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:

  1. Filia reginae est Cornelia.
  2. Incolae insulae reginam laudant.
  3. Praeda piratarum nautas delectat.
  4. Filiae Corneliae sumus.
  5. Agricolae silvas provinciae amant.
Translate into Latin:
  1. You are an inhabitant of the island also.
  2. They are not carrying the poet's money.
  3. She is the goddess of Rome
  4. You (plural) often tell stories of the fight.
  5. 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 5: Present Tense
Lesson 6: The Infinitive
Lesson 7: Review
Lesson 8 Direct Object
Lesson 9: Predicate Nouns
Lesson 10: Review and Vocabulary


Popular Posts