5. Study Questions

In Latin there is no possessive apostrophe. You cannot say ‘the soldier’s sword’. You must say ‘the sword of the soldier’, with ‘soldier’ in the genitive case.

Dative is used for the indirect object in a sentence and is usually translated ‘to’ or ‘for’.

The principal problem is the repetition of some noun endings: the nominative singular is the same as the ablative singular; the genitive and dative singular both have the same ending, and it is the same ending as the nominative plural. Also, the dative and ablative plural endings are the same? How do you differentiate them?

The only way to solve translation problems is in the context of a sentence and working by way of a process of elimination.