Ablative case

The ablative case is the Latin "everything else" case. It covers ideas English handles with the little words by, with, from, in, and on: the means you use, the company you keep, the place where something happens, and the source you move away from.

English leans on prepositions for all of this ("with a sword," "in the forest"). Latin often does the job with the ablative ending alone, and sometimes adds a preposition on top. Because so many meanings share one case, context decides which sense fits.

Declension	Nominative	Ablative sing.	Ablative pl.
1st	puella	puellā	puellīs
2nd	servus	servō	servīs
3rd	rēx	rēge	rēgibus

Examples:

• Gladiō pugnat. - He fights with a sword. (means)
• In silvā ambulant. - They walk in the forest. (place)
• Cum amīcīs venit. - He comes with his friends. (company)

Note the first-declension ablative singular puellā: on the page it looks just like the nominative puella, and only the macron marks the difference, so read vowel length carefully. English speakers also tend to hunt for a preposition; remember that a bare ablative like gladiō already means "with a sword" with no separate word.