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Ch 12 · Lesson 2

The Latin you already speak: prepositions

, in , , : English kept the Latin preposition and the case it demands. Ablative or accusative, and what in does with each.

The short version

You already speak thirty Latin phrases

- through itself; - by heads

the same per, the same case logic, centuries of English usage
Why?

, , , , - English never stopped speaking Latin, it just stopped noticing. Many of the phrases are prepositions plus an ablative or accusative doing exactly what this course teaches, and i.e. e.g. stops being confusable the moment you spell them out: , that is; , for the sake of an example.

English did not borrow Latin words so much as snatch whole phrases out of Latin sentences and freeze them, endings and all. Each ending still says what it was doing: a case after a preposition, an order, a whole verb. Here are more than thirty, grouped by the grammar they teach.

ablativeaccusativegenitivethe verb endingWhat do the colours mean?
The grammarPhrases
prep. + ablative , ,
prep. + accusative , ,
an ordercarpe , , emptor
a genitivecurriculum ,
a whole verbveto, , deficit

Prepositions with the ablative

ablativeWhat do the colours mean?

A Latin preposition fixes the case of the noun after it, and these phrases kept the pair intact. , , , and always take the ablative.

PhraseLiterallyThe noun
from the fact, a deed or fact
from the law; English writes de jure
from the office, the post held
for the goodshort for
without a day: no date fixed
from the earlier, before the facts
in position, fourth declension
vitroin glassvitrum, glass

is what happens in practice; , what the law says. A leader runs the country whoever is entitled to.

An adjournment , with no day fixed for the return, is in committee terms a burial.

Prepositions with the accusative

accusativeablativeWhat do the colours mean?

, , , and always take the accusative.

PhraseLiterallyThe noun
for this, neuter: looks unchanged
by itself, the reflexive pronoun
by the year
by the day, fifth declension
by heads, neuter plural
before middaya.m.
after middayp.m.
beyond the powers, plural of

is a neuter plural: by heads. The singular exists but is rare.

is midday itself, which is why 12 noon is strictly neither a.m. nor p.m.: it is neither before midday nor after it.

Four panels of the same little house and garden: in the morning the sun has just risen above the horizon with an arrow pointing up; at midday a beaming sun sits high in the sky; in the evening an orange sun sinks into the horizon with an arrow pointing down; at night a sleepy crescent moon and stars shine over the lit-up house.

Ante meridiem, before midday (a.m.); meridies, midday itself; post meridiem, after midday (p.m.). Ante and post take the accusative.

takes both cases and means different things by them: the ablative for where a thing is, the accusative for where it is going.

PhraseCaseLiterally
ablativein position: there
accusativeinto memory
accusativeinto perpetuity

Going further: Orders: imperatives and one subjunctive and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.

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Lesson 2 of 17 in this chapter

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What do the colours mean?