• nominative
• accusative
• ablative
  

These cases are shown in the table below. Learn them off by heart in vertical columns from the nominative singular to the ablative plural.

Table of Nouns

What are the cases used for?

1. The nominative indicates the subject of the sentence.
2. The accusative indicates the object in the sentence.
3. The ablative follows prepositions.
   

Verbs: You need to know the verbs in the third person singular (he/she/it) and third person plural (they) in three tenses:

• present
• imperfect
• perfect

These tenses are shown in the table below; make sure that you can recognise the endings of the three tenses:

Table of Verbs

How do the tenses translate into English? Look at the following information which will show you.

Latin Syntax

Syntax is the name given to the ordering of words in a language so that they convey a sensible meaning.

For example, a sentence like had the cook the in kitchen dinner prepared excellent, is made up from grammatically correct elements but the syntax is completely wrong and the meaning is very difficult to grasp.

English syntax insists on the following order of words:

Latin syntax has a different order:

You should see two important differences in the Latin syntax:

1. The verb is the last word.

2. The nouns must change case to indicate their function. (Look at the Table of nouns to see what the cases are)

Nominative case indicates that this is the subject of the verb.
Accusative case indicates that this is the object of the verb.
(You will later discover that many prepositions require the noun following them to go into the accusative case, e.g. post mortem)

If you are not sure what is meant by "subject" and "object", here is an easy definition:
The subject performs the action of the verb; the object receives the action of the verb.

You must be able to recognise the cases; Latin does not often use pronouns and then the sentence might begin with a noun in the accusative case; that noun is still the object, even though it is the first word in the Latin sentence.
For example:
"He is preparing dinner" would appear in Latin as:
"cenam parat."

If you would like to try translating some sentences, click here.

To complete this outcome you must show an understanding of common Latin abbreviations and Latin phrases used in English.
You are also expected to demonstrate an understanding of English words derived from the vocabulary which you have met.

Here are the common abbreviations which you are expected to know:

Here are the common Latin expressions which you are expected to know: