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?
Servus amphoram portat.
The slave carries an amphora.
Ad Forum Rōmānum ambulāmus.
We walk to the Roman Forum.
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."
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.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesServus amphoram portat.
The slave carries an amphora.
Amphoram is the object, and the -am says so. Move it to the front and it is still the object, which is the whole difference from English.
Ad Forum Rōmānum ambulāmus.
We walk to the Roman Forum.
Motion towards takes ad plus the accusative. The case, not the preposition alone, is what marks 'to' rather than 'at'.
The check for this topic is still being prepared
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Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises