A personal pronoun is a word used in place of a noun (remember prō + nōmen) to designate a particular person, from the speaker’s point of view: the first person pronoun indicates the speaker himself or herself (Lat. ego/nōs, I/me, we/us), the second person pronoun indicates the person(s) addressed by the speaker (tū/vōs, you), and the third person indicates the person(s) or thing(s) the speaker is talking about (is, ea, id, and their plurals, he/him, she/her, it, they/them).
While the first and second person pronouns are irregular in form, their declensions are quite similar to one another and are easily memorized; note that there are two different forms for the genitive plural.
The declension of the pronoun is, ea, id is comparable to those of hic and ille (Ch. 9), i.e., the pattern is that of magnus, -a, -um (Ch. 4), with the exception of the forms underlined below; note that the base is e- in all but four forms (including the alternate nominative plural iī).
Since these pronouns are employed as substitutes for nouns, they are in general used as their corresponding nouns would be used: as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and the like.
Ego tibi (vōbīs) librōs dabō, I shall give the books to you.
Ego eī (eīs) librōs dabō, I shall give the books to him or her (to them).
Tū mē (nōs) nōn capiēs, you will not capture me (us).
Eī id ad nōs mittent, they (masc.) will send it to us.
Vōs eōs (eās, ea) nōn capiētis, you will not capture them (them).
Eae ea ad tē mittent, they (fem.) will send them (those things) to you.
Notice, however, that the Romans used the nominatives of the pronouns (ego, tū, etc.) only when they wished to stress the subject. Commonly, therefore, the pronominal subject of a Latin verb is not indicated except by the ending.
Eīs pecūniam dabō, I shall give them money.
Ego eīs pecūniam dabō; quid tū dabis? I shall give them money; what will you give?
Another point of usage: when cum was employed with the ablative of the personal pronouns (as well as the relative and reflexive pronouns, to be studied later), it was generally suffixed to the pronoun, rather than preceding it as a separate preposition: eōs nōbīscum ibi inveniēs, you will find them there with us.
Notice also that the genitives of ego and tū (namely meī, nostrum, nostrī; tuī, vestrum, vestrī) were not used to indicate possession.4 To convey this idea, the Romans preferred the possessive pronominal adjectives, which you have already learned:
| meus, -a, -um, my | tuus, -a, -um, your |
| noster, -tra, -trum, our | vester, -tra, -trum, your |
English usage is comparable: just as Latin says liber meus, not liber meī, so English says my book, not the book of me.
The genitives of is, ea, id, on the other hand, were quite commonly used to indicate possession. Hence, while eius can sometimes be translated of him/of her/of it, it is very often best translated his/her/its; likewise eōrum/eārum/eōrum can be rendered of them, but its common possessive usage should be translated their. Study the possessives in the following examples, in which mittam governs all the nouns.
Mittam (I shall send)
The possessive pronominal adjectives of the first and the second persons naturally agree with their noun in gender, number, and case, as all adjectives agree with their nouns. The possessive genitives eius, eōrum, and eārum, being genitive pronouns, remain unchanged regardless of the gender, number, and case of the noun on which they depend.
A last important point regarding possessives is the fact that Latin frequently omits them, except for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity. English, on the other hand, employs possessives regularly, and so you will often need to supply them in translating from Latin (just as you do the articles “a,” “an,” and “the”), in order to produce an idiomatic translation; e.g., patriam amāmus, we love our country.
While commonly serving as Latin’s third person pronoun, is was also used as a demonstrative, somewhat weaker in force than hic or ille and translatable as either this/these or that/those. In general you should translate the word in this way when you find it immediately preceding and modifying a noun (in the same number, gender, and case); contrast the following:
Is est bonus, he is good.
Is amīcus est vir bonus, this friend is a good man.
Vidēsne eam, do you see her?
Vidēsne eam puellam, do you see that girl?
The very common demonstrative īdem, eadem, idem, the same (man, woman, thing), is formed simply by adding -dem directly to the forms of is, ea, id, e.g., gen. eiusdem, dat. eīdem, etc.; besides the singular nominatives īdem (masc., for *isdem) and idem (neut., rather than *iddem), the only forms not following this pattern exactly are those shown below, where final -m changes to -n- before the -dem suffix (for the full declension of īdem, see the Summary of Forms, p. 449 below).
Like other demonstratives, īdem may function as an adjective or a pronoun: eōsdem mittō, I am sending the same men; dē eādem ratiōne cōgitāāamus, we were thinking about the same plan.
cáput, cápitis, n., head; leader; beginning; life; heading; chapter (cape = headland, capital, capitol, capitulate, captain, chief, chieftain, chef, cattle, chattels, cadet, cad, achieve, decapitate, recapitulate, precipice, occiput, sinciput, kerchief)
cónsul, cónsulis, m., consul (consular, consulate, consulship; cp. cōn-silium)
némō, nūllíus,6 néminī, néminem, núllō6 or núllā, m. or f., no one, nobody
égo, méī, I (ego, egoism, egotism, egotistical)
tū, túī, you
is, éa, id, this, that; he, she, it (i.e. = id est, that is)
ídem, éadem, ídem, the same (id., identical, identity, identify)
amícus, -a, -um, friendly (amicable, amiable, amiably—cp. amō and the nouns amīcus, amīca, and amīcitia).
cárus, -a, -um, dear (caress, charity, charitable, cherish)
quod, conj., because
néque, nec, conj. and not, nor; néque … néque or nec … nec, neither … nor
aútem, postpositive conj., however; moreover
béne, adv. of bonus, well, satisfactorily, quite (benediction, benefit, benefactor, beneficent, benevolent)
étiam, adv., even, also
intéllegō, intellégere, intelléxī, intelléctum, to understand (intelligent, intellegentsia, intelligible, intellect, intellectual; cp. legō, Ch. 18)
míttō, mōttere, mōsī, míssum, to send, let go (admit, commit, emit, omit, permit, promise, remit, submit, transmit, compromise, demise)
séntiō, sentíre, sénsī, sénsum, to feel, perceive, think, experience (assent, consent, dissent, presentiment, resent, sentimental, scent)
Eum ad eam cum aliō agricolā herī mittēbant.
Tū autem fīliam beātam eius nunc amās.
Propter amīcitiam, ego hoc faciō. Quid tū faciēs, mī amīce?
Vōsne eāsdem litterās ad eum mittere crās audēbitis?
Dūc mē ad eius discipulam (ad eam discipulam), amābō tē.
Post labōrem eius grātiās magnās eī agēmus.
Tūne vēritātem in eō librō dēmōnstrās?
Audē, igitur, esse semper īdem.
Venitne nātūra mōrum nostrōrum ex nōbīs sōlīs?
Dum ratiō nōs dūcet, valēbimus et multa bene gerēmus.
Illum timōrem in hōc virō ūnō invenīmus.
Sine labōre autem nūlla pāx in cīvitātem eōrum veniet.
Studium nōn sōlum pecūniae sed etiam voluptātis hominēs nimium trahit; aliī eās cupiditātēs vincere possunt, aliī nōn possunt.
His life was always dear to the whole people.
You will often find them and their friends with me in this place.
We, however, shall now capture their forces on this road.
Since I was saying the same things to him about you and his other sisters, your brother was not listening.
Virtūs tua mē amīcum tibi facit. (Horace.)
Id sōlum est cārum mihi. (Terence.—cārus and other adjectives indicating relationship or attitude often take the dat., translated to or for; see Ch. 35).
Sī valēs, bene est; ego valeō. (Pliny.—bene est, idiom, it is well.)
Bene est mihi quod tibi bene est. (Pliny.)
“Valē.” “Et tū bene valē.” (Terence.)
Quid hī dē tē nunc sentiunt? (Cicero.)
Omnēs idem sentiunt. (*Cicero.—omnēs, all men, nom. pl.)
Videō nēminem ex eīs hodiē esse amīcum tibi. (Cicero.—The subject of an infinitive is regularly in the acc., hence nēminem; add this to your list of acc. case uses, and see Ch. 25.)
Hominēs vidēre caput Cicerōnis in Rōstrīs poterant. (Livy.—Antony proscribed Cicero and had the great orator’s head cut off and displayed on the Rostra!—Rōstra, -ōrum; see Etymology below.)
Nōn omnēs eadem amant aut eāsdem cupiditātes studiaque habent. (Horace.)
Nec tēcum possum vīvere nec sine tē (*Martial.)
Vērus amīcus est alter īdem. (Cicero.—Explain how alter īdem can mean “a second self.”)
Quid facis, Catilīna? Quid cōgitās? Sentīmus magna vitia īnsidiāsque tuās. Ō tempora! Ō mōrēs! Senātus haec intellegit, cōnsul videt. Hic tamen vīvit. Vīvit? Etiam in senātum venit; etiam nunc cōnsilia agere audet; oculīs dēsignat ad mortem nōs! Et nōs, bonī virī, nihil facimus! Ad mortem tē, Catilīna, cōnsul et senātus dūcere dēbent. Cōnsilium habēmus et agere dēbē-mus; sī nunc nōn agimus, nōs, nōs—apertē dīcō—errāmus! Fuge nunc, Catilīna, et dūc tēcum amīcōs tuōs. Nōbīscum remanēre nōn potes; nōn tē, nōn istōs, nōn cōnsilia vestra tolerābō!
(Cicero, In Catilínam 1.1.ff. Lucius Sergius Catilina, “Catiline,” masterminded a conspiracy against the Roman government during Cicero’s consulship; this excerpt is adapted from the first oration Cicero delivered against him, before the senate, in 63 B.C. See L.I. 5-6 and the reading passage in Ch. 14 below.— senātus, senate.—dēsignāre.—mors, mortis, f., death.—apertē, adv., openly.)
Cārus was sometimes used in the sense of expensive just as Eng. “dear” and Fr. cher can be used.
9. Rōstra, the ramming beaks of captured ships affixed to the speakers’ platform in the Roman Forum to attest a victory won in 338 B.C. at Antium (Anzio). These beaks gave their name to the platform. Though the pl. rostra is still the regular Eng. form, we sometimes use the sg. rostrum. “Cicero Denounces Catiline”: senator, senatorial; senile.—designate, designation.—mortal, mortality.—aperture; cp. aperīre, to open.
Some Romance derivatives from the Lat. personal pronouns follow.
Salvēte, discipulī et discipulae cārae! Notice the ending on that adj. cārae?—remember that when adjs. modify two nouns of different gender, the tendency is to have it agree with the one closer to it in the sentence. By the way, now you know the source of Freud’s ego and id, and the meaning of the salutation pāx vōbīscum/pāx tēcum. And, you Caesar fans, can you believe that all three of the following have the same translation (well … sort of!): Caesar, Caesar! Caesar eam videt. Caesar, cape eam! According to tradition, Caesar’s last words to the assassin Brutus were et tū, Brūte? (To which Brutus hungrily replied, according to the late great Brother Dave Gardner, “Nah, I ain’t even et one yet!”)
Did you notice in the Vocab. the origin of the abbreviations i.e. and id.? There are dozens of Latin abbreviations in current usage; for some others, besides those at the end of Ch. 6, see the list below, p. 492-93.
And remember those -or/-iō nouns? From the verbs in this Vocab. come missor, missōris, m., a shooter (of “missiles”—lit., a sender) and missiō, missionis, f., lit. a sending forth and used in classical Lat. for release from captivity, liberation (itself from līberāre, to free), discharge (from military service), dismissal, and, of course, mission; from compounds of mittō come a host of Latin nouns with further English derivatives such as “admission,” “commission,” “emission,” “permission,” etc. Can you think of others, both the Lat. nouns and the Eng. derivatives, from mittō? And how about sentiō?
Well, tempus fugit, so pāx vōbīscum et valēte!
