions in the second declension

• -us:

  Lupus ->Lupe (given name, wolf)

• -ius:

  Filius -> Fili (son)

  Horatius-> Horati (given name)

• -r:

  Puer-> Puer (boy)

In all cases, the plural vocative is exactly the same as the plural nominative. This extends to those words which are neuter, which always have an 'a' for the nominative and vocative.

Examples

1. Hello, Sextus.(Hello= Salve)*

   Salve, Sexte.

2. Speak, girl! (Speak= dico, dicere, dixi)*

   Dic, puella.

3. Knee, run!*(Knee= genu; run= curro, currere, cucurri)*

   Genu, curre!

4. Oh, heart, why do you lead me? (Oh-o; heart- cors, cordis-f.; lead-duco, ducere;

   O, cors! Cur ducis tu me?

• Note that the first three also require use of the imperative. The imperative is used when ordering or telling someone what to do, e.g.- "Stop," or "Get away from me."

The basic form of the imperative is created by dropping the "re" off of the infinitive form of the verb, as in: Amare, which becomes Ama; at least in the singular active form, which is all that these exercises require. More can be found about this subject in the chapter on verbs.