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Latin grammar Part of Chapter 1

CEFR A1

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Test yourself (21 questions)

Latin Cases: What Each of the Six Cases Does (Chart)

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 11 October 2026

Latin has six cases, and each one is a set of endings that tells you a noun's job. English puts the grammar in the word order; Latin puts it on the end of the word. Here is the whole system on one noun, , the master.

nominativeaccusativegenitivedativeablativevocativeWhat do the colours mean?
CaseJobLatinEnglish
Nominativesubject .The master sees.
Accusativedirect object .I see the master.
Genitiveof, possession the master's son
Dativeto, for .I answer the master.
Ablativeby, with, from with the master
Vocativecalling someone!Master!

Quick check

Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.

Pick the right one

0/3

Which case does the job described?

  1. The subject, the one doing the verb

  2. The direct object, the one it is done to

  3. Possession: of the master

One person holds out a smiling book towards a second person, who reaches out happily to take it; a curved arrow with a heart runs from the giver to the receiver.

Puer puellae librum dat: the boy gives the girl a book. The giver is nominative, the thing given accusative (-um), the person it goes to dative (-ae).

Three of those six jobs are done in English with a preposition: of (genitive), to or for (dative), by, with or from (ablative). Latin does them with an ending instead. Fewer small words, more information per word: that is the trade the whole language runs on.

Why the word order is free

English has almost no case endings left. They survive only on a few pronouns, which is why he sees him is fine and him sees he is not. Everywhere else English uses position, so the dog bit the man and the man bit the dog are different events.

Latin marks the job on the noun, so the words can move and the meaning stays:

Four orders, one meaning: the master sees the slave
1
2
3
StressLatinEnglish
neutral .The master sees the slave.
the slave .It is the slave the master sees.
the seeing .The master does see the slave.

The order changes the emphasis, not the facts: the word thrown to the front is the one being stressed. Swap the endings, though, and you swap the event:

Dominum servus videt - the slave sees the master
  • . - The slave sees the master.

The words stand in the same places. The -us moved to the slave, so the slave is now the one doing the seeing.

The six cases on one noun

Take , god:

CaseFormExampleEnglish
Nom .God sees.
Acc .I see God.
Gen the word of God
.Thanks be to God
Abl with God
Voc !My God!

Six slots, four distinct forms. The dative and ablative look alike in a great many Latin nouns, as and show, and the sentence settles which is meant: here the preposition does it.

Which endings a noun uses for these six jobs depends on its family, or declension: makes , makes . That has its own chart: the five Latin declensions. The genitive and dative each do more than one job, and the ablative does a dozen; they have their own pages too: the genitive and dative and the uses of the ablative.

The vocative, and the locative

The vocative is usually the nominative again:

  • , ! - Hello, girl! ( does not change)

The one place it differs is the second declension. Nouns in -us switch to -e, and nouns in - shrink to -i:

  • , . - Lord, I am not worthy. ()
  • , Brute? - You too, Brutus? (Brutus)
  • , ! - Hello, son! ()

is the exception and stays .

There is also a seventh case, the locative, for "at" a place. It survives on the names of towns and a couple of everyday words, so learn it as vocabulary:

  • Romae . - I am at Rome.
  • . - I am at home.

Reading Latin the right way round

An English speaker reads left to right and hands out roles by position. In Latin that instinct actively misleads. Read the endings in this order instead:

  1. Find the verb. It is often last, and its ending may give you the subject.
  2. Find the nominative. That is your subject, wherever it sits.
  3. Find the accusative. That is what the verb lands on.
  4. Fit the rest in. Genitives hang on a nearby noun; datives and ablatives colour the action.

Try it on .

StepIn the sentenceWhat it gives you
Verbwe see (the -mus is "we")
Nominativenonethe subject is in the verb
AccusativeGod, the thing seen
The rest , on earth; not

We do not see God on earth. The order was object, phrase, negative, verb, and none of it mattered once the endings were read. What Roman writers did with that freedom is the subject of Latin word order.

Prepositions tell you which case is coming

Almost every Latin preposition takes a fixed case on the noun after it, so a preposition is a free clue:

PrepositionCaseExampleEnglish
ablative with God
ablative without water
exablative out of the land
ablative down from the land
proablative for the fatherland
adaccusative to the land
peraccusative through the lands
postaccusative after death
Six small panels with a grey cat and a yellow box: the cat sits on the box; the cat sits under the box, which stands on legs like a little table; the cat pokes its head out of the open box; the cat sits beside the box; the cat peeks over the top from behind the box with its tail sticking out; the cat sits in front of the box.

Where is the cat? Arca is the box. Super (on top of), iuxta (beside), post (behind) and ante (in front of) take the accusative; sub and in take the ablative when the cat is simply there.

and take either case, and the choice carries meaning: ablative for where something is, accusative for where it is going.

MeaningLatinEnglish
where it is .We are on land.
where it goes .We come onto land.
where it is under the earth
where it goes going below the earth

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
as subject as object-um marks the object, wherever it stands
takes the ablative
ad takes the accusative
. .being somewhere is ablative
! (calling)!-us nouns change in the vocative

What to do next

  1. Learn the six jobs from the first table until you can say them in order.
  2. Run the drill below, reading every ending before the word order.
  3. Then meet the verb endings, which explain why Latin so often leaves the subject out.

Practise: test yourself

Pick the right one

0/5

Which case does the job described?

  1. The subject, the one doing the verb

  2. The direct object, the one it is done to

  3. Possession: of the master

  4. The recipient: to the master, for the master

  5. By, with, from

Sort into groups

0/7

Subject or object? Sort each form by its ending.

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Translation drill

0/3

Read the endings, not the order.

  1. Deus terram videt.

  2. Terram deus videt.

  3. Deum terra non videt.

Spot the mistake

0/3

Each sentence has one noun in the wrong case after its preposition. Tap it.

Mark the pattern

0/3

Mark the noun named in brackets as subject or object.

subject | object

  1. Deus terram videt. (deus)

    Which one is it?

  2. Deus terram videt. (terram)

    Which one is it?

  3. Terram deus videt. (terram)

    Which one is it?

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Practice worksheets and infographics

Practice worksheets with answer keys built in, plus infographic and listicle formats. Open any one to view, print or save.

Infographics

  1. Key points infographic
  2. Table 1
  3. Why the word order is free
  4. The six cases on one noun
  5. Reading Latin the right way round
  6. Prepositions tell you which case is coming
  7. Prepositions tell you which case is coming
  8. Mistakes English speakers make

Other formats

  1. Listicle

More grammar on this course

Frequently asked questions

How many cases does Latin have?
Six in ordinary use: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and vocative. A seventh, the locative, survives only on town names and a few words like (at home), and is not worth learning as a case in its own right at the start. The six do all the work that English does with word order plus the prepositions of, to, for, by, with and from.
What is the difference between the nominative and the accusative in Latin?
The nominative is the subject, the one performing the verb; the accusative is the direct object, the one the verb lands on. In (the master sees the slave) is nominative and accusative. Swap the endings, , and the slave is now the one seeing, whatever order the words sit in. English marks the same distinction only on pronouns, he him, and uses position for everything else.
Why does Latin word order not matter?
Because the endings already say which noun is doing what, so position is free for emphasis rather than being spent on grammar. , and all mean the master sees the slave; a Roman writer chose between them for rhythm and stress. English cannot do this, because the dog bit the man and the man bit the dog are different events and position is its only tool.
What does the ablative case do in Latin?
It is the catch-all for by, with, from, in and on, which is why it feels vaguest to beginners. is with God, is out of the land, in is on the land. Many of its uses come with a preposition (, , ex, , , pro), and when one of those appears, the noun after it is ablative. In is the one to watch: ablative for where something is (in , on the land), accusative for where it is going (in , onto the land).
What is the vocative case in Latin?
The form for calling or addressing someone: , ! is hello, friend. It is usually identical to the nominative. The one place it differs is second-declension nouns in -us, which switch to -e ( becomes , Brutus becomes Brute, as in , Brute?), and nouns in -ius, which shrink to -i ( becomes ).