29.02.24: accusative case singular of first declension nouns

The accusative case allows you to be able to express yourself far more widely than you have done up to now. It has several uses, but the one on which we will focus is to indicate the direct object of the sentence. The direct object is the person or thing that the action is being done to e.g.

The maidservant is preparing dinner.

Maidservant is the subject of the sentence i.e. the person who is performing the action.

Dinner is the direct object of the sentence; it is what is being prepared i.e. the action is being done to it.

In English this is referred to as an S-V-O construction i.e. subject – verb – object

I (S) read (V) a book (O).

You (S) drink (V) wine (O).

The maidservant (S) is preparing (V) dinner (O).

In Latin, the direct object is in the accusative case.

Nouns in the first declension change the ending -a in the singular to -am:

cēna (dinner) > Ancilla (S) cēnam (S) pārat (V). The maidservant is preparing dinner.

Unlike English, the most common word order is S-O-V: Subject – direct Object – Verb. It is, of course, possible to change the words around in Latin since the endings make it clear who / what the subject and the direct object are, but it is the S-O-V words order that you will see most often.

Examples from the text posted below:

[i] Schola Rōmāna iānuam nōn habet. The Roman school does not have a door.

[ii] Antīqua schola fenestram nōn habet. The old school does not have a window.

And, as might be expected from the information in previous posts, the 1st / 2nd declension adjective has the same ending:

[iii] Schola Americāna mēnsam magnam habet. The American school has a large desk.

A phrase in the text which we will practise more occurs in:

[iv] Schola Rōmāna Iūliam et Cornēliam dēlectat. [Literally: the Roman school(S) pleases (V) Julia and Cornelia (O)] = Julia and Cornelia like the Roman school. Julia and Cornelia are in the accusative case because something pleases them i.e. they are the direct objects of the sentence.

[v] Schola antīqua (S) magistram Americānam (O) dēlectat (V). The same construction applies here: the literal translation is ‘The old school (S) pleases (V) the American teacher (O)’ = The American teacher likes the old school.

Practice

[1] An alternative way of saying ‘I have’ is to use the verb habēre (to have); habēre is a second conjugation verb, which we will deal with in detail soon, but we will use it here because what you have is in the accusative case:

Quid habēs? What do you have?

vīlla: a country estate > vīllam habeō: I have a country estate

Now practise the same construction with the following nouns:

• casa
• pecūnia
• taberna
• tabula
• vacca

[2] Similarly, the verb vidēre (to see) is second conjugation but can be used to practise the same construction:

Quid vidēs? What do you see?

fenestra: window > Fenestram videō. I see the / a window.

Now practise the same construction with the following nouns:

• iānua
• lucerna
• mēnsa
• pictūra
• schola
• sella

[3] Quem vidēs? Who(m) do you see? Quem is the accusative of quis and, in fact, the highest standard of English still shows an accusative case in the question word whom even if, nowadays, it is falling out of fashion.

discipula: pupil (f) > Discipulam videō. I see the / a pupil (f).

Now practise the same construction with the following nouns:

• amīca
• ancilla
• fīlia
• magistra

[4] And take that one step further with the same nouns above:

Discipulam meam videō. I see my pupil.