Stage 2 Grammar: Nominativeand Accusative
DECLENSIONS & GENDER
•Every noun belongs to one of 5 groups called“declensions”. In Latin I, have nouns in 1st, 2nd& 3rd declensions.
• Every noun also has a gender: masculine,feminine, or neuter. The declension groupand gender of a noun never change. You learnthem when you learn the noun.
CASES
•However, noun endings change, depending onhow the noun is used in a sentence (subject,direct object, indirect object, object ofpreposition, etc).
•The case of a noun changes depending on how itis used in a particular sentence.
•The noun ending depends on its case. Eachdeclension group has a set of endings.
•We have learned about nominative and genitivecases.
CASES
•We are going to learn about two more cases:
•Accusative-used for the direct object of theverb
•Ablative-used for objects of (some)prepositions. At this point it is easy. Theablative is used for the object of thepreposition “in”, meaning “in” or “on”.
•There are two more cases, called dative andvocative, but we’ll get to them later.
Accusative case
•The accusative case is used for the directobject of the verb.
•In English, word order tells us which noun isthe subject, and which is the direct object, asin:
–The boy loves the girl.
–Boy comes first. Girl comes after the verb. That’show we know which is the subject, and which isthe direct object, in other words, who loves whomin the sentence.
ACCUSATIVE CASE
•In Latin, it’s not word order, but the ending,that tells us which is the subject (nominativecase), and which is the direct object(accusative case).
•These are the endings for the accusative case1st Decl2nd Decl 3rd Decl
•amum em
•Notice that all three endings end in m.
•“m” is your signal for the accusative case.
ACCUSATIVE CASE
•Word order doesn’t matter. The nominativedoes the action, the accusative receives theaction.
•Servus ancillam amat.
–Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
•Servum ancilla amat. Who loves whom?
–Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
ACCUSATIVE CASE
•Canis pavōnem amat.
Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
•Canem pavō amat
Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
•Mars Venerem amat.
Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
•Martem Venus amat.
Subject? Direct object? Who loves whom?
Ablative case
•For now, the ablative is used as the object ofthe preposition “in”, meaning “in” or “on”
•Ablative endings:
1st Decl2nd Decl3rd Decl
-ā ō e
•In culīnā, in terrā, in mēnsā
•In atriō, in caelō, in lectō
•In cane, in mercatore, in urbe
Word order and the accusative case.
Stage 2 Model Sentences
Discussion of the Grammar of Stage 2