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Rh Accusative (Acc., A.) shows the person or thing directly acted on, the Direct Object of the Verb. Brūt-us (Nom.) Caesăr-em (Acc.) interfēcĭt Brutus killed Cæsar.

Genitive (Gen., G.) denotes that to which anything belongs. Caesărĭs hortī Cæsar’s gardens, tĭmŏr hostĭum fear of-the-enemy.

Dative (Dat., D.) denotes the person or thing indirectly affected by an action, that is, the Indirect Object. Thus, “him” in “I give him the book” would be translated by a Dative in Latin, dō ĕī lĭbrum. The Dat. is generally translated by using to or for.

Ablative (Abl.) has a great number of uses, for which see §§ 148 sqq. It is often translated by by, with, or from.

The above six cases are those usually given in declining a Noun.

The Locative (Loc.) properly denotes the place where anything is done; as Rōmae at-Rome. It is only used in the Singular, and is rare except in names of places of the First and Second Declensions. In the Plural the Abl. is always used instead.

The Acc., Gen., Dat., Abl., and Loc. are called the Oblique cases.

§ 17. Nouns are distributed into Five Declensions. In Latin dictionaries the Declension to which a Noun belongs is shown by giving the inflexion of the Gen. Sing.

General Rules of Declension.—In Neuter Nouns the