52. Rule. Object of a Preposition. A noun governed by a preposition must be in the Accusative or Ablative case.
53. Prepositions denoting the ablative relations from, with, in, on, are naturally followed by the ablative case. Among these are
- ā[1] or ab, from, away from
- dē, from, down from
- ē[1] or ex, from, out from, out of
- cum, with
- in, in, on
1. Translate into Latin, using prepositions. In the water, on the land, down from the forest, with the fortune, out of the forests, from the victory, out of the waters, with the sailors, down from the moon.
54. Adjectives. Examine the sentence
Puella parva bonam deam amat, the little girl loves the good goddess
In this sentence parva (little) and bonam (good) are not nouns, but are descriptive words expressing quality. Such words are called adjectives,[2] and they are said to belong to the noun which they describe.
You can tell by its ending to which noun an adjective belongs. The ending of parva shows that it belongs to puella, and the ending of bonam that it belongs to deam. Words that belong together are said to agree, and the belonging-together is called agreement. Observe that the adjective and its noun agree in number and case.
55. Examine the sentences
Puella est parva, the girl is little
Puella parva bonam deam amat, the little girl loves the good goddess
In the first sentence the adjective parva is separated from its noun by the verb and stands in the predicate. It is therefore called a predicate adjective. In the second sentence the adjectives parva and
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 ā and ē are used only before words beginning with a consonant; ab and ex are used before either vowels or consonants.
- ↑ Pick out the adjectives in the following: "When I was a little boy, I remember that one cold winter's morning I was accosted by a smiling man with an ax on his shoulder. ’My pretty boy,’ said he, ’has your father a grindstone?’ — ’Yes, sir,’ said I. — ’You are a fine little fellow,’ said he. ’Will you let me grind my ax on it?’"
