Prepositions. We just memorize the Ablative ones. The rest are accusative.
Here’s the memory device: In Grammy’s downstairs closet is a body builder in a speedo. We see his ABS. He’s going to demonstrate the ablative prepositions.
- He’s IN the closet
- Then he’s OUT OF the closet.
- Then he’s BY the chair that sits outside the closet.
- Then he’s ON the chair arm.
- Then, IN the chair set.
- Then, he’s DOWN, he fell DOWN FROM the chair into the floor.
- And the dog comes to be WITH him.
So when my kids go to translate
- We name all the vocabulary words in the sentence.
- We decide whether they’re -ere, -ire, or -is chart words, or none (like prepositions)
- If it’s an -is word, we “Check for sexism. Check the last letter. Then check the bathrooms and i-stems.
- If there’s a preposition, we check the body builder.