Questions tagged [vocative]
For questions about the vocative case.
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Is any word attested in both vocative and locative?
Both the vocative and the locative are pretty rare cases, and not found in all kinds of words.
Is there any word that is attested in both cases in classical Latin?
I prefer the vocative to be distinct ...
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Why is "O felicem virum, beatum Ioseph" in the accusative case here?
This is one part of a prayer traditionally said before Mass, in honour of St. Joseph:
O felicem virum, beatum Ioseph, cui datum est Deum, quem multi reges voluerunt videre et non viderunt, audire et ...
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Do vocative forms of participles exist?
I wondered if the vocative forms of participles really exist.
E.g. the vocative of vocatus would be vocate, same with vocaturus and vocature.
Both forms can be found on pages like Wiktionary (vocate, ...
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When were neuter nouns used in the vocative?
It seems that neuter nouns have vocative forms that are identical to their nominative/accusative forms.
Most neuter nouns don't have a meaning that seems to me to fit easily with the use of the ...
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Can "ee" appear in Latin?
There are a few instances in Latin where words are spelled with two vowels next to each other, in hiatus: filii "sons", metuunt "they fear".
Now, the last words of the Emperor Julian II are normally ...
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"Deus meus", aut "Deus mī"?
I was taught that meus had a special irregular vocative, mī. (So "my father" in the vocative would be pater mī, not pater meus.)
However, there's a line that shows up a few times in the ...
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How do you address someone in a case other than the vocative?
Suppose I'm talking to someone directly, and use a pronoun to refer to someone. I would use tu or vōs with an appropriate case based on its role in the sentence: for example, sciō tē adesse, "I know ...
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Vocative Gerund
I am 99.9999% confident there is no purpose for a vocative gerund. Yet nothing seems to specifically disallow for such a construction. In theory something such as "odi te currendum" (in English, "I ...
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What is the proper parsing of "macte virtute"?
As indicated in another answer, macte virtute is a common way of saying, "Well done."
The consensus seems to be that macte is the vocative of mactus. L&S states (contradictorily?):
(only in ...
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Why not "Agne Dei"?
Here's a sentence from the Catholic Mass:
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Why not agne? Shouldn't agnus be in the vocative? Note tollis and miserere in the second person.
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Difference between Vocative and Accusative usage
What is the grammatical difference between saying something like Bonam Fortunam (in the accusative) and Bona Fortuna (in the vocative) to another person? I have always heard the former, and I do not ...
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What is the vocative of Gnaeus?
I would like to know how to decline the name Gnaeus in vocative.
I see three options:
Gnaee (regular declension)
Gnai (would make sense by analogy to Gai if the name is pronounced /gnaius/)
Gnaeus (...
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How to use apposition with vocative?
I am uncertain when to use nominative and when vocative in an apposition related to direct address.
This issue is easiest to describe with examples.
I have understood that the following use is correct:...
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"Populus Romanus Quiritium" as vocative?
In Latin Prose Composition by John Arbuthnot Nairn (Cambridge UP, 1926; p. 5 of "Versions" section), I find the following as a translation of Shakespeare's "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ...
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