Note. Meus has the irregular vocative singular masculine mī, as mī fīlī, O my son.
a. The possessives agree with the name of the thing possessed in gender, number, and case. Compare the English and Latin in
| Sextus is calling his boy Julia is calling her boy | Sextus Iūlia | suum puerum vocat |
Observe that suum agrees with puerum, and is unaffected by the gender of Sextus or Julia.
b. When your, yours, refers to one person, use tuus; when to more than one, vester; as,
|
Lesbia, your wreaths are pretty Girls, your wreaths are pretty |
Corōnae tuae, Lesbia, sunt pulchrae Corōnae vestrae, puellae, sunt pulchrae |
c. Suus is a reflexive possessive, that is, it usually stands in the predicate and regularly refers back to the subject. Thus, Vir suōs servōs vocat means The man calls his (own) slaves. Here his (suōs) refers to man (vir), and could not refer to any one else.
d. Possessives are used much less frequently than in English, being omitted whenever the meaning is clear without them. (Cf. [§ 22]. a.) This is especially true of suus, -a, -um, which, when inserted, is more or less emphatic, like our his own, her own, etc.
[99.] EXERCISES
First learn the [special vocabulary], p. 286.