Questions tagged [dative]
For questions about the dative case.
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Dative of personal pronouns
Hi! I am a complete beginner in Latin.
On Duolingo, they have this sentence: Nomen ei est Stephanus.
Aren't we supposed to use sibi here? Why not? (Since Duolingo says ...
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Meaning of "virō" in description of Lavinia
On p. 29 of Roma Aeterna by Hans Ørberg, book II of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, is this passage from a simplified Latin, solūtīs versibus (prose) rendering of Book II of the Aeneid:
Faunō mortuō,...
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What is the correct analysis of the personal dative in the so-called "double dative constructions"?
The so-called “double dative construction” contains a "dative of purpose" (e.g. maxumo terrori in ex. (1) below) and a personal dative (e.g. Numantinis in (1)) that turns out to be affected ...
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Why is dative used in this sentence?
The following sentence appears in lines 12-14 of chapter XX of Lingua latina per se illustrata. Familia Romana:
Sī māter īnfantem suum ipsa alere nōn potest sīve non vult, īnfāns ab aliā muliere ...
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Why is "ad eum" and not a dative pronoun used in this sentence?
This is a sentence in lines 153-154 of chapter XVIII of Lingua latina per se illustrata. Familia Romana:
Cum pater tuus abest, oportet tē epistulās ad eum scribere.
Is there any reason why ad eum (...
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What's the role of the pronoun "iis" in this context?
In lines 48-52 of chapter XVI of Lingua latina per se illustrata. Familia Romana one can read:
Merīdīes dīcitur ea caelī pars ubi sōl merīdīe vidētur; pars contrāria septenriōnes appellātur ā septem ...
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Why is accusative pronoun "te" used in this construction?
In lines 137-138 of chapter XIII of Lingua latina per se illustrata. Familia Romana one can read:
Iam necesse est tē dormire.
I don't understand why the accusative pronoun tē is used in the above ...
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Is This Noun in the Dative or Ablative
I was reading the last chapter of Fabellae Latīnae, "Puer Barbarus", when I came across this sentence:
Dāvus: Laetāre quod tibi licet in lūdum īre – mihi puerō non licēbat.
And I ...
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Greek "datives of agent" in Latin classical prose?
When including the following poetic examples from Horace and Ovid in what turned out to be a long answer to a previous post on datives of agent, I made this hesitant remark: Perhaps I'm wrong but I'd ...
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Any idea what's going on with the middle term of this dedication?
So I think the words are clear enough—Nobilissimo Principi FREDERICO GEORGII ffilio Celsissimi, GEORGII Nep: Augustissimi, CAESARI destinato, M. BRITANNIAE spei, Delicijs, Animaq. desideratissimae, ...
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Can I use a dative gerund for: thank you for helping me?
Actually I came across multiple situations in my thoughts where i came across the words 'for + verb' amd always wonder how to translate them.
'thanks for helping me'? Is an example though. Can i use a ...
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The active and passive infinitives are said to be from locative and dative nouns, respectively: why?
According to this post, the active infinitive was formed as the locative of nouns based on verbal stems. Why was the locative used for the infinitive, rather than, say, the accusative?
The noun genos/...
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On the analysis of "mihi" in "Praesidium mihi in perpetuum comparatum est" (Cic. Cat. 3.12.27)
I was wondering about the correct analysis of the dative mihi in the sentence Magnum enim est in bonis praesidium quod mihi in perpetuum comparatum est, which is included in the text below from Cic. ...
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How to analyze and translate "non se luxu neque inertiae corrumpendum dedit" (Sal. Jug. 6)?
By taking a look at various translations of the sentence in bold below, which is excerpted from a famous portrait of Jugurtha by Sallust, one could infer that the datives luxu (cf. luxui) and inertiae ...
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Where in ‘quibus vidēmus optābilīs mortēs fuisse’ is the act of choosing expressed?
Towards the end of Cicero’s Tusculan disputations book 1, he says:
Ita sunt multī, quibus vidēmus optābilīs mortēs fuisse cum glōriā.
Cic. Tusc. 1.116
My translation of this is presently ‘So many ...
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Determining dative vs ablative for coelo
In a piece of fiction my wife recently read, she encountered this bit of latin
carminibus coelo possent deducere luman
Is coelo in ablative or dative case? Assuming both carminibus and coelo are ...
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in terra pax “in“ hominibus bonae voluntatis
Does the occurrence of “in” before “hominibus”, which seems to be found in some but not all renderings of this verse, follow usual Latin usage? A plain dative seems like it would work to me (pax ...
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Saying whose body part it is in Greek
I've been trying to piece together the grammar for how we talk about parts of the body in ancient Greek. (Homer is the dialect I care about.) I've found this discussed in passing in various places (...
user3597
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Aristotle's Metaphysics - dative as predicate
Aristotle's Metaphysics 981a19-20:
οὐ γὰρ ἄνθρωπον ὑγιάζει ὁ ἰατρεύων ἀλλ᾽ ἢ κατὰ συμβεβηκός, ἀλλὰ Καλλίαν ἢ Σωκράτην ... ᾧ συμβέβηκεν ἀνθρώπῳ εἶναι.
My translation:
For the doctor doesn’t cure a ...
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Is "nulli nocendum" ambiguous?
In Phaedrus fables in I.26:
Nulli nocendum: si quis vero laeserit,
Multandum simili iure fabella admonet.
According to what I was able to find in 3 different translations nulli nocendum is ...
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Is dative of possession used in interrogatives?
I did a Latin lesson and the phrase was:
Estne liber tuus?
Which apparently is supposed to mean "Is that your book?" However, I thought in such situations the dative is supposed to be used,...
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Writing "I'm proud of myself"
I came up with "mihi superbus sum" with "mihi" as the Dative form of ego for "of myself", "superbus" for "proud", and "sum" for "I'm&...
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Quidquid veto non licet, certe non oportet
I'm trying to translate this sentence, but I'm not sure how. It looks like either veto is the dative (substantive?) meaning 'old', or it's the verb veto, 'I stop from happening'. With 'non licet', I ...
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Why is "Onus" in the Dative Case?
North & Hillard Ex. 211: a general addresses his soldiers as an approaching enemy is about to encircle them.
The following is to be translated into Latin:
"But since the enemy are already ...
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Does relinquo take the dative?
I thought that normally relinquo takes the accusative, not the dative, so I am having a hard time figuring out the following sentence:
Ūsque ad vesperum currēbat, neque nocturnum tempus sibi ad ...
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On the syntax of some datives in a beautiful Ciceronian structure
I was wondering if you would like to share your thoughts on the grammar of the datives in the following texts from Cicero. The second example is a very interesting one provided by Kingshorsey in an ...
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Can *esse* be elided with a dative of possession?
The possessive dative construction involves a subject possessee, a dative possessor, and a form of esse:
Mihi soror est.
Dicit sibi sororem esse.
In this construction, is esse ever elided? That is, ...
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Translate "Look me in the eyes" (dative of possession vs possessive adjective vs accusative pronoun)
There are basically 3 approaches:
Specta mihi in oculos
Specta me, in oculos
Specta (in) oculos meos
Probably, there is no "correct" translation, but maybe there is more natural and ...
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Is this a dative of reference? Can it be translated as "of?'
Text is (for context):
Segregatio autem vel evocatio haec, electio sive selectio appellatur duplici fere de causa: vel, quia e communi hominum caetu populi saepe nonnulli aliis quibusdam certo ...
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Why "sibi" in "sibi conscius"?
Originally "conscius" meant "knowing something with someone, sharing the knowledge of something with someone". (Ref: Gaffiot Dictionnaire Latin Français).
This may explain why a ...
user6328
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Can a "dative of agent" appear in an Ablative Absolute construction (and, more generally, in a non-verbal context)?
I was wondering to what extent the syntactic distribution of so-called “datives of agent” and that of “ablatives of agent” is different. For example, besides appearing in verbal contexts (e.g., ...
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"Habere" VS dative and genitive of possession?
To mean something that is not owned legally, not owned with the meaning of "being the owner", like when I say "We have a pope", could I use "habere" or only the dative or genitive of possession?
Is ...
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Audire, with accusative or dative?
The verb audire is many times (if not most of the times) found with an accusative. For example, in the Vulgata, 4 Regum, 22:11 says:
et audisset rex verba libri legis Domini, scidit vestimenta sua.
...
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Disambiguation of "nobis vobis" and "nobis nobis"
For many words, the dative and ablative take the same form. Two examples are nos and vos (nobis and vobis, respectively).
Imagine you want to say something like "from us to you [plural]" (where "...
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Ablative of Specification or Dative of Reference
Spinoza, Ethics, De Dei, Propositio 15, Scholium:
Ego saltem satis clare meo quidem judicio demonstravi ...
meo judicio is dative or ablative? I cant recognize that it is Ablative of ...
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The grammar of the expression "mihi cordi est"
Recently I encountered the phrase "mihi cordi est", after googling it I saw it is quite common phrase that seem to mean "it pleases me". For example: "vita horrida, arida, atque dura, mihi cordi est".
...
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Genitive with assigno
In Ethics, De Dei, Proposition 11, Second demonstration we read:
Cujuscunque rei assignari debet causa seu ratio tam cur existit
quam cur non existit
cujuscunque rei is genitive, but ...
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"ne paelici suspectaretur" (Tacitus)
Tacitus, Annales 4.3:
pellit domo Seianus uxorem Apicatam, ex qua tres liberos genuerat, ne paelici suspectaretur.
The translation on Perseus (Church and Brodribb) gives:
Sejanus, to avert his ...
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Using "ad" vs. dative
The self-exercises in CAPVT VIII of Wheelock's Latin (7th Edition) include the following sentence (#11):
Litterās ad virginem scrībit.
He is writing a letter to the maiden.
I'm confused about ...
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Credere with Dative or Accusative
I came across this sentence in a fictional dialog in my Latin lesson.
difficile est mihi hoc credere.
In this context, hoc refers to someone else's claim of accomplishment. I had learned earlier ...
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Does Latin have anything like this German syntax? (dative of possession)
German has an interesting dative of possession construction where the possessor goes in the dative but a form of "to be" is not needed. This means that the thing or person being possessed ...
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Passive periphrastic with two datives
I want to translate the following as a passive periphrastic:
You must give your money to me!
My attempt so far is:
pecunia tua tibi danda est mihi
Because Latin rarely acknowledges word order, ...
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On the dative of reference
If I want to say in Latin I speak Latin easily, I say:
In Latīnā facile loquere possum.
But if I want to add to this the idea that it is in my opinion that I speak Latin easily, do I simply use ...
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Dative–ablative ambiguity
When I first looked into Latin, I saw in a textbook that the dative and ablative singular are the same in the second declension:
nom. servus
acc. servum
gen. servi
dat. servō
abl. servō
voc. serve
...
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Can the articular infinitive be a dative of means? (Greek)
I am translating this sentence from English to classical Greek.
There is great danger that the students may harm themselves by not taking care of themselves. Let us decide how to help them.
My ...
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'Credo' with dative problem
Here is a small problem with 'credo', there is an example in my dictionary saying that 'crede mihi (dat.)' means 'believe me'.
Gildersleeve & Lodge gives credere under Dative with Intransitive ...
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Does 'concrescere' take dative?
I wonder is 'rigido rostro' here in dative or ablative? Under "Dative and verbs compounded with prepositions" (Gildersleeve & Lodge) it is said, that " Many verbs compounded with the prepositions ...
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Dative of Personal Interest?
In this line in Ovid Metamorphoses Book III. 505, is fratri put in the Dative because ' of the person in whose honour, or interest, or advantage or for whose pleasure, an action takes place, or the ...
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How to work around the missing cases of vis?
The word vis does not have singular genitive and dative forms.
This makes it difficult to use vis.
(I was reminded of this difficulty by this Star Wars question.)
Can you suggest methods of working ...
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