Beginning Latin Grammar, Lesson 11: Possessives
"I would make them all learn English;and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat." --Sir Winston Churchill
In Latin there is no apostrophe as a shortened form for showing possession.
Instead, a noun is given the Genitive case endings to denote possession. For example, The pirate's booty becomes " praeda piratarum" or "the booty of the pirates."
The Genitive case endings for the First Declension are "-ae" for Genitive Singular and "-arum" for Genitive Plural. Like the Accusative case endings, thse endings are added after the Nominative Plural ending has been removed from thr noun.
Example:
(singular) agricola (nominative), agricolae (genitive), agricolam (Accusative); (plural) agricolae (nominative), agricolarum (genitive), agricolas (Accusative).
Translate into English:
- Filia reginae est Cornelia.
- Incolae insulae reginam laudant.
- Praeda piratarum nautas delectat.
- Filiae Corneliae sumus.
- Agricolae silvas provinciae amant.
Translate into Latin:
- You are an inhabitant of the island also.
- They are not carrying the poet's money.
- She is the goddess of Rome
- You (plural) often tell stories of the fight.
- I am waiting for the pirate's booty.
If your students need to review English grammar before introducing Latin Grammar, go to Simple Grammar.
Previous Lessons in the series:
Lesson 1: Latin Nouns
Lesson 2: The First Declension
Lesson 5: Present Tense
Lesson 6: The Infinitive
Lesson 7: Review
Lesson 8 Direct Object
Lesson 9: Predicate NounsLesson 10: Review and Vocabulary