Download Chapter 2 Folder 1 – The Accusative Case In Chapter 1 you learned

Chapter 2
Folder 1 – The Accusative Case
In Chapter 1 you learned that Latin has 5 CASES.
Two important facts to remember:
1.
The case of a noun is determined by its use in the
sentence.
2.
The ending of a Latin noun will tell you what case that
word is in.
In Chapter 1, we also learned that the Nominative case is used for
subjects and predicate nominatives. We also learned that the Ablative
Case is used after the preposition in.
In this Chapter we are going to learn about the Accusative Case. The
first use of the Accusative case is for direct objects.
Here is a review of the case uses that you have learned so far:
CASE
Nominative
Accusative
Ablative
USE
Subject; predicate nominative
Direct object
Object of preposition (in)
A direct object receives the action of a verb. Notice that to have a direct
object, you must have an action verb. Linking verbs (est, sunt) are
never followed by direct objects. The direct object will answer who?
or what? after the verb.
e.g. Matthew hit the ball. What did he hit? The ball . . . . . .ball is the
direct object.
I love you! Whom do I love? You . . .. . .You is the direct object.
In Latin, direct objects will have an Accusative ending. The Accusative
endings for all three declensions are listed below. N.B. All singular
direct objects end in –m; all plural direct objects end in –s.
Number
Singular
Plural
First
declension
vill-am
vill-as
Second
Declension
amic-um
amic-ōs
Third
Declension
can-em
canes
Look at this sentence from your reading:
Pater multos clientes habet.
Pater is Nominative singular. It is the subject.
Multos clientes – both words are Accusative plural so they are the
direct object.
Habet is the verb.
The sentence means “Father has many clients.”
The pattern for most of these sentences will be: Subject
Object Verb (S - DO – V)
Direct
The use of the noun is dictated by the ENDING, however, not the
position (word order).
Present Tense Verbs
In Chapter 1, we learned the verbs est (is) and sunt (are). In this Chapter
we will look at several other verbs.
Nouns come in groups called declensions. Verbs come in groups called
conjugations.
These are the verbs you have seen so far:
Ambulo, ambulare, ambulavi
Habito, habitare, habitavi
Habeo, habere, habui
Video, videre, vidi
In the vocabulary list, verbs will be presented with their first three
principal parts.
Just as the second form given for nouns (genitive) told you the base and
the declension for that noun, the second form for verbs will give you lots
of information about that verb. This form is called the second principal
part, or the infinitive. The second principal part helps you in the
following ways:
1.
In order to find the stem of a verb, go to the second
principal part and drop the –re.
2.
In order to determine what conjugation a verb is in,
look at the vowel before the –re in the second principal part. For
example, if the vowel is an –a, the verb is in the first conjugation.
Long e signifies second conjugation. Short e is third conjugation.
Fourth conjugation has an “i.”
Subject – Verb Agreement
In the following chart, there is a column for singular verbs. These are the
verbs that we have seen since the beginning. Do you notice how they all
end in 't'? This ending on a verb lets us know that the subject of this verb
is singular (only one).
There is a column labeled 3rd person plural. Do you notice how all of
these verbs end in 'nt'? This ending lets us know that the subject of the
verb is plural (more than one).
3 person
singular
3 person
plural
rd
rd
1
conjugation
habitat
he/she lives
habitant
they live
2
conjugation
habet
he/she has
habent
they live
est
he/she is
sunt
they are
st
nd
Look at these examples from the story:
Pater multos clientes habet.
Therefore, the verb ends in 't'.
Pater is a singular subject.
Pater et clientes ad forum ambulant.
Pater et clientes are many people (plural).
Therefore, the verb ends in 'nt'.