1. Present Tense of “To Be” (Sum) Accusative of Place – To Which
Lesson 15
Present Tense of “To Be” (Sum)
Accusative of Place – To Which

2. Learning Targets
To learn how to conjugate the word that means ‘to be’ in Latin, as well as in English
To gain an awareness of how we use the accusative case to identify a place ‘to which’ someone or something is going.

3. Regular Verbs in English
I walk We walk
You walk You walk
He, she, it walks They walk
I sit We sit
You sit You sit
He, she, it sits They sit

4. State of Being – words in English (present tense)
I am We are
You are You (plural) are
He, she, it is They are
Does this follow the regular pattern of verbs in English or is this an irregular pattern?

5. Sum, Esse, Fui, Futurus an irregular verb
Present Tense
sum – I am sumus – we are
es - you are estis – you are
est - he is sunt – they are
Note - the stem is irregular, not the endings.
Do NOT use a form of ‘sum’ as a helping verb. Ex. Laboro by itself means ‘I work’ or ‘I am working’ or ‘I do work’, so the helping verb is ‘built in’. (p. 29)

6. Sum – the ‘to be’ verb in Latin
The words of being in Latin are represented by sum and all the forms of its conjugation
This word does not represent an action (it shows state of being – WHAT something is), so it CAN NOT have a direct object. Any words in that section of the sentence other than the subject and sum will be predicate nominatives.
**Write a sentence in Latin about yourself using the ‘to be’ verb.

7. Accusative of Place – To Which
Used to tell the place ‘to which’ someone goes
All prepositions in Latin are followed by either the accusative or ablative case.
When used with verbs of MOTION:
the preposition ‘ad’ means to or toward
the preposition ‘in’ means into or onto
both are followed by the accusative case! Does it make sense that the accusative case is used here?

8. Using the Accusative Case to Explain ‘Place to Which’
The accusative case is used to show who or what receives the action of the verb.
In using in or ad with the accusative case, we are showing action into, onto, or toward something. So, it makes sense to use the accusative case, as the place someone is going is clearly receiving the action of the verb!