ille

Ille is a Latin demonstrative pronoun and adjective meaning that or the former. It refers to a person or thing already mentioned or understood from context and can function either as an adjective agreeing with a noun in gender, number, and case, or as a stand-alone pronoun.

Usage and nuance: Ille often conveys distance, emphasis, or contrast. It is commonly used to distinguish from hic (this) and iste (that of yours or that one, often with a particular shade of meaning). In narrative and rhetoric, ille can mark the referent back to a previously mentioned subject or designate the “former” of two items, enhancing a sense of succession or distinction.

Declension: Ille declines like a typical demonstrative adjective, with distinct masculine, feminine, and neuter forms in singular and plural. In practice, readers encounter the basic singular nominatives ille (masc), illa (fem), illud (neut). The word’s other cases and numbers follow the same patterns as other demonstratives; full forms vary by case and number and are learned in standard Latin grammar.

Examples: Ille vir venit. That man came. Illud non est verum. That is not true. Ille qui venit amicus meus est. That man who comes is my friend. These examples illustrate its use to refer to a person or thing already in view or previously mentioned and to add emphasis or contrast within a sentence.