Accusative case
The accusative case marks the direct object, the person or thing that receives the action of the verb.
Can recognize Accusative case in a short Latin prompt
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Marcus reads.
Julia sees the tablet.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The accusative case marks the direct object, the person or thing that receives the action of the verb. If the nominative tells you who acts, the accusative tells you who or what is acted upon.
English shows the object almost entirely by word order: in "the girl sees the rose," "rose" is the object because it follows the verb. Latin instead puts a special ending on the object, so the words can be rearranged without changing the meaning.
| Declension | Nominative | Accusative sing. | Accusative pl. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | puella | puellam | puellās |
| 2nd | servus | servum | servōs |
| 3rd | rēx | rēgem | rēgēs |
The singular endings -am, -um, -em are your main signal for "this is the object."
- Puella rosam videt. - The girl sees the rose.
- Rosam puella videt. - The girl sees the rose. (same meaning, reordered)
- Servus rēgem salūtat. - The slave greets the king.
The big transfer error is ignoring the ending and reading strictly by order, so Rosam puella videt gets mistranslated as "the rose sees the girl." Watch for -am/-um/-em: that noun is the object no matter where it stands.
Marcus reads.
Example for Accusative case.
Julia sees the tablet.
A short A1 sentence with visible endings.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises