Elision: Dropping a Vowel
The ending that meets a vowel does not count in the line.
How It Works
| Words on the page | Read in verse |
|---|---|
| multum ille | mult' ill' |
| ille et | ill' et |
| odi et | od' et |
| quare id | quar' id |
| maria omnia | mari' omnia |
The h does not stop elision, because it counts as nothing. A word that ends in -s or in any other consonant except -m never elides: iactatus et stays whole.
Count the syllables after you have removed the elided ones. A line with 16 syllables on the page can have only 14 in the meter.
Elision matters for scansion only. Read the full words, and count the syllables as if the dropped ending were not there.
Examples (4)
- Litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto,
to the shores; he was tossed much on land and on the deep sea,
Aeneid 1.3. Multum ille and ille et both elide, so the line has two fewer syllables than it looks.
- Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
I hate and I love. Why I do it, you may ask.
Catullus 85.1. Odi et and quare id both elide.
- Errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum.
They wandered, driven by the fates, around all the seas.
Aeneid 1.32. The a of maria drops out before omnia.
- Multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,
and he suffered much in war as well, until he could found a city,
Aeneid 1.5. The e of quoque drops out before et.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Elision is a scansion rule.
Related Patterns
Practice Elision: Dropping a Vowel in Bubblegum
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