12.08.24: Level 2; Practice in reading the perfect tense; A First Latin Reader (Vincent) [8](4): quī, quae, quod; all cases; ablative case

 

Image: ablative case

[i] Singular (masculine / neuter): quō; (feminine) quā

[ii] Plural (all genders): quibus

In English, as in Latin, prepositions can be used with relative pronouns.

Despite what Winston Churchill said, we do put prepositions at the ends of sentences – every day!

Who was the girl who you went out with last night?

This is the book which I was telling you about.

If you were living in the 19^th century – or you are speaking very formally now - you would say:

Who was the girl with whom you went out last night?

This is the book about which I was telling you.

You could, of course, talk like that, but we often don’t.

Latin, however, agrees with Winston Churchill: ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which Latin will not put; if a preposition is used with a relative pronoun, it must (with one exception) be immediately before the relative pronoun i.e. in the same “19^th century English” style.

• Poēta dē virō scrībit ā quō Carthāgō dēlētur. │ The poet writes about the man by whom Carthage is destroyed.
• Homō dē quō dīcēbās est stultus. │ The man about whom you were speaking is stupid.
• Is est amīcus sine quō ex urbe discēdere nōlō. │ He is a friend without whom I am unwilling to leave the city.
• Urbs in quā Mārcus habitat est Rōma. │ The city in which Marcus lives is Rome.
• Poēta dē oppidō scrībit in quō Dīdō vīvit. │ The poet writes about the town in which Dido lives.
• Prope flūmen ā quō familia mea aquam portāvit dormīvit. │ He slept near the river from which my family carried the water.

Elementa mundī sunt quattuor : ignis, ex quō est caelum ; aqua, ex quā ōceanus est ; āēr, ex quō ventī et tempestātēs sunt ; terra, quam propter fōrmam eius orbem terrārum appellāmus. 

There are four elements in the world: fire, from which there is the sky; water, from which there is the ocean; the air, from which are the winds and storms; the earth, which, because of its shape, we call the circle of lands.

• Poēta dē virīs scrībit ā quibus Carthāgō dēlētur. │ The poet writes about the men by whom Carthage is destroyed.

Pliny writes to Trajan:

• Sollemne est mihi, domine, omnia, dē quibus dubitō, ad tē referre. │ It is customary for me, lord, to refer to you all things about which I’m hesitant.

The exception is the preposition cum (with); when the ablative form of this pronoun used with this preposition then cum is attached to the end of it.

quōcum (masculine / neuter):  with whom; with which

quācum (feminine): with whom; with which

quibuscum (all genders): with whom; with which (pl.)

Hostēs quibuscum pugnābāmus mox fūgērunt.

The enemies with whom we were fighting soon fled.