Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #149: Dative case / ae

The focus for today's lesson is something exciting: the dative case... which is the last of the cases you need to learn in Latin!

So, quick review: you learned the nominative case for the subject of the sentence, the accusative case for the object, the genitive case for "of" possession, and the ablative case, which you have used with prepositions (it has other uses too which you will learn later).

And now you have the dative case, which is used for the indirect object of a verb; for example, when you give something to somebody, the "something" is the direct object and the "someone" is the indirect object. That's where we get the name dative: it is from the Latin verb, dat, "gives."

Sometimes when you see the dative case in Latin, it will be equivalent to a "to" phrase in English, and other times, it will be equivalent to a "for" phrase in English. Many of the uses of both the dative and genitive cases are idiomatic in Latin; sometimes the Latin idioms have a corresponding idiom in English, but sometimes the Latin usage might seem a bit odd. It all depends on context! I'll make sure to provide notes about that so that you can get familiar with that range of meaning.

So, today you will see first declension nouns in the dative case, and the ending is ae. Here are the dative words you will see in today's proverbs:

vita. life. dative: vitae.
natura. nature. dative: naturae.
pecunia. money. dative: pecuniae.
industria. hard word, effort. dative: industriae.

Now, you might remember... ae is also the genitive ending of the first declension too! So, that's an ambiguity that you will have to get used to. The word vitae can be either genitive or dative; you cannot tell just by looking at it; you figure it out from context. The first saying below is going to have a genitive -ae just to get you started so that you can relax with the idea that sometimes -ae is genitive, sometimes it's dative, and that's okay! The context is there to help you figure things out each time. The goal, after all, is not to identify the case but to understand the meaning of the Latin.

To get ready for today's sayings, here is the little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

So, here are today's proverbs:

1. Falsa est fiducia formae.
Trust in-appearance is misleading.
falsa est fi-DU-cia formae.

The feminine noun fiducia, "faith, trust," as in the English word "fiduciary." The word formae is the genitive form of forma, "shape, appearance, beauty." In English we talk about having faith "in" something, and in Latin, that idiom uses the genitive: fiducia formae, "trust of-appearance, trusting in appearance."

The feminine adjective falsa, "deceptive, misleading," as in English "false," agrees with the feminine noun fiducia.

Compare the English saying, "Appearances can be deceiving."

2. Industriae nil impossibile.
Nothing (is) impossible for-effort.
in-DUS-triae nil impos-SI-bile.

The neuter adjective impossibile gives us English "impossible." It's a neuter adjective because it agrees with the neuter nil, a variant on nihil, which you have seen many times before.

In Latin, the adjectives possibile and impossibile take a dative complement, something is possible or impossible "for" someone.

Notice how industria, meaning "effort, hard work," is being used in place of a person; in this context it means the person who makes an effort, the person who works hard.

Also notice how the two negatives thus make a positive: "Nothing is impossible for effort" means "Everything is possible for effort / Everything is possible for the person who makes an effort."

3. Naturae convenienter vive.
Live according to-nature.
na-TU-rae conveni-EN-ter vive.

The word convenienter means "consistently, according to," and it takes a dative complement: naturae convenienter, "according to-nature." Most of the time when you see a Latin dative, you'll find "for" or "to" in the English version; in this saying, English "to" fits best.

Compare a saying you've seen before: Dux vivendi natura est, "Nature is the guide of living," i.e. "Nature is life's guide." Living in accordance with nature was a principle of ancient Stoic philosophy.

4. Pecuniae imperare oportet, non servire.
One-must give-commands to-money, not be-its-slave.
pe-CU-niae impe-RA-re o-POR-tet, non ser-VI-re.

Remember oportet? It's one of those verbs that takes an infinitive complement, and you have two infinitives here: imperare, from the verb imperat, and servire, from the verb servit, "serves, is a servant, is a slave."

The verb imperat takes a dative complement: pecuniae imperare, "to command money" or "give commands to-money." The verb servit also takes a dative complement; you are a slave "to" somebody.

In more contemporary English: Be the boss of your money; don't let it be the boss of you.

5. Homo vitae commodatus, non donatus est.
(A) person is loaned to-life, not given.
homo vitae commo-DA-tus, non do-NA-tus est.

The masculine adjective commodatus, "loaned," shares a root with English "accommodate."

The masculine adjective donatus, "given, donated," gives us English "donation."
Both of these adjectives take a dative complement: vitae commodatus, "loaned (temporarily) to life," and vitae donatus, "given (permanently) to life."

Both adjectives are masculine because they agree with homo, a masculine noun.

In other words, we are on loan to life, but not given to life completely; death is going to show up to call in that loan, sooner or later. This is another one of the sayings of Publilius Syrus.

Here's a recap: