Capitulum VIII — Taberna Rōmāna

A jeweller's shop, a necklace that costs too much, a ring that fits or does not: the setting is charming, but this is the pronoun chapter. Its Grammatica Latina declines quis/quī, is and ille in one sweep, then hic; its Pēnsum A is one long fill-in-the-gap drill on truncated forms (“Qu-”, “H-”, “ill-”, “c-”). In other words: everything you have met in scattered pieces since capitulum I becomes a system here.

Two cells that change everything

Pronouns do not decline like nouns. Only two cells give them away — but those two are enough to recognise them anywhere:

Two facts to keep, and nothing else:

1. the genitive singular ends in -īus and is the same in all three genders — where an adjective would say magnī, magnae, magnī;
2. the dative singular is likewise a single form for all three genders.

Pretium huius margarītae magnum est. — The price of this pearl is high. Tabernārius huic fēminae ānulum ostendit. — The shopkeeper shows a ring to this woman.

In the plural, the same economy: quibus, iīs, hīs, illīs serve as both dative and ablative, in all three genders.

The neuter in -d

The second pronominal signature, as visible as the first: in the neuter singular, pronouns end in -d, not -um.

illud ōrnāmentum — id pretium — quod ōrnāmentum? — aliud ōrnāmentum

Compare: pulchrum ōrnāmentum, magnum pretium. The adjective says -um, the pronoun says -d.

ille: the far demonstrative

hic gets the same full table here: hunc, hanc, hoc; huius; huic; hōc, hāc, hōc; hī, hae, haec; hōs, hās, haec; hōrum, hārum, hōrum; hīs.

Macron trap: hoc, nominative/accusative neuter, has a short o; hōc, the ablative, a long ō. And the pronoun hic (short i) is not the adverb hīc “here” (long ī) — the chapter uses both.

Pointing near, pointing far, or merely reminding

The book itself hands you the key, leaning on two adverbs you already know:

quis? or quī? — pronoun or adjective

The same interrogative word has two uses, and Latin distinguishes them by shape:

The neuter is where the difference leaps out: quid? “what?” against quod ōrnāmentum? “which ornament?”.

The relative quī quae quod is completed too: quō / quā in the ablative singular, quārum / quōrum in the genitive plural, quās in the accusative plural, quibus in the dative and the ablative plural.

Ecce ānulī in quibus gemmae sunt. — Here are rings with gems in them.

And it can do without an antecedent: Quae margarītās amant ad hanc tabernam veniunt = eae quae…, “those women who…”.

Stating a price: the ablative

With cōnstāre, emere and vēndere, the price goes into the ablative, with no preposition — you pay with that money:

Hic ānulus vīgintī sēstertiīs cōnstat. — This ring costs twenty sesterces.

Three new numbers, all indeclinable: vīgintī (XX), octōgintā (LXXX), nōnāgintā (XC) — plus the book's abbreviation HS = sēstertiī. When the price becomes the predicate of pretium, it goes back to the nominative: pretium est sēstertiī nōnāgintā.

tantus… quantus, satis, nimis

tantus = tam magnus; quantus = quam magnus. Together they say “as big as”, each agreeing with its own noun:

Haec margarīta nōn est tanta quanta illa. — This pearl is not as big as that one.

Careful: tantum is also the adverb “only” of capitulum IV. Two more adverbs stand before an adjective: satis “enough” and nimis “too” (satis parvus, nimis magnum).

The rest in three lines

• alius, alia, aliud declines like a pronoun (neuter aliud), and doubles up: aliae… aliae “some… others”.
• Plural imperative of -ere verbs: the singular -e becomes -ite — aspice! aspicite! — accipe! accipite!
• One more compound of īre: ab-it ↔ ad-it, plural ab-eunt.
• accipere ā/ab + ablative marks the source (“to receive from”), not to be confused with the agent of a passive; and ōrnārī + a bare ablative marks the means (margarītīs ōrnātur).

In one line: genitive sg. in -īus and dative sg., both single forms for all three genders (cuius/cui, eius/eī, huius/huic, illīus/illī); pronominal neuter in -d; hic = hīc, ille = illīc, is = plain reminder; quis? alone but quī? quod? before a noun; quibus dative and ablative plural; price in the ablative; tantus… quantus; satis / nimis before the adjective; aspicite!, abeunt.