Who does what is shown by word endings.
English relies on word order. Latin relies on endings, so the words can move around for emphasis without changing who does what.
Caesar Galliam videt
(KAI-sar GAL-lee-ahm WIH-det)
= Caesar sees Gaul
Galliam Caesar videt
(GAL-lee-ahm KAI-sar WIH-det)
= Caesar sees Gaul (Gaul stressed)
Add a / the in English as the sense requires.
Latin has no articles. Vir can mean “a man” or “the man”.
vir
(wir)
= a man / the man
The doer of the verb is in the nominative.
The nominative is the dictionary form (Gallia, Caesar, vir). If the verb already means “I” (-o) or “we” (-mus), a nominative noun cannot also be its subject; it is either an object in the wrong case or someone addressed.
Catilina venit
(kah-tih-LEE-nah WEH-nit)
= Catiline comes
✗ Lesbia amo
The thing acted on usually ends in -m (singular) or -s / -a (plural).
Lesbia → Lesbiam, vir → virum, urbs → urbem. Verbs like venio (“I come”) take no direct object, except a city or country you travel to.
Lesbiam amo
(LES-bee-ahm AH-moh)
= I love Lesbia
arma cano
(AR-mah KAH-noh)
= I sing of arms
-o / -m I, -s you, -t he/she, -mus we, -nt they.
Latin often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already says who. The subject and the ending must agree in person and number.
amo
(AH-moh)
= I love
amat
(AH-maht)
= he / she loves
Belgae incolunt
(BEL-gai in-KOH-loont)
= the Belgae inhabit
With sum / es / est / sunt, both sides stay nominative.
Est is an equals sign, not an action, so the description is not an object.
Roma est urbs
(ROH-mah est oorbs)
= Rome is a city
✗ Roma est urbem
ad / per + accusative; cum / sine / ex / de + ablative; in + either.
In + accusative means motion “into”; in + ablative means position “in”. The noun must change to the case its preposition demands.
in senatum venit
(in seh-NAH-toom WEH-nit)
= he comes into the senate
est in urbe
(est in OOR-beh)
= he is in the city
✗ ad urbe
Put non directly in front of the verb it negates.
Unlike English “do not”, Latin needs only non, placed right before the verb.
Gallia non est Roma
(GAL-lee-ah nohn est ROH-mah)
= Gaul is not Rome
Same gender, number and case, even far apart.
Mea Lesbia (subject), meam Lesbiam (object). In poetry the adjective may stand far from its noun; the matching endings tie them together.
meam Lesbiam amo
(MEH-ahm LES-bee-ahm AH-moh)
= I love my Lesbia
✗ mea Lesbiam
Mihi / mi “to me”, senatui “to the senate”.
Verbs of giving and saying use the dative for the receiver.
da mi basia mille
(dah mee BAH-see-ah MIL-leh)
= give me a thousand kisses
By, with, from, in: means, place, respect, and more.
A bare ablative can mean “in respect of” (lingua differunt), “by means of”, or “from”. The checker accepts only the uses it knows.
lingua differunt
(LIN-gwah DIF-feh-roont)
= they differ in language
Romam venit: “he comes to Rome”.
Names of cities (and in poetry, countries) use the bare accusative for motion toward them.
Italiam venit
(ih-TAH-lee-ahm WEH-nit)
= he came to Italy
Glued to the second word: arma virumque.
-que joins the word it is attached to with the word before it.
arma virumque cano
(AR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh KAH-noh)
= I sing of arms and the man
Mea Lesbia, Catilina, Musa: the person spoken to.
Most names in -a look the same in the vocative as in the nominative. Commas usually mark them.
vivamus, mea Lesbia
(wee-WAH-moos, MEH-ah LES-bee-ah)
= let us live, my Lesbia