Ablative of Description or Ablative of Quality

Definition

The ablative of description or ablative of quality is a grammatical construction in Latin where the ablative case is used to provide additional information about a noun. It describes a characteristic or quality of the noun it modifies.

Analogy

Think of yourself as a superhero with different superpowers. If someone were describing you using your superpowers, they might say "She flies with grace" or "He has strength like no other." In these sentences, "with grace" and "like no other" provide additional information about your flying ability and strength respectively. Similarly, in Latin, we use the ablative case to describe qualities or characteristics of nouns.

Related terms

Ablative case: This refers to one of the six cases in Latin, used to indicate various relationships such as location, means, manner, and more.

Nominative case: This refers to the case used for the subject of a sentence or the predicate nominative.

Genitive case: This refers to the case used to show possession or relationship between nouns.