Accusative

Revision as of 10:29, 9 March 2012

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Accusative case is also used for the objects of most of the Latin prepositions.

Here are the basic and very general rules for making a singular accusative:

• If a word ends in "-us", then the accusative ends in "-um". Tullius becomes Tullium.
• If a word ends in "-a", then the accusative ends in "-am". Livia becomes Liviam.
• If a word ends in "-o", then the accusative ends in "-onem". Cicero becomes Ciceronem.
• Many other words change their ending to "-em" whose rules are more difficult and are not detailed here. Here are some just for example:

Audens in accusative becomes Audentem,

Venus in accusative is Venerem,

homo in accusative is hominem,

praetor in accusative is praetorem,

consul in accusative is consulem, and so on.

• Nouns of the neutral gender which often end in "-um" have no accusative different from nominative, so, for example forum is forum in accusative.

Accusative forms in all declensions

Attention: neuter nouns have no accusative form separate from their nominative. It means that all neuter nouns have accusatives identical to their nominatives, and, additionally, all neuter nouns have a plural nominative-accusative form that ends in -a, regardless to their declension group.

Also note that in the third declension, there are two subcategories: "consonant stem" and "i-stem". They are almost identical, but when it comes to the neuter plural accusative form, nouns of the "consonant stem" get an ending "-a", while "i-stem" nouns get an "-ia" ending. How to differentiate between "consonant stem" and "i-stem"?

Nouns of "i-stem" are the following:

1. nouns ending in -is, -es, and having a genitive form with a number of syllables equal to their nominative form. E. g.: civis, civis mf, or collis, collis m;
2. nouns ending in consonant + s (-rs, -ns, -ps, -bs, -x), but only, and exclusively only, if before their genitive ending -is there are at least two consonants. E. g.: gens, gentis, f ("-nt-" is two consonants before the "-is"), or nox, noctis f ("-ct-" is two consonants before the "-is").
3. neuter nouns ending in -e, -al, -ar. E. g.: mare, maris; n, animal, -alis, n; nectar, nectaris, n.
4. almost all adjectives of the third declension

Nouns of "consonant stem" are all nouns of the third declension not matching the requirements listed above.