How does the ablative case work?

The easiest way to explain it is that it is the 'adverbial' case. This means that it will always tell us something more about how an action (described by the verb) took place.

One of the simplest examples to demonstrate this is the following sentence:

puer militem gladio necavit

If the sentence had lacked the ablative 'gladio' then we would not have known how the boy killed the soldier; as it is, we are told that the boy killed the soldier 'with a sword'.

The ablative thus provides more information about the action taking place, information that is often interesting and extremely useful in understanding the text.

If you get stuck about how a noun in the ablative case fits into the sentence, just remember that it will always be answering one of the four following questions about how the action took place: 'how', 'when', 'where' or 'why'.

When you ask yourself which of these four the ablative is answering, it will soon be obvious which one and will be then much clearer how you should translate it.

SJ
Answered by Stephen J. Latin tutor

4619 Views

See similar Latin GCSE tutors

Related Latin GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Marcus pugnabat Flavium quod iratus erat. Translate and parse the verbs (giving the person, number, tense, mood, voice)


"Horatius pontes multas horas defendebat" Please explain how you would translate this sentence.


Choose two words from the following list and for each one give an English word derived partly or wholly from the same root: scribere, vulnerato, accepisset, amici, captivi. [2]


Name and explain three clauses where you might find the subjunctive


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning