Special Uses of Prepositions: Latin Grammar

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GrammarSpecial Uses of Prepositions

Special Uses of Prepositions

A&G §432–221|5 rules|0 practice questions

Once you know which case each preposition takes, Latin starts breaking its own rules in small, ritualized ways — and that's where Reading goes sideways.

Cum glues itself to the back of personal and relative pronouns (mēcum, quibuscum — "with me," "with whom"). A preposition will slip between an adjective and its noun (magnā cum misericordiā, "with great pity").

Adverbs like propius and palam moonlight as prepositions. Real prepositions — ad, contrā, tenus, versus — sometimes follow their nouns instead of leading.

And ante, post, prīdiē govern quam the way comparatives do.

The payoff: when you spot one of these patterns, you know it's a special use, not a parsing mistake.

Pattern

cum + pronoun → pronoun-cum (mēcum, quibuscum)

adj. + prep. + noun (magnā cum laude)

noun + postpositive prep. (mare tenus)

ante / post / prīdiē … quam ("earlier than …")

Four Special-Use Patterns

The case-government rules don't change — only the word order or the part-of-speech does.

These are stylistic conventions, not exceptions to learn case-by-case. Recognizing the pattern is enough.

The Special Uses, At a Glance

cum enclitic with pronouns

mēcum, tēcum, sēcum, nōbīscum, vōbīscum, quōcum, quibuscum — "with me, with whom"

critical

preposition between adj. and noun

magnā cum misericordiā — "with great pity" (B. C. ii. 12)

common

postpositive tenus / versus

mare tenus — "as far as the sea"; Rōmam versus — "toward Rome"

important

See It In Action

proximī sunt Germānīs, quī trans Rhēnum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt

they are nearest to the Germans, who live across the Rhine, with whom they wage continuous war

— B. G. i. 1

Two special uses in one sentence: proximī (an adjective) governs Germānīs in the dative, and quibuscum shows cum glued to the back of the relative pronoun quibus.

haec atque eiusdem generis complūra ut ab hominibus doctis magnā cum misericordiā flētūque prōnūntiantur

these things and many of the same kind are spoken by learned men with great pity and weeping

— B. C. ii. 12

Magnā cum misericordiā — the preposition sits between the adjective and its noun. They still agree in case, gender, and number; Latin just reorders for stylistic emphasis on magnā.

ā mīlibus passuum circiter duōbus Rōmānōrum adventum exspectābant

at a distance of about two miles they were awaiting the arrival of the Romans

— B. G. v. 32

Here ā is adverbial — "two miles off" — not "from two miles." The ablative mīlibus passuum duōbus measures the distance, and ā shifts the prep into a spatial-distance idiom.

neque ante dīmīsit eum quam fidem dedit

nor did he let him go before he gave a pledge

— Liv. xxxix. 10

Ante … quam works like a split comparative — "earlier than (he gave a pledge)." English collapses it to "until," but Latin keeps the ante up front and the quam after the verb.

How English Renders These Patterns

enclitic cum

"with X" — translate the pronoun stem normally; -cum is just "with"

nōbīscum = "with us"; quibuscum = "with whom"

preposition mid-phrase

"with [adj.] [noun]" — keep the adj.-noun pair together in English

magnā cum laude = "with great praise," not "great with praise"

ante / post … quam

"before / after [clause]" — collapse to a subordinator

ante … quam dedit = "before he gave" (treat as antequam)

ā / ab of distance

"X miles / paces off" — adverbial, not literal motion

ā mīlibus passuum duōbus = "two miles away"

adverb-as-prep

Treat the case as a normal object of the new preposition

propius perīculum = "closer to danger"; palam populō = "in the people's presence"

Postpositive *cum* vs. Conjunction *cum*

Both look like cum, but one is the preposition glued to a pronoun and one is the conjunction "when / since."

Enclitic preposition

"with X" — pronoun + cum

tēcum loquor

I am speaking with you

Conjunction

"when / since / although" — introduces a clause

cum vēnisset

when he had come

Tip: Ask: is cum attached to a pronoun (mē-, tē-, sē-, nōbīs-, vōbīs-, quō-, quibus-)? If yes, it's the preposition. If it stands alone before a verb (often subjunctive), it's the conjunction.

Quick Check

In Caesar's quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt (B. G. i. 1), what is the function of quibuscum?

Study Tips

•When you see mēcum, tēcum, nōbīscum, vōbīscum, quōcum, or quibuscum, mentally split it: the -cum is the preposition, the front is the pronoun.
•If a preposition sits between an adjective and a noun (magnā cum laude), read the adjective as modifying the noun on the far side of the preposition — Latin is just stylistically reordering, not changing the meaning.
•When ante, post, prius, posteā, prīdiē, or postrīdiē takes quam later in the sentence, treat the pair like a comparative: "earlier than," "later than," "the day before that."
•If a noun in the accusative or ablative makes no case-sense, scan the next word — a postpositive tenus, versus, contrā, or penes may be governing it from behind.

See It In Action

proximī sunt Germānīs, quī trans Rhēnum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt

they are nearest to the Germans, who live across the Rhine, with whom they wage continuous war

— B. G. i. 1

Two special uses in one sentence: proximī (an adjective) governs Germānīs in the dative, and quibuscum shows cum glued to the back of the relative pronoun quibus.

haec atque eiusdem generis complūra ut ab hominibus doctis magnā cum misericordiā flētūque prōnūntiantur

these things and many of the same kind are spoken by learned men with great pity and weeping

— B. C. ii. 12

Magnā cum misericordiā — the preposition sits between the adjective and its noun. They still agree in case, gender, and number; Latin just reorders for stylistic emphasis on magnā.

ā mīlibus passuum circiter duōbus Rōmānōrum adventum exspectābant

at a distance of about two miles they were awaiting the arrival of the Romans

— B. G. v. 32

Here ā is adverbial — "two miles off" — not "from two miles." The ablative mīlibus passuum duōbus measures the distance, and ā shifts the prep into a spatial-distance idiom.

neque ante dīmīsit eum quam fidem dedit

nor did he let him go before he gave a pledge

— Liv. xxxix. 10

Ante … quam works like a split comparative — "earlier than (he gave a pledge)." English collapses it to "until," but Latin keeps the ante up front and the quam after the verb.

Study Tips

•When you see mēcum, tēcum, nōbīscum, vōbīscum, quōcum, or quibuscum, mentally split it: the -cum is the preposition, the front is the pronoun.

•If a preposition sits between an adjective and a noun (magnā cum laude), read the adjective as modifying the noun on the far side of the preposition — Latin is just stylistically reordering, not changing the meaning.

•When ante, post, prius, posteā, prīdiē, or postrīdiē takes quam later in the sentence, treat the pair like a comparative: "earlier than," "later than," "the day before that."

•If a noun in the accusative or ablative makes no case-sense, scan the next word — a postpositive tenus, versus, contrā, or penes may be governing it from behind.