3.3 Accusative: The Direct Object — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read an accusative as the direct object and translate it without a preposition. Use the accusative of extent — how long, how far — where English needs "for". Use the accusative of motion towards, including the place names that take no preposition. Recognise a verb that takes two accusatives, and one that takes an accusative where English does not. Read sentences like Dic mihi, quaeso. [46] — Please, tell me. — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 3.2 — the nominative and the predicate. The accusative is the easiest case for an English speaker because its main job is the one English marks by position: the direct object. But it has a second life as the case of extent and direction , and in that life it does work that English hands to prepositions. This lesson does the easy part quickly and spends its time on the second. How English says it English marks the object by putting it after the verb, and marks it on the surviving pronouns by form. English Latin What marks the object I want water. Aquam volo. [1] English: position. Latin: -m I love you! Te amo! [2] English: you is unmarked; Latin: tē She loves him. Eum amat. [3] English marks the pronoun: him , not he I know your real name. Nomen tuum verum scio. [4] three neuter accusatives, before the verb So there is nothing to learn about the basic use. What there is to unlearn is the habit of using position as evidence, which lesson 3.1 dealt with, and the habit of expecting a preposition wherever English has one, which is this lesson's subject. Extent: how long, how far, how deep Latin puts a bare accusative where English says "for". Latin English What is measured Trēs annōs mānsit. He stayed for three years. duration Multōs annōs vīxit. He lived for many years. duration Decem pedēs longus. Ten feet long. extent in space Mīlle passūs ambulāvit. He walked a mile. distance covered The absence of the preposition is the point. English can drop it too — he stayed three years is idiomatic — but English cannot drop it in he waited for an hour , and Latin does not want it there either: ūnam hōram exspectāvit . So the rule to carry is: a bare accusative of time or distance answers "how long" or "how far", never "when". "When" is the ablative, which lesson 3.6 covers, and the pair trēs annōs "for three years" against tertiō annō "in the third year" is the distinction in miniature. Direction: motion towards The accusative also marks the goal of motion. Usually a preposition comes with it — ad or in — but with towns, small islands and three particular nouns the accusative stands alone. Latin English Preposition? Ad scholam eo. [5] I am going to school. yes — ad , "up to" In scholam eo. [6] I go to school. yes — in , "into" Domum venit. [7] He's come home. ★no — domus is one of the exceptions Rōmam iit. He went to Rome. ★no — a town name The exceptions are worth learning as a closed list, because they are common and because the bare accusative looks like an object until you notice the verb is one of motion: domum homewards, rūs to the country, and the names of towns and small islands. Set beside them the three matching locatives from lesson 2.14 — domī at home, rūrī in the country, Rōmae at Rome — and you have a small, tidy system: accusative for motion to, locative for rest at, ablative for motion from. Note also the pair in the first two rows. ad scholam and in scholam are both in the corpus and both mean "to school"; strictly ad is "up to, as far as" and in is "into". Latin observes the difference when it matters and blurs it when it does not, exactly as English blurs to and into . Two accusatives, and verbs that surprise you Some verbs take two accusatives — one for the thing and one for what it is called or made. You met the passive of this in lesson 3.2. Latin English Eum rēgem vocant. They call him king. Mē amīcum habent. They consider me a friend. Cicerōnem cōnsulem creāvērunt. They made Cicero consul. And some verbs take an accusative where English needs a preposition. These have to be learned one at a time, and the word list of every lesson in this course marks them. Latin English needs Mortem timeō. I am afraid of death. Urbem oppugnat. He is making an assault on the city. Mē adiuvat. He is a help to me. Deōs precor. I pray to the gods. The reverse case exists too and is more troublesome: verbs that take a dative where English uses a plain object. Tibi crēdō is "I believe you", tibi parcō is "I spare you", tibi persuādeō is "I persuade you" — all with datives, because Latin construes them as "give credence to", "be sparing to", "make it agreeable to". Lesson 3.5 deals with them; here, notice only that the mapping between Latin case and English preposition is not a mapping but a list. One last use of the accusative, mentioned so that you recognise it rather than to be learned now. Latin says sciō eum legere — "I know him to read" — where English says "I know that he is reading". You saw this in lesson 2.11. The subject of the inner clause goes into the accusative and its verb becomes an infinitive. This construction is everywhere in Latin prose, and it is one of the two or three things that make a page of Cicero look unlike a page of English. The second phase builds it. Seen in real Latin Latin English What the accusative is doing Aquam volo. [8] I want water. direct object Da mihi librum. [9] Give me the book. object, with a dative for the person Da aquam mihi. [10] Give me some water. the same two cases, order reversed Dic verum! [11] Tell the truth! a neuter adjective used as the object Noli id facere. [12] Do not do that. id neuter — object of the infinitive In urbe habitat. [13] He lives in the city. ★ ablative — rest, not motion In scholam is. [14] You go to school. accusative — motion into Cum ea veni. [15] I came with her. ★ablative after cum — no accusative here The sixth and seventh are the pair to study, and they are the reason lesson 3.7 exists. in urbe with the ablative is "in the city"; in schol