Lesson 15 · Review
Nine new words: three nouns — carrus (cart, wagon), inopia (want, lack — the opposite of cōpia), and studium (zeal, eagerness) — three adjectives, armātus (armed), īnfīrmus (weak), and validus (strong); the verb mātūrat (he hastens, a synonym of properat); the adverb iam (already, now); and the enclitic conjunction -que (and), tacked onto the second of two joined words, as arma tēlaque, “arms and weapons.”
English hides four different ideas inside the single word “with,” and it is not always translated by cum. Latin pulls them apart. Two of them — cause and means — use the bare ablative with no preposition; the other two — accompaniment and manner — use the ablative with cum. The trick is to ask which question the “with” really answers.
Cause is shown by the ablative with NO preposition. It answers the question “Because of what?”
Mārcus est īnfīrmus inopiā cibī — Mark is feeble because of want of food.
Means — the instrument or thing by which an action is done — is shown by the ablative with NO preposition. It answers “By means of what? With what?”
Diāna sagittīs suīs ferās necat — Diana kills the wild beasts with (by means of) her arrows.
Accompaniment — being in someone’s company — is shown by the ablative WITH cum. It answers “With whom?”
Iūlia est cum Sextō — Julia is with Sextus.
Manner — how an action is done — is shown by the ablative with cum; but cum may be omitted when an adjective modifies the noun. It answers “How? In what manner?”
Virī (cum) cōnstantiā magnā pugnant — The men fight with great steadiness.
The preposition cum belongs only to accompaniment and manner. It must NEVER be used with the ablative of cause or means — those stand bare. So “with (by) arrows” is sagittīs, never cum sagittīs.
sagittīs (by arrows — means) · inopiā (because of want — cause) — both bare, no cum.
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
In Diāna sagittīs ferās necat (“Diana kills the wild beasts with her arrows”), sagittīs is an ablative of —
Right. It answers “by means of what?” — she kills by means of arrows — and it stands bare, with no preposition (Rule 2).
Not quite — ask which question the ablative answers: “by means of what?”, “with whom?”, or “because of what?”
Question 2
In Mārcus est īnfīrmus inopiā cibī (“Mark is feeble for lack of food”), inopiā is an ablative of —
Right. It answers “because of what?” — Mark is feeble because of want — and like means it takes no preposition (Rule 1).
Not quite — what makes Mark feeble? The ablative here gives the reason.
Question 3
Which is the correct Latin for “Julia is with Sextus”?
Right. Accompaniment — being in a person’s company — is the ablative with cum (Rule 3): cum Sextō.
Not quite — being together with a person calls for a little preposition. Which one?
Question 4
“The slaves carry food by means of wagons.” Choose the correct Latin.
Right. Means takes a bare ablative — cum is never used with means (Rule 2, N.B.) — and the ablative plural of carrus is carrīs.
Not quite — wagons are the means here. Does means ever take cum, and what is the ablative form of carrus?
Question 5
In Virī cōnstantiā magnā pugnant (“The men fight with great steadiness”), why is there no cum?
Right. Manner normally takes cum, but cum may be omitted when an adjective modifies the noun — here magnā (Rule 4).
Not quite — look at the adjective magnā. What does the manner rule allow when an adjective is present?
Question 6
The ablative of means answers which question?
Right. Means answers “by means of what?” (Rule 2). “With whom?” is accompaniment, and “because of what?” is cause.
Not quite — means is about the instrument used. Which question points at an instrument?
Answered correctly: 0 / 6