3.7 Prepositions and Their Cases — Epoché
What you will be able to do Say which case each of the common prepositions takes. Use the four prepositions that take either case, and know what the case changes. Read in urbe against in urbem without hesitating. Recognise that the preposition is the same word as the prefix you met in lesson 1.4. Read sentences like Num quid aliud vis? [55] — Don’t you want something else? — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 3.6 — the ablative. Lesson 3.6 gave you a procedure for identifying an ablative, and the procedure began with "is there a preposition, and which one". This lesson supplies the list that makes it work. There is no way to derive which case a preposition takes, so it has to be learned — but the list is short, the pattern behind it is partly guessable, and you already know what most of the words mean, because lesson 1.4 taught them as prefixes. How English says it English prepositions do not govern case, because English nouns have none left. The one remnant is that English prepositions take the object form of a pronoun — with him , not with he — which is exactly what Latin does on a larger scale. English Latin What Latin adds with him cum eō the pronoun is ablative because cum demands it without you sine te ablative again to school ad scholam accusative because ad demands it on the phone per telephonum accusative, although the sense is instrumental So the difference is not conceptual but mechanical: Latin marks on the noun what English leaves to the preposition alone. The cost is a list; the benefit is that four prepositions can carry two meanings each, which is the second half of this lesson. The list Accusative only. The rough sense is motion, extent or hostility — a direction or a reaching-towards. Preposition Meaning ad to, towards; at; for the purpose of ante before, in front of apud at the house of; in the works of; among circum around contrā against, opposite inter between, among ob on account of, because of per through; by means of; during post after, behind praeter past; except propter because of, near trāns across Ablative only. The rough sense is rest, origin or association — a staying, a coming-from, a being-with. Preposition Meaning ā / ab from, away from; by (an agent) cum with (accompaniment or manner) dē down from; about, concerning ē / ex out of; made of; from the time of prae before, in front; in comparison with prō in front of; on behalf of; instead of sine without Either case, and the case changes the meaning. There are four, and they matter out of all proportion to their number. Preposition + accusative + ablative in into, onto — motion in, on — rest sub up under — motion under — rest super over, above — motion concerning, about subter beneath — motion beneath — rest The pair that matters in is the commonest preposition in Latin and the only one of the four you will meet constantly. Learn the pair as a unit: Latin English Case in urbe in the city ablative — rest in urbem into the city accusative — motion in mēnsā on the table ablative in mēnsam onto the table accusative The distinction is real and writers observe it, which means it is also a piece of evidence: if you cannot tell whether a form is ablative or accusative, the sense of the verb will tell you. A verb of being or dwelling takes the ablative; a verb of going or putting takes the accusative. In urbe habitat must be ablative because one does not dwell into a city. Two smaller points about the list, both useful. The short forms. ā , ē and prae have longer variants used before vowels: ab , ex . So ā fēminā but ab amīcō ; ē culīnā but ex urbe . This is the same phonetic tidiness as English a against an , and no more significant. The prefixes are the prepositions. Look back at lesson 1.4 and compare the two lists. ad , dē , ex , in , per , prae , prō , sub , trāns appear in both, and every one of them means the same thing in both jobs. So if you can read transatlantic , subterranean , antebellum , postscript , propter hoc or contradict , you already know the preposition. What is new here is only the case. And one honest warning about frequency. Latin uses prepositions far less than English does, because the cases already carry much of the work: the bare ablative is "with a sword", the bare dative is "to the boy", the bare accusative is "to Rome". So a Latin sentence typically has fewer prepositions than its English translation, and when a preposition is there it is usually doing something the case could not do alone. Seen in real Latin Latin English Preposition and case In urbe habitat. [1] He lives in the city. in + ablative — rest In scholam eo. [2] I go to school. in + accusative — motion Ad scholam ire volo. [3] I want to go to school. ad + accusative In culina sum. [4] I'm in the kitchen. in + ablative Nihil novi sub sole. [5] There's nothing new under the sun. sub + ablative — rest Est pro familia mea. [6] It's for my family. prō + ablative Nihil sit de nobis sine nobis. [7] There should be nothing about us without us. dē and sine , both + ablative Cum quo loqui vis? [8] Who do you want to speak to? cum + ablative of the relative Super mensam feles erat. [9] On the table there was a cat. ★ super + accusative Nesciebam te in hac urbe esse. [10] I didn't know that you were in this town. in + ablative inside an accusative-plus-infinitive The eleventh is worth reading twice. Nihil sit dē nōbīs sine nōbīs — "let there be nothing about us without us" — has two prepositions governing the same pronoun in the same case, and it is a slogan of the disability rights movement in its Latin form. Both dē and sine take the ablative, so nōbīs serves both. The ninth and thirteenth show the pair in action on two different prepositions. sub sōle is ablative because nothing is moving; super mēnsam is accusative, and a cat on a table is not obviously in motion — which is a reminder that the accusative with super covers position above as well as motion over, and that the neat rule has soft edges. When the rule and the