3.5 Dative: "To" and "For" — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read a dative as the person to or for whom, and as the indirect object. Use the two Latin patterns English cannot copy: mihi placet and mihi est . Name the class of verbs that take a dative where English takes a plain object. Recognise the dative of the person concerned, which English has to add words to render. Read sentences like Ubi est schola tua? [52] — Where is your school? — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 3.4 — the genitive. The dative is where Latin stops looking like English rearranged and starts looking like a different way of building sentences. Its core is simple — the person to or for whom something happens — but Latin uses that core to construct whole sentences that English has to rebuild from the ground up. Four of the corpus sentences you have already met are the same Latin pattern and four different English ones, and this is the lesson that names it. How English says it English has the indirect object, which is the easy half. English Latin Note Give me the book. Da mihi librum. [1] dative for the person, accusative for the thing Give me some water. Da aquam mihi. [2] the same two cases, order reversed Tell me. Dic mihi. [3] the thing is left out Tell us everything. Dic omnia nobis. [4] nōbīs dative, omnia accusative English puts the indirect object either before the direct one with no preposition ( give me the book ) or after it with to ( give the book to me ). Latin uses the dative for both, in any order. So far, nothing new. Now the hard half. English makes the person the subject of the sentence wherever it can. Latin often does not, and when it does not, the person goes into the dative. English Latin What the Latin literally says I don't like this. Hoc mihi non placet. [5] this does not please to me This isn't mine. Hoc mihi non est. [6] this is not to me What is your name? Quid tibi nomen est? [7] what is the name to you? We need water. Aqua nobis opus est. [8] water is a need to us How many do you have? Quot tibi sunt? [9] how many are there to you? Five English sentences with five different structures, and one Latin pattern: the thing is the subject and the person is in the dative. This is the single most useful observation in the Syntax volume, because once you see the pattern you stop translating these sentences word by word and start recognising them. The three patterns to learn by name 1. mihi placet — liking. placeō means "I am pleasing", so the thing liked is the subject and the person is dative. The verb agrees with the thing: fēlēs mihi placent is "I like cats" with a plural verb, because the cats are doing the pleasing. English speakers reliably produce placeō fēlēs , which would mean "I please the cats". 2. mihi est — having. A form of sum with a dative expresses possession: liber mihi est "I have a book", literally "a book is to me". Latin also has habeō , and both are used; the dative construction puts the weight on the thing existing for someone rather than on the owner holding it. It is the construction behind quid tibi nōmen est and quot tibi sunt . 3. mihi opus est — needing. Literally "there is a need to me", with the thing needed in the nominative — or, more often in classical prose, in the ablative. Both are attested, and the corpus has the nominative version. Beyond these three there is a broad use with no name in English at all: the dative of the person concerned , marking someone in whose interest or to whose cost something happens. Mihi labōrat is "he works for me"; tibi hoc dīcō is "I say this for your benefit". English has to add words — for me , for your sake , as far as I am concerned — where Latin adds an ending. Verbs that take a dative A class of verbs takes a dative where English has a plain object. The reason is always that Latin construes the action as directed towards someone rather than done to them, and once you see that the list stops being arbitrary. Latin English How Latin sees it tibi crēdō I believe you I give credence to you tibi persuādeō I persuade you I make it agreeable to you tibi parcō I spare you I am sparing towards you tibi ignōscō I forgive you I grant indulgence to you tibi placeō I please you I am pleasing to you tibi noceō I harm you I am harmful to you tibi serviō I serve you I am a servant to you tibi faveō I favour you I am favourable to you tibi pāreō I obey you I am obedient to you There are perhaps thirty such verbs and every one of them means something like "be X towards". They matter more than their number suggests, because one consequence is grammatical rather than lexical: a verb whose object is a dative cannot make an ordinary passive. You cannot say I am believed with a personal subject in Latin; you say mihi crēditur , "it is believed to me", with an impersonal verb. The second phase deals with this properly. And there is the matching group of adjectives: similis like, pār equal, proximus nearest, ūtilis useful, amīcus friendly. All take a dative — mihi similis "like me" — and English uses to for some of them and nothing for others, which is why they have to be learned individually. Seen in real Latin Latin English The dative Quid tibi placet? [10] What do you like? tibi — quid is the subject Feles mihi placent. [11] I like cats. ★the verb is plural , agreeing with the cats Non placent mihi feles. [12] I don't like cats. the same, negated, subject last Magister ei placet. [13] She likes the teacher. eī dative; magister nominative Domus mea mihi placet. [14] I like my house. three words of subject, then the dative Illud mihi placet. [15] I like that. a neuter demonstrative as subject Multi libri mihi sunt. [16] I have got a lot of books. ★ mihi est — possession, plural Quot amici tibi Bostoniae sunt? [17] How many friends do you have in Boston? the same, with a question word and a locative Da mihi omnia. [18] Give me everything. plain indirect object Da ei omnia quae habemus. [19] Give her everything we've got. eī dative; quae relative Look at the second and