Ch 6 · Lesson 12Latin · Chapter 6 · Lesson 12 · Grammar primer
Where and when: the ablative of place and time
In , , : in the city, at first light, within three days. No preposition for time, and how long is the accusative.
The short version
Time when and time within take no preposition
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Latin puts a time in the bare ablative: , at first light; , at night; , within three days. How long something lasted is different and takes the accusative: , he/she stayed for three years.
Where and when: place and time
Place where takes with the ablative. The same preposition with the accusative means into, so the case alone says whether you are there or on your way:
In villam (accusative): on his way into the house. In villa (ablative): in the house, already there.
.- He stays in the city..- He came into the city.
Names of towns and small islands take no preposition. First- and second-declension singulars keep an old locative (Romae, at Rome; , at home); the rest use a bare ablative (Athenis, at Athens; Carthagine, at Carthage).
Time takes no preposition either. A point in time is time when; a span inside which something happens is time within which:
| Kind | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| time when | | at first light |
| time when | | at night |
| time when | | in the third year |
| time within | . | He will come within three days. |
| how long | . | He stayed for three years. |
prima luce: at first light (a point: ablative)
tribus diebus: within three days (somewhere inside: ablative)
tres dies: for three days (the whole span: accusative)
Timeline from now to later, with now marked.
The last row is the trap: how long something lasted is not an ablative job at all but the accusative. English in three days is ambiguous; Latin means within that span, and means after it.
Going further: The forms, in one place and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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