Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, numbe ...

, the ablative case () is one of the six

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

cases. Traditionally, it is the sixth case (). It has forms and functions derived from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

ablative,

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

, and locative. It expresses concepts similar to those of the English prepositions ''from''; ''with'', ''by''; and ''in'', ''at''. It is sometimes called the adverbial case, since phrases in the ablative can be translated as

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...

s: , 'with incredible speed', or 'very quickly'.

Uses

Ablative proper

Some uses of the ablative descend from the

ablative case. * Ablative of separation implies that some person or thing is separated from another. No active movement from one location to the next occurs; furthermore, ablatives of separation sometimes lack a preposition, particularly with certain verbs like or . For example, , "Cicero kept the enemy away from the city"; , "he freed them from fear". * Ablative of place from which describes active motion away from a place. Nouns, either proper or common, are almost always used in this sense with accompanying prepositions , "from"; , "out of"; or , "down from". For example, , "from the fields"; , "They sailed from Greece to Italy." :It can also be used for the whole to which a certain number belongs or is a part. Example: "one of them". :Cities and small islands, as well as the word ''domus'', use this ablative even without a preposition: "he departed from Athens". * Ablative of personal agent marks the agent by whom the action of a passive verb is performed. The agent is always preceded by . Example: , "Caesar is warned by the gods". * Ablative of comparison is used with comparative adjectives, where English would use the conjunction "than". Example: "longer-lasting than bronze". * Ablative of cause marks the reason why the subject performs an action: , "I jumped with joy".

Instrumental ablative

Some uses of the ablative descend from the

instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or ...

. * Ablative of instrument or of means marks the means by which an action is carried out: , "to see with the eyes". This is equivalent to the

found in some other languages. Deponent verbs in Latin sometimes use the ablative of means idiomatically: literally means "he is benefiting himself by means of a stylus (writing instrument)"; however, the phrase is more aptly translated "he is using a stylus". * Ablative of agent is a more generalized version of the ablative of personal agent, used when the agent is an inanimate object. When the agent is a person, the preposition is used, for example "The king was killed by the soldiers"; but when the agent is a thing, the preposition is omitted and the ablative case is sufficient, for example: "the king was killed by the weapons of the soldiers". * Ablative of manner describes the manner in which an action was carried out. The preposition (meaning "with") is used: ** when no adjective describes the noun (, "with care"), or ** optionally after the adjective(s) and before the noun: , "with great care". * Ablative of attendant circumstances is similar: ("They reach the city to the great clamour of the citizens") * Ablative of accompaniment describes with whom something was done. Nouns and pronouns in this construction are always accompanied by the preposition : , "with them"; , "They came with friends." * Ablative of degree of difference is used with comparative adjectives and words implying comparison: "a few years earlier" (lit. "earlier by a few years"). * Ablative of specification denotes the thing in respect to which something is specified: "older by birth". * Ablative of description or of quality is an ablative modified by an adjective or genitive that expresses a quality that something has: "a gentleman of highest virtue". * Ablative absolute describes the circumstances accompanying an action; e.g., ''urbe captā cīvēs fūgērunt,'' "with the city having been captured, the citizens fled."; ''Deō volente,'' "God willing".

Locative ablative

Some meanings of the ablative descend from the Proto-Indo-European

locative case In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and ...

. * Ablative of place where marks a location where an action occurred. It usually appears with a preposition, such as ''in'', but not always; e.g., ''hōc locō'' "in this place" * Ablative of time when and within which marks the time when or within which an action occurred. E.g., ''aestāte'', "in summer"; ''eō tempore'', "at that time"; ''paucīs hōrīs id faciet'', "within a few hours he will do it." Compare with the accusative of time, which was used for duration of time and—in classical Latin, following Greek—for dates of the form ''ante diem N. Kal./Non./Id.'' (In early Latin, such dates were given in the ablative instead.)

Ablative with prepositions

The ablative case is very frequently used with prepositions, for example "out of the city", "with him". Four prepositions (''in'' "in/into", ''sub'' "under/to the foot of", ''subter'' "under", ''super'' "over") may take either an accusative or an ablative. In the case of the first two, the accusative indicates motion, and the ablative indicates no motion. For instance, ''in urbe'' means "in the city"; ''in urbem'', "into the city". In the case of ''super'', the accusative means "above" or "over", and the ablative means "concerning". The prepositions which are followed by the ablative case are the following:

References

Bibliography

* {{Cite book , last1=Allen , first1=Joseph A. , last2=Greenough , first2=James B. , author-link2=James B. Greenough , orig-year=1903 , editor-last=Mahoney , editor-first=Anne , year=2001 , title=New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges , location=Newburyport, Massachusetts , publisher=R. Pullins Company , isbn=1-58510-042-0 , display-editors=0 , display-authors=1 Latin declension Latin grammar Grammatical cases