3.6 Ablative: By, With, From, In — Epoché
What you will be able to do Name the five main jobs of the ablative and tell them apart in a sentence. Accept that English has no single equivalent, and stop looking for one. Say which jobs take a preposition and which do not, and why the difference is not arbitrary. Read magnā vī , in urbe and ā fēminā and name the use in each. Read sentences like In culina non est. [36] — It's hot in the kitchen. — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 3.5 — the dative. This is the longest lesson of the Syntax volume, and the syllabus marks it as the place an English speaker should expect to slow down. The reason is structural rather than difficult: the Latin ablative is the merger of three older cases, so it does at least five unrelated jobs, and English distributes those jobs among four different prepositions. There is no mapping to memorise. What there is instead is a set of questions to ask, and this lesson gives you those. How English says it Take one Latin ending and see how many English prepositions it swallows. Latin English The job gladiō with a sword means — the instrument used magnā virtūte with great courage manner — how it was done in urbe in the city place — where it happened ex urbe from the city separation — the point left ā fēminā by the woman agent — who did it, in a passive tertiō annō in the third year time — when magnā virtūte a man of great courage description — what he is like Five prepositions — with, in, from, by, of — for one ending. And two of the rows are the same Latin words meaning different things: magnā virtūte is "with great courage" when it goes with a verb and "of great courage" when it goes with a noun. That is the character of this case. It is not that the ablative is vague; it is that it is general , and the sentence supplies the rest. The five jobs Take them in order of frequency, which is also roughly the order of ease. 1. Means, or instrument — "with", "by means of". No preposition. This is the commonest use and the easiest to spot: a thing, not a person, used to do something. Gladiō pugnat "he fights with a sword"; pede "with his foot"; nāve "by ship". The absence of the preposition is the rule, and it is the thing to get used to — English cannot say he fights sword . 2. Place where — "in", "on", "at". With in or sub . In urbe , in mēnsā , sub sōle . Here the preposition is normally present, and the case is what distinguishes rest from motion: in urbe "in the city" against in urbem "into the city". Lesson 3.7 makes a whole lesson of that pair. 3. Separation — "from", "out of", "away from". With ā/ab , ē/ex , dē . Ex urbe out of the city, ā Rōmā from Rome, dē caelō down from the sky. Town names drop the preposition, matching the accusative of motion towards from lesson 3.3: Rōmā alone is "from Rome". 4. Agent — "by" a person, in a passive sentence. Always with ā/ab . Vīnum ā fēminā datur "the wine is given by the woman". This is the one place where the preposition is compulsory, and the reason is that it distinguishes agent from means: a person acting takes ā , a thing used takes no preposition. Gladiō occīsus est is "he was killed with a sword"; ā fēminā occīsus est is "he was killed by the woman". One preposition carries the whole difference. 5. Manner, and description — "with", "of". Usually with cum , sometimes without. Cum virtūte or magnā virtūte , both "with courage". The rule of thumb is that a bare ablative of manner wants an adjective with it, and cum is used when the noun stands alone. And attached to a noun rather than to a verb, the same ablative describes: vir magnā virtūte "a man of great courage", which competes with the descriptive genitive of lesson 3.4. Beyond these five there are smaller uses you will meet and should merely recognise: time when ( tertiō annō ), comparison ( melior mē "better than me"), price ( magnō "at a high price"), respect ( nōmine "in name"), and the ablative absolute, which is a construction rather than a use and waits until the third phase. How to tell them apart A short procedure, in order. It resolves almost every ablative you will meet in the first three phases. Is there a preposition? If it is ā/ab with a person, it is agent . If it is ā/ab , ē/ex or dē with a thing or place, it is separation . If it is in or sub , it is place . If it is cum , it is accompaniment or manner . No preposition, and the word is a thing? Means , almost always. No preposition, and there is an adjective with it? Manner if it goes with the verb; description if it goes with a noun. No preposition, and the word is a time word? Time when . Note what that procedure relies on: whether the ablative is a person or a thing, and whether it attaches to the verb or to a noun. Neither is a matter of form. This is the first place in the course where reading Latin genuinely requires you to think about meaning rather than only about endings, and it is why the syllabus expects this lesson to be slow. One more thing that will save you real trouble. cum as a preposition takes the ablative and means "with"; cum as a conjunction takes a whole clause and means "when", "since" or "although". They are the same word and you tell them apart by what follows: a single noun phrase or a verb. Cum amīcō is "with a friend"; cum vēnit is "when he came". Seen in real Latin Latin English The use In urbe habitat. [1] He lives in the city. place where, with in In culina est. [2] She's in the kitchen. place where Est feles in mensa mea. [3] There is a cat on my table. place where — in is "on" here Familia mea in urbe habitat. [4] My family lives in the city. place where, longer subject Nemo in terra mea opus facit. [5] Nobody works in my country. place where; terrā looks like a nominative Nihil de te scio. [6] I know nothing about you. dē — "concerning", an extension of separation Cum eo veni. [7] I came with him. accompaniment, with cum Cum omnibus locutus sum. [8] I talked to everybody. accompaniment; the verb is deponent Per telephonum locutus sum. [9] I talked on th