Case
Nouns can take on a number of different roles in a sentence:
| role of “Quintus” | |
|---|---|
| Quintus returns. | subject |
| Horatia greets Quintus. | object of verb |
| Horatia walks towards Quintus. | object of preposition |
In Latin, nouns indicate their role in a sentence by changing their form.
| role of “Quintus” | |
|---|---|
| Quintus redit. | subject |
| Horatia Quintum salutat. | object of verb |
| Horatia ad Quintum ambulat. | object of preposition |
This system of roles and forms is called case.
Role → case → form
Here is how case works. Every noun in a sentence has a role. A noun’s role in its sentence gives it a case.
| if a noun’s role in a sentence is: | its case is: |
|---|---|
| subject | nominative case |
| object of verb | accusative case |
| object of preposition | accusative case (or ablative case) |
Nouns indicate their case by changing their form.
| nominative case form | accusative case form | |
|---|---|---|
| puella | puellam | words ending in ·a |
| via | viam | |
| colonus | colonum | most words ending in ·us |
| Quintus | Quintum | |
| puer | puerum | some words ending in ·er |
| ager | agrum | other words ending in ·er |
Most Latin nouns have an accusative case form which ends in ·m.