Accusative

 Home| Latíné | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Magyar | Português | Română | Русский | English

The Latin accusative case is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb, like for example in English "Peter reads a book." In English, except for a small number of words which display a distinct accusative case (e.g., who/whom, I/me, he/him), the accusative and nominative cases are identical.

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.

The "-rum/-ís" declension-group

The first and second declensions have common characteristics:

	First declension		Second declension
	A-Stem		O-Stem
	mf terra, -ae, f		mf tribúnus, -í, m		n auspicium, -í, n
Singular accusative	terram	–am	tribúnum	–um	auspicium	——
Plural accusative	terrás	–ás	tribúnós	–ós	auspicia	–a

The "-um/-bus" declension-group

The third and fourth declensions have common characteristics:

	Third declension								Fourth declension
	Consonant Stem				I-Stem				U-Stem
	mf léx, légis, f		n iús, iúris, n		mf cívis, -is, mf		n mare, -is, n		mf senátus, -ús, m		n cornú, -ús, n
Singular accusative	légem	–em	iús	——	cívem	–em	mare	——	senátum	–um	cornú	——
Plural accusative	légés	–és	iúra	–a	cívés	–és	maria	–ia	senátús	–ús	cornua	–ua

The mixed declension ("-rum/-bus")

The fifth declension shares the characteristics of the other two groups:

	Fifth declension
	E-Stem
	mf diés, éí, m
Singular accusative	diem	–em
Plural accusative	diés	–és