26 Prepositional Phrases

“Accusative nouns of all declensions have another use besides being an Object of a verb: they can be the object of a preposition and form Prepositional Phrases. A Preposition is a little word that has a noun or pronoun as its object – ‘in’, ‘to’, ‘for’, ‘by’, or ‘because of’ in English, for example. A Prepositional Phrase is a preposition combined with a noun or pronoun. Some Latin prepositions go with a noun or pronoun in the Ablative Case – we will look at those tomorrow. Three common Latin prepositions that go with or ‘take’ an Accusative noun are ad, in, and per. Notice the accusative ending on each noun.”

ad urbemto the city, towards the city

in patriaminto the country

in virumagainst the man

per furōremthrough madness

“When you Mark Up a sentence, underline the Preposition and the noun it goes with.”

• Through the goddess I have hope against the enemy.
• Through the goddess I (subj.) have (verb, 1st sing. pres.) hope (obj.) against the enemy.
• Per deam habeō spem in inimīcum. >>> Per deam spem in inimīcum habeō.

Is inimīcum per urbem, ad Senātum movēbat! (8)

Do you plan death against me, against the city, against the Republic? (9)

Through the law of the people we will preserve freedom. (10)

• Initial sum

“Another tip: WHEN THE FIRST WORD IN A SENTENCE IS EST OR SUNT, FOLLOWED BY A NOMINATIVE NOUN, IT SHOULD USUALLY BE TRANSLATED AS ‘THERE IS’ OR ‘THERE ARE’, ALTHOUGH ‘IT IS’ SOMETIMES WORKS TOO. (B) This also works with the

Imperfect or Future tense: there was, there were (erat or erant), there will be (erit or erint).”

Est amīcus.There is a friend.

Sunt geminī.There are twins.

Erat mōs populum vocāre.It was the custom to call the people.

Est lēx Senātūs. (11)

It was the custom to preserve something of hope. (12)

Est vir, et est diēs cum spērat. Cōnsul fit, sed furor inimīcum movet. Rēs eum mūtat. (13)