Dative
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Revision as of 10:52, 25 July 2008
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The dative case is a grammatical case of the indirect object generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "Brutus gave a book to Cassius".
The dative generally marks the indirect object of a verb, although in some instances the dative is used for the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something. See "Dative with compound verbs", below.
Here are the basic and very general rules for making a dative:
- If a word ends in "-us", then the dative ends in "-o". "Tullius" becomes "Tullio".
- If a word ends in "-a", then the dative ends in "-ae". "Livia" becomes "Liviae".
- If a word ends in "-o", then the dative ends in "-oni". "Cicero" becomes "Ciceroni".
- Many other words change their ending to "-i" whose rules are more difficult and are not detailed here. Here are some just for example:
- "Audens" in dative becomes "Audenti",
- "Senatus" in dative is "Senatui",
- "Venus" in dative is "Veneri",
- "exercitus" in dative is "exercitui",
- "homo" in dative is "homini",
- "consul" in dative is "consuli", and so on.
Usage in practice
An average Nova Roman citizen would use the dative case in the Latin beginning of an e-mail. Learn more about Latin for e-mail.
Dative with compound verbs
Compound verbs built with the following prefixes normally take an object in the dative.
- ab-
- ante-
- circum-
- con-
- in-
- inter-
- ob-
- post-
- prae-
- pro-
- sub-
- super-
