Latin. Prepositions

In English a preposition is a short explanatory word which comes before a noun and tells us about time,place,direction,possession and so on. E.g. on the horse, in the house, with the sword.

Ditto with Latin.

Words such as with, to, from are prepositions.

The noun controlled by a preposition in Latin takes either the accusative or ablative, and so you need to know which prepostion takes the ablative and which the accusative. Luckily, there are some handy rhymes to help you remember preposition uses which:-

These chaps take the ablative (but beware the last line).
a, ab, absque, coram, de
palam, clam, cum, ex and e
sine, tenus, pro and prae.
Add super, subter, sub and in.
When state not motion tis they mean.

And these chaps take the accusative (but again beware the last line).
Ante, apud, ad adversus
Circum, circa, citra, cis,
Infra, intra, iuxta, ob,
Penes, pone, post and praeter,
Prope, propter, per, secundum,
Supra, versus, ultra, trans.
Add super, subter, sub and in.
When motion not state it is they mean.

Basically, you only need to learn the first shorter ryhme, as then all the other prepositions take the accusatve.There is an exception which is alluded to in the last lines viz.

When state not motion tis they mean.
When motion not state it is they mean.

A few prepositions change their meaning depending on whether they take the ablative or accusative, and these lines are a cunning aide-memoire to help. These are super, subter, sub and in. I.e Sub with the ablative has the meaning 'under' but with the accusatve 'up to'. 'Up to' implies movement whereas 'under' doesn't.

Meaning of prepositions with ablative