The Case System
Latin is an inflected language: a noun’s ending tells you its job in the sentence, not its position. English relies on word order (“the dog bites the man” vs. “the man bites the dog”); Latin relies on case endings, so word order is far more flexible — and often used for emphasis instead of grammar.
The six cases
| Case | Core job | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | the subject | puella currit — the girl runs |
| Genitive | possession (“of”) | liber puellae — the book of the girl |
| Dative | indirect object (“to/for”) | dat librum puellae — gives the book to the girl |
| Accusative | the direct object | videt puellam — sees the girl |
| Ablative | ”by/with/from” | venit cum puella — comes with the girl |
| Vocative | direct address | puella, veni! — girl, come! |
Why this matters for reading
When you read a Latin sentence, scan for the verb first, then identify which noun ending answers “who’s doing it” (nominative) and “what’s it being done to” (accusative). Don’t expect English word order — a sentence can legally place the verb first, last, or in the middle without changing its meaning.
This is also why dictionary entries list a noun’s genitive form alongside the nominative (e.g. cor, cordis) — the genitive stem is what most other case endings attach to, and irregular nouns often hide their true stem there.