Do I have this right?

Latin Learning Latin
1

Sorry to bother you people with pronoun questions again, but… I just want to make sure I have this correct. What is weird are the plural possesives/reflexive posessives. Here is the list for meus and noster:

N. meus
G. mei
D. meo
A. meum
Ab. meo

mei
meorum
meis
meos
meis

N. noster
G. nostri
D. nostro
A. nostrum
Ab. nostro

nostri
nostrorum
nostris
nostros
nostris

Nostrorum looks very odd. Is that right?? How do you translate the genitive possesive? of my? The double posessive idea can’t sink into my head. In english, it looks like this in my mind: “my my” things. :slight_smile:

2

Nostrorum may sound odd, but it is a perfectly normal form. The genitive possessive (pronoun?) is simply translated as “of my/our ______” or “my/our ____'s”. What do you mean by double possessive?

3

keep in mind that the genitive is not simply possessive… it can mean any number of things, and can usually be translated with “of…” but that little “of” is open to a lot of interpretation and you end up with many possible meanings for it (which is generally determined by context). therefore it’s not always correct to translate it as “my”, and so you don’t actually have a “double possessive”.

:slight_smile:

4

The possessive pronouns are simply adiectives, modifying nouns:

pater meus: my father
hortus patris mei: the garden of my father
hortus parentum meorum: the garden of my parents.

Ingrid

ps: the only double genitive i can think of is in English: a friend of mine.

5

Interesting. I’ve never thought of that before… it doesn’t feel like a double possessive because it’s synonymous with “my friend”.

6

Thank you all for your insights. That cleared up a few things. :slight_smile: This place rocks.