Six Noun Cases

Foundations

The ending shows the job, so word order matters less than in English.

How It Works

Case	Its job	puella	dominus
nominative	the subject, who does the action	puella	dominus
genitive	belonging, of	puellae	domini
dative	the one who receives, to or for	puellae	domino
accusative	the thing a verb acts on	puellam	dominum
ablative	by, with, from, in	puella	domino
vocative	calling someone	puella	domine

Look at the table: puellae is both genitive and dative, and puella is both nominative and ablative. One ending can serve several cases, and the sentence shows which one is meant.

You learn the cases one at a time. The nominative and the accusative come first, because they name who does the action and what it acts on. A few towns also keep a place form, such as Romae (in Rome).

Examples (5)

Marcus puellam videt.
Marcus sees the girl.
Marcus is the subject (nominative). Puellam is the thing seen (accusative).
Liber Marci bonus est.
Marcus's book is good.
Marci is the genitive: of Marcus.
Marcus puellae rosam dat.
Marcus gives the girl a rose.
Puellae is the dative: to the girl. Rosam is the accusative.
Marcus cum puella ambulat.
Marcus walks with the girl.
After cum, puella is the ablative.
Salve, Marce!
Hello, Marcus!
Marce is the vocative, the form that calls to someone.

How It Connects

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Six Noun CasesFoundations

Learn This First

Cases do the work that a and the and word order do in English, so the missing articles come first.

No Words for A and The
Know that Latin has no a or the, because a noun's ending tells its job instead.
Foundations

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