In the nineteenth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the morphology and syntax of the personal pronouns. Just like in the possessives, we don’t have specific 3rd person non-reflexive pronouns because demonstratives are used instead.
I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 12m 43s ⌛):
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Morphology
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They are quite similar to the personal pronouns you can find in Romance languages such as Spanish.
| 1st singular | 1st plural | 2nd singular | 2nd plural | 3rd person | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | ĕgo᷈ | nōs | tū | vōs | — |
| Acc. | mē | nōs | tē | vōs | sē(sē) |
| Gen. | mĕī | nŏstrŭm, -ī | tŭī | vĕstrŭm, -ī | sŭī |
| Dat. | mĭhi᷈ | nōbīs | tĭbĭ | vōbīs | sĭbĭ |
| Ab. | mē(cum) | nōbīs(cum) | tē(cum) | vōbīs(cum) | sē(cum) |
Syntax
Even if you’re familiar with Romance language, pay attention to the following features, which may differ.
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In Latin, pronouns have number and case, but they never have gender. The 3rd person pronoun doesn’t mark number (it can be either singular or plural).
The genitive of vos can appear as vostrum, vostri instead of vestrum, vestri (classical). More ancient or archaizing authors are the ones using these o forms.
The genitives nostrum and vestrum are used as partitive genitive (e.g. quis nostrum? ‘who of us?’); on the other hand, nostri and vestri are used as adverbal genitives (e.g. miserere nostri ‘take pity on us’).
When the preposition cum is used with personal pronouns, it actually works as an enclitic postposition: not cum me, but mecum. It works like this with all the persons.
Some particles such as ‑met, ‑te and ‑pte may appear to express emphasis: egomet ‘I myself’. They’re not frequent in the most common texts.
The 3rd person pronoun
Once again, the 3rd person pronoun se is reflexive: it refers to the subject of the sentence (that is also why there is no nominative form: it wouldn’t make sense). It marks no gender or number.
Alexander vix a se manum abstinuit.
Alexander barely moved away (his) hand from himself.
So when the 3rd person non-reflexive pronoun is required (frequently to be the subject), the demonstratives is, ea, id or ille, illa, illud are used.
Vos vincietis; illi fugient.
You will win; they will flee.
That’s enough to go practice some more with texts. We still need to study more about the 3rd person non-reflexive, which will be in the class about demonstratives.
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