Lesson 11: Prepositions 2
Prepositions which take both the Accusative and Ablative
As we learned, in the dictionary, 50% of prepositions are "prepositions which take the accusative", often abbreviated: "prep. with acc."
The other 50% of prepositions will be "prep. with abl." - prepositions which take the "by, with, in" function (called Ablative). (These will be learned later.)
There are four prepositions which are can take either the object function (accusative) or the "by, with, in" function (ablative), so they are listed in the dictionary as "Prep. with acc., with abl."
The prepositions which take both can have two meanings:
- Motion (Accusative) - indicates a geographical or moral motion
- Place (Ablative) - indicates a resting / remaining in a place
The most common of these prepositions is "in", with its two meanings:
- into, on to, towards (Acc. indicates motion)
- in, on, among (Abl. indicates place)
The prepositions which take both:
- in - into, in
- sub - under
- subter - beneath
- super - over, above
These are listed at the bottom of the list of Prepositions for your reference. Now do Homework 6.
N.B.Some questions may come up if you didn't already know:
- There are no "articles" in Latin such as "a, an, the".
Thus "rex dicit" can mean either "a king says" or "the king says".
- Some nouns in the dictionary list a gender of "C". This stands for "common" gender because some nouns are genderless (they can be either masculine or femine).
"After you've learned everything about Latin, you still have to think." - Fr. Foster
First Experience Latin - Fr. Reginald Foster
Answers to First ExperienceReturn to Index