Week 8

So far in the course, we have been using three cases for nouns and pronouns: the nominative (subjects), the accusative (direct objects), and the ablative (objects of prepositions.) Today, we're going to introduce the final two main cases, including the one we've been using starting last week for principal parts, the genitive and dative cases.

Recall or revisit Week 1, when we talked about the roles of nouns and pronouns. They can be subjects, objects of possession, direct objects, indirect objects, or objects of prepositions namely. All we're doing today is adding the cases for the final two roles. They are:

• genitive case – objects of posession (e.g. the brother's dog or the department of justice)

  • If it comes after the word of or before the clitic 's in English, it's usually genitive in Latin.

• dative case – indirect objects (e.g. I gave him money or it is necessary for me)

  • If it comes between a verb and a direct object, or comes after the words to or for in English, it's usually dative in Latin.

See the video at right for more information, and try your best to learn the forms on the chart below! For the full declension chart with all five cases, click here.