My nickname is the “Adventuresome Accusative” because it goes “to” places and things happen to it (direct object). One of my students compared it to a dog, that runs up to you, jumps onto you, and gets into things. I use the color red, because a primary color expresses its direct object use as a core part of the sentence. It also reminds you to stop and think when you see it at the beginning of the sentence; it is not the subject (which most likely carries over from the previous sentence). For a review of the endings, see the Summary of Noun and Adjective Endings.
| Context Clues or Markers | Translations | Grammatical Term or Construct |
| Early in sentence/clause; active (or deponent) verb | Translate after verb | Direct Object Nota: some verbs (e.g. doceo, rogo) can take two accusatives (A & G 394, 396) |
| With factitive verb of naming, calling, appointing. regarding etc. “Fratrem tuum praetorem creavimus” “Omnes eum felicem habebant.” |
Trans. after the D.O. (sometimes with “as”) “We have elected your brother (as) praetor.” “Everyone used to consider him fortunate.” |
Object Complement (A&G 392-393) |
| After preposition that takes the accusative | Object of Preposition | |
| Proper names of city, town, small island; verb of motion. “Thebās veni.” |
“to” —– “I came to Thebes.” |
Accusative place to which [Nota: “ad” + proper name = “near, in the vicinity of”] |
| Unit of time (especially with a plural cardinal number) “quinque diēs.” “Longum tempus stabamus.” |
(for)—– “for five days” “We were standing (for) a long time.” |
Accusative duration of time [Phrases with prepositions, etc., see A&G 423, 424; Minkova 88-91] |
| Measure of space or distance. “quattuor milia passuum” |
(for) —– “(for) four miles (mile = 1000 paces) |
Accusative extent of space |
| with “neck-up” verbs & infinitive (Indirect Statement) “Putavi eum venire” Hic dixit sē id fecisse |
subject of “that” clause in English. (Note se should be trans. as “s/he/it them” not “himself” etc.) “I thought that he was coming.” “He said that he [= same “he” as subject of “said”] had done it.” |
Accusative subject of indirect statement (acting as the direct object of the “neck-up” verb); note that the infinitive is a verbal (accusative) noun |
| Short noun adjective phrase, usually with exclamation point. | Accusative of Exclamation (A&G 397d) |
A & G = Allen and Greenough, New Latin Grammar. # = paragraph number.