Latin/Personal Pronouns Lesson 2
Salvēte omnēs!
Welcome to all Latin learners! If you’re just joining us and want to catch up, the links you’ll need are on the right.
As always, if you want to skip grammar and jump to sample sentences, just skip down to the bottom section of this post.
New Grammar
editToday we continue learning about personal pronouns in Latin. This time, it will be the 2nd person pronouns, expressing the person or persons spoken to. Of course in English we have lost our distinction between singular you and plural you. It used to be thou/thee/thine in the singular and ye/you/your in the plural. Of course we have various regional ways of indicating you plural in the US: y’all, y’uns, youse. And the British have the charming “you lot.” (At least, it seems charming to me when I read it in books). For Latin, you will want to learn the declension of these pronouns by their grammatical use in the sentence.
| case name | singular | plural | typical use | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | tū = you | vōs = you (pl.) | subject | |
| genitive | tuī = of you | vestrī/vestrum = of you | possession, “of” phrases | Instead of genitive pronouns, often the possessive adjectives tuus, a, um or vester, vestra, vestrum are used |
| dative | tibi = (to/for) you | vōbīs = (to/for) you | indirect object, the “to/for” case | |
| accusative | tē = you | vōs = you | direct object | also some objects of preps. |
| ablative | tē = (by/with/from) you | vōbīs = (by/with/from) you | objects of prepositions, etc. |
As with 1st person pronouns, the nominative forms are not strictly necessary because the person is shown by the ending of the verb; usually they are used only for emphasis or to avoid confusion when there are multiple persons. We can use the 2nd person forms reflexively (referring back to the subject) in all cases except the nominative. Genitive case is not used as much as the possessive adjectives, which will be reviewed as well. And when you see tēcum or vōbīscum, that is a kind of contraction formed by the preposition “cum” plus an ablative case pronoun, in inverted order. I don’t know for sure, but I think it probably came about because it is easier to say “tēcum” than “cum tē.”
New Sentences
edit| Latin | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ego et tū sumus discipulī. | You and I are students. | |
| (Tū) pecūniam habēs! | You have the money! | |
| (Vōs) omnēs laborātis. | You are all working. | |
| Māter vōs vocat. | Mom is calling you (pl.) | |
| Vōs māter vocat. | Mom is calling you. | |
| (Vōs) mātrem vocātis. | You (pl.) are calling Mom. | |
| Tū mātrem vocās. | You are calling Mom. | |
| Māter tē vocat. | Mom is calling you. | |
| Māter vestra vōs vocat. | Your mother is calling you (pl). | |
| (Ego) Tē videō. | I see you. | |
| (Tū) tē in speculō vidēs. | You see yourself in the mirror. | |
| (Vōs) vōs in speculō vidētis. | You see yourselves in the mirror. | |
| Gāius tēcum labōrat. | Gaius works with you. | |
| Vīnum tuum bonum est, sed meum nōn. | Your wine is good, but mine is not. | |
| Hostēs vōs timent, quod (vōs) Rōmānī estis. | The enemies fear you, because you are Romans. | |
| Quid Lūcia tibi dat? | What is Lucia giving you? | |
| (Vōs) Klingōnēs fortēs estis, sed linguam Latīnam nōn scītis! | You Klingons are brave, but you do not know the Latin language! | |
| (Tū) prō tē bonam fortūnam facis. | You are making good luck for yourself. | |
| (Vōs) inter vōs pugnātis. | You are fighting among yourselves. | |
| Tibi (vōbis) grātiās agō. | Thank you/ I give thanks to you. | |
| Vōbīscum veniō. | I am coming with you. | |
| Pāx vōbīscum. | Peace (be) with you. | Very common greeting or parting blessing, especially in church Latin. You will also encounter “Dominus vobiscum” The Lord is with you, to which the response is “et cum spiritu tuo” and with thy spirit. |
| Tū quōque! | You too! | A logical fallacy, also known as the appeal to hypocrisy; you do this too, so your criticism of me for doing it is invalid. |
| Et tū, Brūte? | You too, Brutus? | Julius Caesar’s last words, according to Shakespeare). |
Practice
edit| Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson | |
|---|---|
| Step one | First learn the words using this lesson: |
| Step two | Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: |
| Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function) | |
Our next two lessons will focus on 3rd person pronouns, which have many more forms. Thanks to all who are following along.