Wheelock Chapter 11

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns that designate particular persons, from the point of view of the speaker. So, the first person means the speaker, the second means the person addressed by the speaker, and the third person indicates the person or thing the speaker is talking about. Since these pronouns are used as substitutes for nouns, they are generally used just like their nouns would be (eg in the different cases).

First and Second Person

These are irregular in form, but similar to one another. We’ve seen some of these before.

1st Sg / 2nd Sg / 1st Pl / 2nd Pl
Nom / ego / tū / nōs / vōs
*Gen* / meī / tuī / nostrum / vestrum
nostrī / vestrī
Dat / mihi / tibi / nobīs / vobīs
Acc / mē / tē / nōs / vōs
Abl / mē / tē / nobīs / vobīs

*NB, this is very important!: Genitives of the first and second person (singular and plural) were NOT used to indicate possession! [To convey this, the Romans used the possessive adjectives we’ve already learned (meus,a,um; tuus,a,um; noster, -tra, -trum; vester, -tra, -trum)]

  • Nostrī and vestrī were used as objective genitives. Ex: fear of you (not meaning your fear, but rather, the thing that is feared is you. You are the object of the fearing.), love of God (when it is not God’s love, but rather the love for God), invidia avaritiae (hatred of greed. This is a good example b/c it is obviously not greed’s hatred.)
  • Nostrum and vestrum were used as partitive genitives (aka genitive of the whole). Partitive genitives are used when the thing makes up a part of a whole. Ex: part of me, part of us, some of us.
  • Meī and tuī were used as partative and objective genitives.

Third Person

The 3rd person pronoun is is, ea, id. It’s declension is similar to that of ille or hic. It’s base is e- in all but four of the forms.

Singular / Plural
M / F / N / M / F / N
Nom / is / Ea / id / eī, iī / eae / ea
Gen / eius / Eius / eius / eōrum / eārum / eōrum
Dat / eī / Eī / eī / eĪs / eīs / eīs
Acc / eum / eam / id / eōs / eās / ea
Abl / eō / Eā / eō / eīs / eīs / eīs

The genitives of is, ea, id were often used to indicate possession. Therefore, we can translate eius not only as of him/of her/of it, but also commonly as his/her/its, and eōrum/eārum/eōrum as either of them or their.

Other points of note:

  • The nominatives are used only when they wish to stress the subject (as the person is implicit in the verb endings).
  • When cum was used with personal pronouns, it was usually suffixed to the pronoun, rather than coming before it as a separate word. (Ex mēcum, vobīscum, like pax vobīscum)
  • Latin frequently omits possessives unless for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity, so sometimes they may have to be supplied when translating into English, like we have to supply a/an or the.
  • Is, ea, id was sometimes used as a demonstrative somewhat weaker than hic or ille. Translate it that way if you find it modifying a noun.

Demonstrative īdem, eadem, idem

These are very common demonstratives that mean “the same.” They are formed by adding the suffix –dem onto is, ea, id. The declension follows that of is, ea, id, except in the following:

  • Īdem for the masc nom sg (instead of *isdem)
  • Idem for neut nom sg (instead of *iddem)
  • Eundem, eandem, idemfor the acc sg of m, f, n (respectively). The m turns to an n before the d for ease of pronunciation, and the neuter is just like in the nom.
  • Eōrundem, eārundem, eōrundem. The ms turn to ns like in the accusatives, for ease of pronunciation.