Prepositions Governing the Ablative

        notes   example
a, ab, abs   by   agent   ab Aenea esus. (Eaten by Aeneas.)
  since, after   time   a censu natus. (born after the census.)
  from   motion from   a domu veniens. (coming from home.)
  from, out of   cause   ab augerio territus. (frightened by augury.)
cum   with   accompaniment   cum Marco edi. (I ate with Mark.)
de   down from   motion from   de caelo descendere. (to fall from the sky.)
  about,
concerning 		  subject   liber de Caesare. (a book about Caesar.)
e, ex   from, out of   source   de danista ex infernis affligi. (to be injured by the money lender from hell.)
in   in, on   position   in saxo sto. (I am standing on the rock.)
prae   before   position   Cum prae Caesare steti, mihi ad Siciliam ablegauit. (Because I stood before Caesar, he banished me to Sicily.)
pro   in front of, for   position   pro vobis venio, ut post vos sto. (I come before you to stand behind you.)
sine   without   accompaniment   amor sine spe. (love without hope.)
sub   below, under   position   aqua sub ponte. (water under the bridge.)

Nota bene: When towns or islands are small or distant enough to be considered one place, the prepositions ab and e (and their other forms) are simply expressed by the ablative case of the place name.

Until vulgar Latin introduced such notions, a great deal of expression in the ablative was done without prepositions, particularly to denote agency, time-when, manner, means and origin.

Forma linguæ Latinæ a multis laudatur. (Latin's beauty is praised by many.)

Messis uenit duobis mensibus. (The harvest comes in two months.)

Ceres sopiebat filiam dolore. (Ceres put her daughter to sleep with sadness.)

Claudius gladio pugnat. (Claudius fights with a sword.)

Cornelius Lugduno uenit. (Cornelius came from Lyons.)


A mnemonic device attributed to a certain Sally Davis of Arlington, Virginia holds that   S i d   S p a c e   (think of a man dressed in a space suit?) represents the list of Latin prepositions that can take the ablative:
s ub
i n
d e
   
s ine
p ro
a b
c um
e.

Any preposition not in this list governs the accusative. Note that one preposition, in, makes both lists.