Latin/Basics Lesson 3

Salvēte, omnēs! This is the third in a basic Latin series for Wikiversity. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.

New grammar this lesson: the accusative case. In Latin, nouns functioning as a direct object are put in the accusative case. Nouns are listed in vocabulary lists with nominative and genitive singular (aqua, aquae (f.) or aqua, -ae = water). To use water as a direct object, the accusative ending will need to be swapped in for the nominative or subject case. We do not notice this with neuter nouns like mālum, -ī = apple, because they are the same in the nominative and accusative. But nouns classified as masculine or feminine will have different endings if they are used as a direct object. This lesson also we will be working on verb conjugations in singular only. And for fun, we introduce some common Latin names to give our sentences some personality.

Practice
You now have enough basic vocabulary to go on creating quite simple sentences for a while. We will add plurals soon, maybe next lesson. Habeātis bonam fortūnam!