Ablative absoloute

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ihatequintus

New Member

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could explain Ablative absoloute for me. I dont quite understand the concept of it. What does it even mean? How can verbs be ablative? Ugh..........so confusing...
 
C

Cato

Consularis

  • Consularis
Location:
Chicago, IL
The ablative absolute construction is grammatical construction in which a noun and a participle (this is an adjective derived from a verb, such as the word "siniging" in the phrase "the singing cowboy" is derived from the verb "sing") stand together in the ablative, the participle modifying the noun.

The noun-participle pair are considered completely separate from the elements of the sentence (that's why the word "absolute" is used). It is usually used to give the circumstances or somesuch under which the action of the sentence occurred, e.g. in the English sentence "With the soldiers dismissed, Caesar returned home." The part "with the soldires dismissed" would be translated as an ablative absolute in Latin.

This gives the usual pattern for translation: "with (noun) having been (verb)" (if the participle is past tense) of "with (noun) (participle in -ing)" (if the p[articiple is present tense, e.g.:

militibus dismissis - "with the soldiers having been dismissed"
viro stante - "with the man standing"

followed by a standard sentence, e.g. Caesar domum redit - "Caesar returned home".
 
C

Cato

Consularis

  • Consularis
Location:
Chicago, IL
The fourth principal part of the verb (e.g. if you look up amo in a dictionary, you'll find amo, amare, amavi, amatus; that fourth word amatus is the 4th principal part of amo) is one possible participle that can be used in the ablative absolute. This participle is declined like bonus, -a, -um.

Since this is the past-passive participle, you use it in the "with (noun) having been (verb)" pattern, e.g. militibus dimissis - "with the soldiers having been dismissed". miles, -itis - "soldier" is a 3rd decl. noun, so its ablative plural form ends in -ibus. The verb here is dimitto - "dismiss"; look it up to confirm the 4th principal part is dimissus, and note the masculine abliative plural ending is -is (like any adjective, dimissus must agree with the noun it is modifying--militibus--in gender, number, and case.

Master this before worrying about the present participle and phrases like viro stante...good luck :)
 
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