Latin grammar
The accusative
cāsus accūsātīvus
The accusative marks the direct object, the person or thing the action is done to: creavit Deus caelum et terram, “God created heaven and earth”.
What it does
- The direct object: urbem cingunt, “they surround the city”.
- After prepositions of motion and direction: ad, in (into), per, trāns, ante, post. in mare coniecit, “he threw into the sea”. With the accusative in means into; with the ablative, in or on.
- How long and how far: per quinos dies, “for five days at a time”.
- The subject of an infinitive in reported speech: iurare iussit numquam me in amicitia cum Romanis fore, “he made me swear that I would never be a friend to the Romans”.
- Motion to a town, with no preposition: Italiam ... venit, “he came to Italy”.
Endings
| Declension | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -am (puellam) | -ās (puellās) |
| 2nd | -um (servum, bellum) | -ōs, -a (servōs, bella) |
| 3rd | -em (rēgem) | -ēs, -a (rēgēs, nōmina) |
| 4th | -um (manum) | -ūs (manūs) |
| 5th | -em (diem) | -ēs (diēs) |
A neuter noun’s accusative is always the same as its nominative.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them: the accusative stands out in its colour, and an arc joins the word to what it goes with.
Haec omnia oppida urbem cingunt.
All these towns encircle the city.
Urbem, the thing the towns surround, is the object of cingunt.
Tum arcam ipsam in mare coniecit.
Then he cast the ark itself into the sea.
In with the accusative means into: in mare, into the sea. Arcam, the thing thrown, is the object.
vindica te tibi, et tempus, quod adhuc aut auferebatur aut subripiebatur aut excidebat, collige et serva.
Reclaim yourself for yourself, and gather and preserve the time which up to now was either being carried away or being stolen or slipping away.
Te is the object of vindica; the same person, as the one who gains, is the dative tibi.
Words read in the accusative
Words from the library’s analysed texts, with the forms they took in the accusative.