Are you feeling confused as heck about the Latin accusative case? Or just about the cases in general? If so, then you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to learn how to use and identify uses of the accusative.
We’ll start with the bigger picture:
Latin is a highly inflected language. This means that words have endings which tell us their grammatical function in a sentence (and their relationship to other words). This is pretty different from English, which only has some inflections and cares a whole lot more about word order than anything else.
For example, let’s take the English sentence, “The boy gives roses to the girl.” That’s pretty easy to make sense of, right?
Well, Latin would do it more like this: “The boy to the girl roses gives.”
Ummmm... What? 🤯
I’ll be the first to admit that this sounds a bit bonkers and the word order definitely doesn’t work in English. But it would work in Latin because each word would have an ending to tell us its function. The word order doesn’t matter in Latin. The cases do. That’s inflection.
That’s also where the accusative comes in.
What is the accusative case?
The accusative case is one of seven Latin cases and it shows up all over the place. Most commonly, it’s used as the direct object of transitive verbs (i.e. verbs that need a direct object to complete their meaning—like “have,” “love,” or “climb”). However, there are a total of 5 uses of the accusative. We’ll go over each one in detail.
There are a total of FIVE uses of the accusative
Before we dive in to uses, let’s talk forms…
The accusative ending changes depending on the declension of your noun. Check out this table to see what I mean:
The forms are different for every declension, right? But the nice thing is that there are some patterns to help you memorize. Here are the ones that helped me the most when I first learned.
- Masculine and feminine accusative singulars always end in a vowel + m (-am, -um, or -em).
- Neuter accusative plurals always end in -a (-a, -ia, or -ua).
Okay, so now you know what accusatives look like. But how the heck do you actually use them?
1. Accusative as the direct object
The accusative is most commonly seen as the direct object of a transitive verb. When this happens, the direct object (or accusative) is the noun receiving the action of the verb.
It’s the thing being verbed.
For example:
- I will watch the sunset. ➡️ In this sentence, sunset is the direct object and would be in the accusative case. It’s the thing being watched.
- The friends played games and ate chocolate. ➡️ Games and chocolate are both direct objects and would be in the accusative case. The games are being played. The chocolate is being eaten.
Let’s do it in Latin:
- Caelum et solem video. I see the sky and the sun. ➡️ Here, caelum and solem are both accusatives because they are the things being seen.
Pro tip: When you’re trying to identify an accusative direct object, find the verb in the sentence. Then, ask yourself: “is the noun I’m working with being verbed?” If the answer is yes, then it’s an accusative direct object. If the answer is no, then there’s something else going on.
2. Accusative as the subject of an indirect statement
Another common use of the accusative is as the subject of an indirect statement. Indirect statements (or accusative/infinitive constructions) report information indirectly.
- Stacy said that she loves dogs ➡️ this IS an indirect statement. We aren’t getting the information directly, but rather through another verb.
- Stacy loves dogs ➡️ this is NOT an indirect statement. The information is being reported directly.
In Latin, indirect statements have three main components:
- A conjugated head verb that triggers the indirect statement. A head verb is something you do with your head (say, believe, think, hope, etc.).
- An infinitive verb. This verb is the action happening within the indirect statement.
- An accusative subject. In indirect statements, the accusative is the subject of the infinitive verb.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Mea amica dicit eam esse bonam. ➡️ My friend says that she is happy.
- Head verb: dicit
- Infinitive verb: esse
- Accusative subject: eam
Agricola credit nautam habere pecuniam. ➡️ The farmer believes that the sailor has money.
- Head verb: credit
- Infinitive verb: habere
- Accusative subject: nautam
- Note that pecuniam is also accusative here. That’s because it’s the accusative direct object of habere. It’s the thing being had.
3. Accusative of place to which
Latin uses the accusative case to talk about motion towards a place. When this happens, the accusative will usually show up after a preposition that indicates motion (most commonly ad or in).
-
Puella it [ad hortum]. ➡️ The girl goes to the garden.
- She’s not already in the garden. She’s going towards it.
-
Nauta salit [in navem]. ➡️ The sailor jumps into the ship.
- He wasn’t in the ship before. Now, he moves into it.
In other words, if someone or something is moving towards another thing in Latin, it happens in the accusative.
4. Accusative of duration of time
Latin also uses the accusative to talk about duration of time or for low long something is happening. But unlike the accusative of place to which, the accusative of duration of time does not use prepositions.
It’s just a standalone accusative. For example:
- Militēs multōs annōs bellum pugnavit. ➡️ The soldiers fought the war for many years.
Here’s how you can recognize accusatives of duration of time:
- An accusative of duration of time will show up as an accusative noun or noun/adjective pair with no preposition.
- The noun will often relate to time (words like annōs, mensēs, diēs, horās, etc.)
- Although it might look like it in a sentence, an accusative of duration of time is not a direct object. So, if you already have a direct object in your sentence and there’s another accusative, it might be a duration of time.
5. Accusative as the object of a preposition
The final use of the Latin accusative is as the object of some prepositions. Many Latin prepositions take an ablative as their object, but some take the accusative instead. These include:
- per - through
- trans - across
- propter - on account of, because of
- ante - before
- sub - under
- contra - against
When the accusative is used as the object of a preposition, that preposition will tell you how to translate. For example:
- Per aquam - through the water
- Trans flumen - across the river
In summary
At first glance, this might seem like a lot. I mean, why the heck does one case get used in 5 different ways? I know I wondered this when I first started learning, and I had no idea how I was supposed to remember all of it.
But, remember these 🔑 takeaways and you’ll conquer the accusative in no time:
- Accusatives have 5 main uses in Latin: direct object, subject of an indirect statement, accusative of place to which, accusative of duration of time, and the object of certain prepositions.
- When translating, if your sentence’s main verb is transitive and there’s only one accusative in the sentence, then its most likely the direct object.
- If there’s a preposition right before your accusative, then it’s the object of that preposition.
- If there’s a head verb and an infinitive in the sentence, you probably have an indirect statement on your hands.
Want to become an accusative pro? Check out my uses of the accusative handout. This guide is your one-stop-shop for all things accusative. It’s full of in-depth explanations, examples, and even questions to help you decide what kind of accusative you have on your hands.
Any questions? Let me know in the comments or send me a message here.
With love and Latin,
💖 Olivia