Latin with Foster

Lesson 26: Possesive Pronouns

Learning the "of" form (possesive) for pronouns

Relative Pronouns

The english translation of the possesive relative pronoun is "of whom", "of which" or "whose".

Singular antecedent - Masculine, Feminine or Neuter
cuius

Plural antecedent
quorum - Masculine and Neuter
quarum - Feminine

N.B.

With the singular form cuius one can't tell the gender of the antecedent, (like in English).
The "of" form has two possible translations:
e.g. liberos discipuli reliquerunt quorum nominim sunt ignota
the students left books whose names are unknown
becuse quorum is ambiguious, the second possibility could be either "the name of whom (students) are unknown" or "the names of which (books) are unknow"

Personal Pronouns

Third Person Prounouns: He, She, It, They

Recall that there are two forms: of and possesive - the english translation of the genitive pronoun is thus either: "of him" or "his", "of her" or "hers", etc

Singular - Masculine, Feminine or Neuter
eius

Plural
eorum - Masculine and Neuter
earum - Feminine

N.B.

With the singular form eius one can't see the gender, so one must follow the story to translate it properly.
Eius and eorum do not change with the noun they are possesing - they are not adjectives. Rather their number and gender (in the case of earum) refer to / aggree with the one possesing.

First & Second Person Pronouns

	of me	of us	of you	of ye / all of you
of form	mei	nostri	tui	vestri
possesive form*	meus,a,um	noster,tra,trum	tuus,a,um	vester,tra,trum

* These possessive forms have no pronouns, just adjectives. As adjectives, they must thereform agree in function, gender and number with the noun they modify, unlike the pronouns.

Now go on to Homework 28 and Homework 29

First Experience Latin - Fr. Reginald Foster

Answers to First Experience

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