grammatical gender unrelated to biological sex Masculine: rivers, winds, months and mountains. endings in -us, -er, -or Feminine: cities, countries, plants, trees and most abstract qualtities. endings in -a, -as, - do, -io Neuter: endings in -um, -men, -e, -al, -ar

order versus ending In English: by the order of words in a sentence The girl looks at the bull. The bull looks at the girl. In Latin: by the endings of the nouns: Puella taurum videt. Puellam taurus videt.

Genitive case - “of” possession possesion: the book of the teacher (liber magistri) modification: a boy of ten years (puer decem annorum) objective genitive: his hatred of me (odium mei)

Dative case - “to”,”for” indirect object The boy gives a present to his mother. (The boy gives his mother a present.) Puer matri donum dat. Mark did a favour for me. (Mark did me a favour.) Marcus mihi gratum fecit.

Accusative case - “through” direct object of a sentence object of a preposition The god loves the girl. Deus puellam amat. The bear wandered through the forest. Ursa per silvam errabat.

Ablative case object of a preposition (situation, agent, means) The tree is in front of the temple. [Arbor est pro templo.] The food is touched by the king. [Cibus a rege tangitur.] ablative absolute The Minotaur having been killed, Theseus left the island. (After the Minotaur had been killed, Theseus left the island.) [Minotauro necato, Theseus ab insula discessit.]

reference material Norma Goldman and Ladislas Szymanski: English Grammar for Students of Latin, The Olivia and Hill Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1993.