Latin grammar
The dative
cāsus datīvus
The dative marks the person, or thing, that an action is aimed at or done for. English says “to” or “for”, or nothing at all: “the gods have given me an end”.
What it does
- The indirect object, with verbs of giving, saying and showing: quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint, “what end the gods have given to me, to you”.
- The person who gains or loses: vindica te tibi, “claim yourself back for yourself”.
- With adjectives of nearness, likeness and friendship: vicinas urbi, “near the city”.
- With some verbs that English treats as taking an object, such as persuādeō, crēdō, pāreō and noceō: persuade tibi, “persuade yourself”.
- The person who must do something, with a gerundive: nobis ... nox est perpetua una dormienda, “one endless night must be slept by us”.
Endings
| Declension | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ae (puellae) | -īs (puellīs) |
| 2nd | -ō (servō) | -īs (servīs) |
| 3rd | -ī (rēgī) | -ibus (rēgibus) |
| 4th | -uī (manuī) | -ibus (manibus) |
| 5th | -eī (diēī) | -ēbus (diēbus) |
In the plural the dative and the ablative always share their form, so the sense decides. The pronouns: mihi, tibi, sibi, nōbīs, vōbīs.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the dative stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios temptaris numeros.
You should not ask—it is forbidden to know—what end the gods have given to me, what end to you, Leuconoe, nor should you consult Babylonian calculations.
Mihi and tibi are the people the gods give an end to. Finem, the thing given, is accusative.
vindica te tibi, et tempus, quod adhuc aut auferebatur aut subripiebatur aut excidebat, collige et serva.
Reclaim yourself for yourself, and gather and preserve the time which up to now was either being carried away or being stolen or slipping away.
Tibi says for whose good: Lucilius is to claim himself back for himself. Te, the self he claims, is accusative.
Soles occidere et redire possunt: nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda.
Suns are able to set and rise again: for us, when once the brief light has set, there is one perpetual night to be slept through.
Nobis goes with the gerundive dormienda: the night is one that must be slept by us.
Words read in the dative
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the dative.