Dative case

The dative case marks the indirect object, the person to whom or for whom something is done. It answers "to whom?" or "for whom?" and often appears with verbs of giving, showing, telling, and speaking.

English usually signals this with the words "to" or "for," or by word order: "I give the boy a book" means I give a book to the boy. Latin drops the little word and marks the receiver with a dative ending instead.

Declension	Nominative	Dative sing.	Dative pl.
1st	puella	puellae	puellīs
2nd	servus	servō	servīs
3rd	rēx	rēgī	rēgibus

Examples:

• Puella servō rosam dat. - The girl gives a rose to the slave.
• Magister puerīs fābulam nārrat. - The teacher tells the boys a story.
• Rēgī pārent. - They obey the king.

Two things to watch. English speakers often expect a "to" or "for" and, seeing none, mistake the dative noun for a subject or object; instead let the ending flag it as the receiver. Also note the last example: some Latin verbs (like pāreō, obey) take a dative where English uses a plain object, so "obey the king" is rēgī pārent, not an accusative.