Ch 6 · Lesson 8Latin · Chapter 6 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
The ablative: three families, and FROM
By, with, from, in, at: three old cases in one ending, so sort every ablative into from, with or by, and where or when. First the forms and FROM: , out of the city.
The short version
Sort the rest into FROM, WITH and WHERE
,
Why?Hide
Three older cases collapsed into the ablative and their jobs are still visible. FROM covers separation and source, usually with , ex or , and bare for town names: , Roma. WITH or BY covers means, agent and manner. WHERE and WHEN covers place (in ), time when ( , ) and time within which ( ). File a new use under one of those three heads and the case stops feeling arbitrary.
The ablative covers by, with, from, in and at. It is not vague, it is crowded: Latin's ancestor had three cases here, the true ablative (from), the instrumental (with, by) and the locative (where, when), and they fused into one set of endings. The jobs did not fuse, so sort every ablative into its family.
| Family | Use | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| from | separation | | out of the city |
| with/by | means | | we see with our eyes |
| with/by | agent | | by the soldiers |
| with/by | company | | with his father |
| where | place | | in the city |
| when | time when | | at first light |
| when | time within | | within three days |
Three families, one rule to burn in: a tool takes a bare ablative, a person takes , a companion takes .
The forms, in one place
| Declension | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
1st, | | |
2nd, | | |
2nd n, | | |
3rd, | | |
3rd i-stem, | | |
4th, | | |
5th, | | |
The first-declension looks exactly like the nominative; only vowel length, which nobody wrote down, tells them apart, so context does the work. Every plural ends in - or -bus, which makes an ablative plural easy to spot, though the same forms are also the dative plural.
From: separation and source
The first family says where something comes from, or what it is apart from. A preposition usually comes with it:
| Preposition | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| . | He came out of the city. |
| navigavit. | He sailed from the island. |
| . | He came down from the mountain. |
| . | We cannot live without water. |
Names of towns, and (home), take no preposition at all:
Roma .- He came from Rome..- He left home.
That is not sloppiness: it is the older pattern, surviving in the words people used most.
Going further: With and by: means, agent, manner and company and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
Practise this lesson
10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
Latin · Free printables
Worksheets for this lesson
Worksheets with answer keys built in. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekLesson 8 of 35 in this chapter