Nominative and Genitive Case Uses
Nominative:
- Subject of the sentence
- Predicate nominative
Often with a linking verb such as sum, fio, and passive forms of video, creo, and appello
Genitive:
The genitive is for telling us more about a noun by tying it to another noun. "of" will almost always work in English.
- Possession
Tells who or what owns another noun
"of" or the English endings 's and s' in English.
filia regis - daughter of the king/king's daughter
- Partitive
Tells the whole form from which a part is taken
plus vini - more (of) wine
pars patriae - part of the country/fatherland
- Description
Tells us more about a person's character or non-physical qualities (sometimes used with the physical, but usually physical characteristics are in the ablative case)
vir summae prudentiae - a man of highest prudence
Can be reworded into an adjective: a very prudent man
- Indefinite price or value
Tells us the cost/value of something without knowing a number
praemium minimi aurei est - it is a prize of very little gold
id minimi momenti est - that is of very little importance
- Subjective Genitive
Used with verbal nouns (ie nouns with the force of verbs) to show that genitive is the subject (ie doer) of the verbal idea
Lydia amorem Catulli contempsit - Lydia valued little Catullus' love
- Objective Genitive
Used with verbal nouns to show the genitive is the object of the verbal idea
amor patriae - love of/for the fatherland
A way of distinguishing between the subjective and objective genitives is seeing whether you can replace the "of" with "for." If you can, it's most likely objective
- Genitive of Material
Specifies what something is made out of (though the e/ex + ablative is more common).
Statua marmoris - statue of marble
Porta aeris - gate of bronze
- Genitive of Indefinite Value