| Prepositions |
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A preposition indicates the relationship between a noun or pronoun with another word or words in a sentence.
The noun or pronoun to which a preposition connects is referred to as an Object of the Preposition.
Together the preposition and the object of the preposition is called a Prepositional Phrase.
A prepositional phrase indicates position (on the table), direction (towards the city), time (at three o'clock, in two days), manner (with haste) means (with his foot) or agent - the one doing an action with a passive voice verb. (The flag was carried by the class president).
A prepositional phrase also answers the question 'to what, to whom, where, when, how, with whom or what, by whom or what, and how long.
In English a preposition is usually stated- in a room, over a river, with friends etc.
In Latin, prepositions are used with nouns or pronouns in either the ablative or accusative case. There are also some phrases which are indeed prepositional phrases but have no stated preposition. These nouns or pronouns are also in the ablative or accusative cases so they are recognized by the ending of the word or words. This is discussed more at the end of this document however some examples are accusative of duration of time: duos annos -'for'two years- showing how long something took and ablative of time when duobus annis - in two years demonstrating when something takes place.
| FROM prepositions | WITH prepositions | PLACE prepositions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a, ab | = | 'from, away from' | cum | = | 'with' 'together with' | in | = | 'in' 'on' (never 'into') |
| e, ex | = | 'from, out of' | sine | = | 'without' | sub | = | 'under' |
| de | = | 'from, down from, concerning, about | pro | = | 'for' | |||
All other prepositions are followed by nouns or pronouns in the accusative case.
An easy mnemonic developed by Sally Davis of Arlington Virginia.
These prepositions are followed by nouns or pronouns in the ablative case. If a preposition is not in this mnemonic then it is followed by the accusative case.
| S | sub | under |
| I | in | in, on |
| D | de | down from, concerning, about |
| S | sine | without |
| P | pro | for |
| A | a, ab | away from, from |
| C | cum | with |
| E | e, ex | out of, from |
ALL other prepositions are followed by nouns. or pronouns in the accusative case.
CAVE!!! Video puerum in arbore...in a tree, in ponte...on a bridge BUT!!!in arborem ... inTO a tree, ----in pontem...inTO a bridge
Therefore either one sees a boy up in a tree or burrowed into a tree, on a bridge such as walking on it, sitting on it or sailing down a river and crashing into a bridge.
HINT!!! TO words indicating direction: ad meaning TO, TOWARDS and in meaning inTO both need an accusative noun or pronoun.
Another HINT!!! TO may also refer to an indirect object such as Dedi amico librum (I gave a friend a book) in which case the noun or pronoun is in the dative case with no preposition. When the action of a verb is done to or for someone or something, the TO or For is indicated with a dative case word.
English prepositional phrases which do not require a Latin preposition are:
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