Magister Jerard White - The Genitive Case















Jerard White
Magister Linguae Latinae
last updated
Monday, May 30, 2005

The Genitive Case

The Genitive was generally used when the Romans wanted to modify one noun with another—making it work similarly to an adjective, but for the fact that it does not have to agree in either case or number.

It should also be noted that the Genitive noun generally follows the noun it modifies.

The general English preposition used to translate the Genitive case is "of"; however, "from" is also relatively common in the case of the Objective Genitive.

The varieties of Genitive uses are generally termed accordingly:

Of Possession	Subjective
Of the Whole	Objective
Of Origin	Appositional
Of Material	Of Quality

Of Possession

Perhaps the most common use of the Genitive is possession which can be translated by using the English preposition "of" or by adding an "'s."

redi

Of the Whole (Partitive Genitive)

The Genitive was also used in order to show the whole of something from which a part is designated.

It is mostly used with Nouns, Pronouns, Comparatives, Superlatives, and Ordinal Numbers.

magna pars Romae - a great part of Rome

trēs mīlia mīlitum - three thousand troops

quis deōrum? - Which of the Gods?

minor fīliae - the younger daughter

The Ablative case is also used in a similar manner with the prepositions ex or dē.

The Genitive of the Whole may also be used following the Nominative or Accusative Singular Neuter of Pronouns and Substantive Adjectives.

Especially words such as aliquid, quid, multum, plūs, minus, satis, nihil, tantum, quantum, are used with the Genitive.

quid cōnsilī what purpose

tantum cibī so much food

plūs auctōritātis more authority

minus labōris less labor

satis pecūniae enough money

Of Origin

Of Material

Subjective

Objective

Appositional

Of Quality