LINKS
(1) 02.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [2]; uses
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/020724-level-2-is-ea-id-2-uses.html
(2) 02.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [3]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/020724-level-2-is-ea-id-3.html
(3) 08.07.24: is, ea, id [5]; the “table”: how will you handle it?
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/080724-is-ea-id-5-table-how-will-you.html
(4) 11.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [6]; the “table”: how to handle it – step by step [1]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/110724-level-2-is-ea-id-6-table-how-to.html
(5) 14.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [7]; the “table”: how to handle it – step by step [2]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/14.html
(6) 17.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [8]; the “table”: how to handle it – step by step [3]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/170724-level-2-is-ea-id-8-table-how-to.html
(7) 20.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [9]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/200724-level-2-is-ea-id-9.html
(8) 23.07.24: level 2; is, ea, id [10]
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/06/230724-level-2-is-ea-id-10.html
(9) 22.05.25: Level 1; readings [12] - [15]: review (1b); the demonstrative is, ea, id
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2025/02/220525-level-1-readings-12-15-review-1b.html
Like hic, ille and iste, is / ea / id can also function either as demonstrative adjectives (this / that / those / these) or as pronouns (he, she, it, they etc.)
Postrēmō is vir, vel etiam iī virī … (Cicero) │ And lastly, the man, I might even say the men …
Note! The translator uses the English definite article ‘the’; Latin does not have a definite article but is / ea / id are the closest it gets – and are sometimes translated as such – because the main difference is that these pronouns – sometimes referred to as “weak” pronouns – are used when referring to something / someone already mentioned. Unlike hic, ille and iste they can neither point out nor introduce someone / something previously unknown. English can make a similar distinction.
If your opening remark is “I don’t like him”, it means nothing to the listener because it has no referent (the term used for the person / thing that the pronoun stands for).
I met my new boss yesterday, but I don’t like him. Now it makes sense.
The examples below show a referent before the pronoun is used:
quīn coniectōrēs ā mē cōnsilium petunt: quod eīs respondī (Plautus)│ why, the interpreters of dreams ask advice from me; the answer that I have given to them …
hodiē illa pariet fīliōs geminōs duōs … eōrum Amphitruōnis alter est, alter Iovis (Plautus)│ now she shall bring forth twin sons … one of them is Amphitryon's child, the other Jove's
Quia nostrōs agnōs conclūsōs istīc esse aiunt duōs. / Et praeter eōs agnōs meus est istīc clam mordāx canis (Plautus) │ Because they say two of our lambs are shut up in there. / And besides those lambs, there's a dog of mine, a biter, skulking in there
This short extract from the Vulgate shows the difference in usage between demonstratives; the two people – ‘him’ and ‘her’ – have been referred to earlier in the text:
Et nōluit audīre eam: sed vocātō puerō quī ministrābat eī, dīxit: Ēice hanc ā mē forās, et claude ōstium post eam │ And he refused to hear her. After the servant who attended to him had been summoned, he said, “Get this woman [i.e. he is pointing to her] out of my sight and bolt the door after her.”
[2] the genitive of these pronouns – eius / eōrum / eārum – is often the equivalent of the possessive adjectives ‘his, her(s), their(s)’
[i] eius = of him / her / it; his / her(s) / its i.e. it does not change according to gender
Estne eius? (Plautus) │ Is it his? [ = literally: Is it of him?]
Note that the genitive of the other demonstratives can also convey possession, for example:
Senex quī hīs habitat Hegīō est huius pater (Plautus) │ The old man that lives yonder, Hegio, is this man's father.
Atque etiam Philippum, numerātum illīus in mēnsā manū, mīlle nummum (Plautus) │ And even sovereigns, counted out at the (banker's) table by his hand [literally: by the hand of him / that man], a thousand of them.
[ii] eōrum / eārum = of them; their(s); eōrum is used when referring to a masculine or neuter ‘possessor’, eārum to a feminine:
eae nunc legiōnēs, cōpiae exercitūsque eōrum (Plautus) │ Now these regiments, battalions, and armies of theirs [ = their regiments …]
Again, note the different demonstratives being used in the same extract:
Sed istae rēgīnae domī suae fuērunt ambae, eārum patriam ego excidī manū. Hīs tē donō. (Plautus) │ But both of them [ = both these] were queens at their own homes before I laid waste their native land with this right arm. I present you with them.
[3] It is common to find is / ea / id with the relative pronoun quī / quae / quod to express ‘he who, she who etc.’
is quī scrīpsit hanc (Terence) │ he who wrote it / this
Bene eī quī invidet mī et eī quī hoc gaudet (Plautus) │ Good health to him who envies me, and to him who rejoices in this.
