The Genitive Case

Question 1

1st Declension SIngular

Answer 1

-ae. Pullae

Question 2

1st Declension Plural

Answer 2

-arum.

Question 3

2nd Declention Singular:

Answer 3

-ī

Question 4

2nd Declention Plural

Answer 4

-orum

Question 5

3rd Declension Singular

Answer 5

-is

Question 6

3rd Declention Plural

Answer 6

-um

Question 7

• Possession-

Answer 7

the genitive case is most often used to show ownership or possession of something. The person, place, or thing that owns something is given in the genitive case, while the case of the thing being owned is not affected by the possessive. For example, look at this sentence:

Question 8

canis mercatoris me momordit.

Answer 8

The merchant’s dog bit me.

Question 9

ego canem mercatoris momordi.

Answer 9

I bit the merchant’s dog.
Notice that the dog is now the direct object of the sentence instead of the subject. Its case has now changed to the accusative to reflect that. Does that affect the case of the merchant at all? Nope. Still genitive, because the merchant still owns the dog. Their cases don’t affect one another.

Question 10

Another note about the genitive of possession is that its number reflects the owner(s), not the thing(s) being owned. Here are some examples to illustrate what that means:

Answer 10

the woman’s dress stola feminae

the woman’s dresses stolae feminae

the women’s dress stola feminarum

the women’s dresses stolae feminarum

Question 11

• Partitive Genitive-

Answer 11

the genitive case is also used to describe a number or amount of something that is part of a larger whole. That’s a complicated sentence, but basically, it’s something like “most of the soldiers” or “all of the things” or “none of the slave-girls” - basically, any situation where you’re talking about a number of something and you use “of” to describe it in English, that’s where you use a genitive case for that thing in Latin.

most of the soldiers plerus militum

all of the things omnis rerum

none of the slave-girls nulla feminarum