Chapter 11

I. Grammar

A. Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns in Latin are irregular and must be memorized. There are, however, patterns in the declension of these forms which may aid in memorization: mei vs. tui, mihi vs. tibi, me vs. te, nostrum vs. vestrum, etc. Because these are not demonstrative pronouns, the personal pronouns do not exhibit the -ius genitive singular ending.

B. Is, Ea, Id

This pronoun is built from a simple base e-, the weakest form of the demonstrative, to which are added first/second declension endings, with the expected substitution of -ius and -i in the genitive and dative singular. The only forms which do not follow this pattern are is and id. There is a mandatory long mark in the feminine ablative singular (eâ).

C. Îdem, Eadem, Idem

It's relatively rare in Latin to find suffixes because they turn endings into "middlings" and that grates on the Roman ear which wants to hear syntactical information at the end of a word. Îdem is one of the few exceptions. Nevertheless, its formation is quite regular. Only a few forms of this pronoun deviate from the basic pattern, is/ea/id + -dem. Here are some important things to note:

1. The long mark in îdem (masculine nominative singular) is mandatory. It distinguishes îdem from idem (the neuter nominative/accusative singular) which has a short i-.

2. For any form of is, ea, id which ends in -m, that final -m will become -n when -dem follows it: eundem, eandem, eorundem, earundem.

Wheelock in Chapter 11 lists only the irregular forms of îdem. The full declension can be found at the back of the book on page 383.

D. The Use of Pronouns in Latin

There are several important things to note about the use of the personal pronouns in Latin:

1. The nominative forms of the personal pronouns are used mainly for emphasis.

2. The genitive forms of the personal pronouns do not show possession but are used as partitive genitives (e.g. some of us) and objective genitives (love of me); see page 50, note 4. Instead, the adjectives meus, tuus, noster, and vester serve as the possessive forms of the first- and second-person pronouns.

3. However, because the Romans had no possessive (non-reflexive) adjective for the third person (his, her, its, their), they used the genitive of is, ea, id to show possession (eius = "his/her/its"; eorum/earum = "their"). Note that the genitive forms of is, ea, id work differently from the possessive adjectives. Whereas the possessive adjectives decline and agree with their antecedents (e.g. amici mei, officia vestra), eius/eorum/earum do not (e.g. amici eius, officia eorum). Rather, just like his/her/its/their in English, eius/eorum/earum indicate the noun to which they are attached by juxtaposition, usually coming after the noun.

4. Finally, Latin does not use possessive pronouns nearly as often as English; see Wheelock page 51, note 5. That is, where we say "Rufus has his (own) book," Latin says Rufus librum habet (with no equivalent of "his" attached to librum) because possession by the subject is assumed in Latin, if not stated otherwise.

II. Compound Verbs

Just as in English, prepositions in Latin can be appended to the front of a verb and used to modify its meaning. In Latin, however, the preposition is always prefixed to the front of the verb, e.g. induco, whereas in English it more often follows the verb, e.g. lead in. In both languages, the preposition can simply add its literal sense to the verb, as induco does ("lead in"), but sometimes the compounded verb takes on a new, figurative sense in which the connection to the base verb may be hard to fathom (Latin induco can also mean "cover, erase, revoke, persuade, resolve and believe," cf. English make vs. make up, tank vs. tank up, screw vs. screw up).

Vowel gradation is an important principle involved in compound verbs. It is the shortening of the vowel in the verb base when a compound is prefixed, e.g. facio > conficio, capio > accipio, rapio > eripio. Most often, -a- will shorten to -i-, but -e- can as well, e.g. dis- + lego > diligo. In another important process called assimilation, the prefix may also change form before bases beginning with certain consonants, e.g., cum can become col-, com-, con-, co-; ad > ac-, al-, ap-; sub > sup-, sur-, sus-, to name but a few of the many possibilities. By understanding the constituent elements of compound verbs, one not only comes closer to understanding Latin the way the Romans did but can also save much time memorizing verbs.

Click here for a worksheet on compound verbs.

III. Vocabulary

nemo: A contraction of ne- and homo (in an older form *hemo), nemo borrows the genitive and ablative singular of nullus.

carus: Carus often has a dative associated with it, "dear (to . . .)." If so, the dative is said to be "with carus."

autem: Another postpositive conjunction. See igitur, Chapter 5.


IV. Sentences

Practice and Review

14. See page 52, footnote 9.

V. Review for Test 2

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