Capitulum VI — Via Latīna

We leave the house behind: the family takes the road to Rome. That journey carries two major novelties — the prepositions taking the accusative, exact counterpart of chapter V's five prepositions with the ablative, and above all the passive, which at a stroke doubles the whole verbal system. Between the two, an unexpected case slips in: the locātīvus.

The eight prepositions with the accusative

The book gives them as a block, and supplies their Latin name in passing: ūna praepositiō (abbreviated prp), duae praepositiōnēs. Learn them as a closed list, facing chapter V's:

The rule fits in one sentence: it is not the verb's meaning that picks the case, it is the preposition.

Servī ab oppidō ad vīllam ambulant. — The slaves walk from the town to the country house.

Three pairs of opposites are taught together: ad ↔ ab, ante ↔ post, and prope (+ acc.) ↔ procul ab/ā (+ abl.). Note too the equation the book supplies: apud amīcum est = cum amīcō est.

ā or ab?

One word, two spellings: ab before a, e, i, o, u, h; ā or ab before any other letter.

ab ancillīs, ab oppidō — but ā servō, ā Tūsculō (or ab Tūsculō)

Names of towns: three cases, no preposition

This is Latin's great exception, and the book drills it with its three questions:

With a common noun, by contrast, the preposition stays compulsory: ad vīllam, ab oppidō, in vīllā.

The locātīvus

A new case that costs nothing: it has exactly the shape of the genitive singular — -ae in the 1st declension, -ī in the 2nd. The book spells it out itself: locātīvus = genetīvus.

Titus Rōmae nōn habitat: Tūsculī habitat. — Titus does not live in Rome: he lives in Tusculum.

A reader's trap: Rōmae is sometimes a genitive (mūrī Rōmae, “the walls of Rome”), sometimes a locative (Rōmae est, “he is in Rome”). Only the sentence decides.

Verbum āctīvum and verbum passīvum

Here is the heart of the chapter. In the 3rd person of the present, the passive voice is marked by -ur added to the active form: portat → portātur, portant → portantur. Across the four conjugations:

Turning an active into a passive takes three steps, always the same:

Servus saccum portat. → Saccus portātur ā servō. Servī saccōs portant. → Saccī portantur ā servīs.

1. the accusative object becomes the nominative subject;
2. the verb switches to -tur / -ntur and agrees with that new subject;
3. the old subject becomes the agent: ab / ā + ablative.

Two ablatives not to be confused

The agent is a person and requires ab/ā. The means is a thing, and stands in the bare ablative, with no preposition:

Lectīca ā servīs portātur. — The litter is carried by the slaves (agent) Cornēlius lectīcā vehitur — Titus equō vehitur — servī saccōs umerīs portant. (means)

The book uses this instrumental ablative everywhere without ever naming it. Note in passing that the passive of vehere is usually best rendered by an English active: equō vehitur = “he rides on horseback”.

tam… quam, and quam in questions

To compare two things as equal: tam + adjective + quam.

Titus nōn tam fessus est quam servī. — Titus is not as tired as the slaves.

The same word asks a question: Quam longa est via? (“How long is the road?”). That quam is an adverb, a brand-new word — not the feminine accusative quam of the relative pronoun (puella quam videt), known since chapter III. The same trap applies to quō?, a new adverb homographic with the relative's ablative quō.

it / eunt, three connectives, and the plural relative

The verb īre (“to go”) is irregular: it in the singular, eunt in the plural — neither *itunt nor *iunt.

Three connectives, each with its own slot: nam (“for”) and itaque (“therefore”) open their clause; autem (“but, however”) never does — it is the second word.

Cornēlius bonus dominus est; malus autem dominus ā servīs suīs timētur.

Finally the relative gains two cells in the masculine plural, quī (subject) and quōs (object) — its function inside the relative clause fixes its case:

servī quī saccōs portant — saccī quōs servī portant

One-line takeaway: ad, ante, post, inter, prope, circum, apud, per + accusative; town names without a preposition (Rōmam / Rōmā / Rōmae); passive -tur / -ntur with agent ab/ā + ablative, means in the bare ablative; tam… quam; it / eunt; autem always second.