Number and Case

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35. Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Participles are declined in two Numbers  (singular and plural) and in six Cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, Vocative).

a. The Nominative is the case of the subject of a sentence.

b. The Genitive may generally be translated by the English possessive, or by the objective with the preposition of.

c. The Dative is the case of the indirect object (§ 274). It may usually be translated by the objective with the preposition to or for.

d. The Accusative is the case of the direct object of a verb (§ 274). It is used also with many of the prepositions.

e. The Ablative may usually be translated by the objective with from, by, with, in, or at. It is often used with prepositions.

f. The Vocative is the case of direct address.

g. All the cases, except the nominative and vocative, are used as object cases; and are sometimes called oblique cases (cāsūs oblīquī)

h. In names of towns and a few other words appear traces of another case (the Locative), denoting the place where:

Rōmae  at Rome
rūrī  in the country

Note— Still another case, the Instrumental, appears in a few adverbs (§ 215.4).

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Suggested Citation

Meagan Ayer, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-947822-04-7. https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/number-and-case