Latin grammar
The genitive
cāsus genetīvus
The genitive ties a noun to another noun. Most of the time English says “of” or adds ’s: filius Iovis, “the son of Jupiter”, “Jupiter’s son”.
What it does
- Possession and belonging: spiritus Dei, “the spirit of God”.
- The whole that a part is taken from: maximi deorum, “the greatest of the gods”.
- With some adjectives and verbs: memor (mindful of), plēnus (full of) and meminī (remember) take a genitive.
- Value: Catullus rates the gossip of stern old men at unius assis, “one penny”.
How to spot it
The genitive usually stands next to the noun it belongs to, before or after it. Find that noun and the phrase reads as one.
Endings
| Declension | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ae (puellae) | -ārum (puellārum) |
| 2nd | -ī (servī) | -ōrum (servōrum) |
| 3rd | -is (rēgis) | -um, -ium (rēgum) |
| 4th | -ūs (manūs) | -uum (manuum) |
| 5th | -eī (diēī) | -ērum (diērum) |
-ae and -ī end other cases too (the 1st declension dative, the 2nd declension nominative plural), so read the whole phrase.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the genitive stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
Perseus filius erat Iovis, maximi deorum;
Perseus was the son of Jupiter, the greatest of the gods.
Iovis says whose son Perseus was. Deorum is the group Jupiter is the greatest of.
Terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi: et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas.
But the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was carried over the waters.
Dei belongs to spiritus, “the spirit of God”; abyssi does the same for faciem, “the face of the deep”.
Perseus autem in sinu matris dormiebat.
Perseus, however, was sleeping in his mother's lap.
Matris belongs to sinu: “in his mother’s lap”.
Words read in the genitive
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the genitive.