Latin/Personal Pronouns Lesson 4
Salvēte omnēs!
Welcome to all Latin learners! If you’re just joining us and want to catch up, the links you’ll need are on the right.
As always, if you want to skip grammar and jump to sample sentences, just skip down to the bottom section of this post. If you want to memorize vocabulary, the Memrise course might be your best option.
New Vocabulary
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| is | he | |
| ea | she | |
| id | it | |
| eī (m) | they, those | |
| eae (f) | they, those | |
| ea (n) | those | |
| suī | himself, herself, itself, themselves | no nominative case; reflexive, refers to subject of sentence |
| suus, a, um | his, her/ hers, its, their/theirs | reflexive, refers to subject of sentence |
This lesson covers the plurals of 3rd person pronouns. As we saw last week, the most commonly used personal pronouns for the 3rd person also serve as demonstratives, and can also be translated as “that” or “those.” Now, there are more commonly used demonstratives which will be introduced later (hic/haec/hoc and ille/illa/illud) and those demonstratives sometimes do double duty as personal pronouns. Confusing, I know! The new forms in this lesson are below; the same reflexive and reflexive possessive forms are used in the plural as in the singular, so they are a repeat of last week’s lesson. And you may find that a graphic representation of the pronouns like the one here is more helpful to you.
| case | masculine | feminine | neuter | use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | eī = they/those people or things; | eae = they/those people or things; | ea = they/those people or things; | Subject |
| genitive | eōrum = their/of them/of those people or things | eārum = their/of them/of those people or things | eōrum = their/of them/of those people or things | Possessive |
| dative | eīs = to/for them/those people or things; | eīs = to/for them/those people or things; | eīs = to/for them/those people or things; | Indirect object |
| accusative | eōs, eās, ea = them/those people or things | eās = them/those people or things | ea = those things | Direct object, some objects of prep. |
| ablative | eīs = them / those | eīs = them / those | eīs = those | Obj. of prepositions, esp. “in,by,with,from” |
Reflexives: when a 3rd person pronoun is used reflexively (one of the objective cases refers to the subject of the sentence), we must use a special set of reflexive pronouns. Only one form in each case works for all genders and both singular and plural:
| Case | Latin | English / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | no nominative case is used: a reflexive pronoun by definition refers back to the subject | |
| Genitive | suī | of himself, of herself, of itself, of themselves |
| Dative | sibi | to/for himself, herself, itself, themselves |
| Accusative | sē | himself, herself, itself, themselves |
| Ablative | sē | (by/with/from) himself, herself, itself, themselves |
Reflexive possessive adjective: used instead of “ejus” to refer to something belonging to the subject of the sentence:
| Latin | English / Notes |
|---|---|
| suus, a, um | his (own), her (own), its (own), their (own) |
In general, the masculine pronoun “ei” and masculine adjectives are used to refer to a mixed group of people including men and women. Gender equity in pronoun use was a non-issue for Romans. The masculine forms are used when in doubt, they are just considered “common” gender. One thing you will never see in Latin is using the neuter to refer to people (like girls or babies in German!). When you see a neuter plural pronoun or adjective used alone, it is referring to things, not people.
New Sentences
[edit | edit source]| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eī terram novam vident. | They/ those men see a new land. | |
| Eae līberōs habent. | They(those women) have children. | |
| Eōs vidēmus. | We see them. | |
| Multās fīliās habeō. Eās amō. | I have many daughters. I love them. | |
| Prandium eīs parās. | You prepare lunch for them. | |
| Cum eīs (eīscum) venītis. | You come with them. | |
| Virtūs eōrum magna est. | Their courage is great. | |
| Līberī eārum sunt omnēs puerī. | Their (those women’s) children are all boys. | |
| Lūcia ea in arcā invenit. | Lucia finds them (those things) in the chest. | |
| Propter ea omnia, Rōmānī cum eīs (eīscum) pugnant. | Because of all of those things, the Romans are fighting with them. | |
| Gāius et Mārcus gladiōs suōs sēcum habent. | Gaius and Marcus have their own swords with them. | |
| Servum ad eōs mittō. | I send a servant to them. | |
| Patriam eōrum amāmus. | We love their country. | |
| Rōmānī patriam suam amant. | The Romans love their (own) country. | |
| Et patriam eōrum amant. | They also love their (those other people’s) country. | |
| Sibi timent. | They fear for themselves. | |
| Pater suōs (līberōs) amat. | A father loves his own children. Frequently the noun is omitted if context makes it clear. | |
| Rēx suōs amat. | The king loves his people. | |
| Imperātor suōs dē perīculō monet. | The commander warns his (soldiers) about the danger. | |
| Sua omnia eīs dat. | He gives all his (possessions, things) to them. | |
| Ea videō. | I see them/those things. |
Practice
[edit | edit source]| Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson | |
|---|---|
| Step one | First learn the words using this lesson: |
| Step two | Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: |
| Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function) | |
That concludes our introductory series on pronouns. For our next lesson, we have a collection of Latin Christmas carols. Valēte et habēte bonam fortūnam!