Latin grammar
The locative
cāsus locātīvus
The locative answers “where?” with a place name and no preposition: Romae, “at Rome”. It survives only with the names of cities, towns and small islands, and with a few common words: domī (at home), rūrī (in the country), humī (on the ground).
Its form
- In the 1st and 2nd declension singular it looks like the genitive: Rōmae, Corinthī, Mīsēnī.
- Plural names and the 3rd declension use the ablative form: Athēnīs, “at Athens”; Karthāgine, “at Carthage”.
For countries, larger places and other nouns, Latin uses in with the ablative instead: in Italiā, “in Italy”.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the locative stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
Erat Miseni classemque imperio praesens regebat.
He was at Misenum and personally commanded the fleet by his authority.
Miseni, at Misenum: the fleet’s base on the Bay of Naples, where Pliny the Elder was in command.
Deinde Romae per quinos dies senatores imperaverunt et his regnantibus annus unus completus est.
Then at Rome senators ruled for five days each, and with these reigning, one year was completed.
Romae, at Rome. Without a preposition, a city’s name in the locative says where.
Words read in the locative
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the locative.