Editing Latin grammar (section)

===Case===
Nouns in Latin have a series of different forms, called ''cases'' of the noun, which have different functions or meanings. For example, the word for "king" is {{lang|la|rēx}} when it is the subject of a verb, but {{lang|la|rēgem}} when it is the object:
*{{lang|la|rēx videt}} "the king sees" (nominative case)
*{{lang|la|rēgem videt}} "(he) sees the king" (accusative case)

Further cases mean "of" (genitive case), "to/for" (dative case), and "with" (ablative case).

Nouns for people have a separate form used for addressing a person (vocative case). In most nouns for women and girls, the vocative is the same as the nominative.

Some nouns, such as the names of cities and small islands, and the word {{lang|la|domus}} "home", have a seventh case called the '''locative''', for example {{lang|la|Rōmae}} "in Rome" or {{lang|la|domī}} "at home"; however, most nouns do not have this case.

The genitive, dative and ablative cases are called the "oblique" cases.

The order in which the cases are given in grammar books differs in different countries. In Britain and countries influenced by Britain, the order nominative, vocative, accusative is used as in the table below.{{sfn|Kennedy|1962|p=13}} In the United States, in grammars such as Gildersleeve and Lodge's ''Latin Grammar'' (1895), the traditional order is used, with the genitive case in the second place and ablative last. In the popularly used [[Wheelock's Latin]] (1956, 7th edition 2011) and Allen and Greenough's ''New Latin Grammar'' (1903), however, the vocative is placed at the end.

The following table shows the endings of a typical noun of the 3rd declension.{{sfn|Kennedy|1962|p=22}} If Gildersleeve and Lodge's order is preferred, click on the symbol "GL" in the seventh column in the table below; for Wheelock's order click on "Wh":

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! class=unsortable|Name of case
! class=unsortable|Use
! class=unsortable|sing.
! class=unsortable|meaning
! class=unsortable|plur.
! class=unsortable|meaning
! Br
! GL
! Wh
|-
| Nominative
| ''Subject''
| '''{{lang|la|rēx|italic=no}}'''
| a king, the king
| '''{{lang|la|rēgēs|italic=no}}'''
| kings, the kings
| 1
| 1
| 1
|-
| Vocative
| ''Addressing''
| '''{{lang|la|rēx|italic=no}}'''
| o king!
| '''{{lang|la|rēgēs|italic=no}}'''
| o kings!
| 2
| 5
| 6
|-
| Accusative
| ''Object, goal''
| '''{{lang|la|rēgem|italic=no}}'''
| a king, the king (''object'')
| '''{{lang|la|rēgēs|italic=no}}'''
| kings, the kings (''object'')
| 3
| 4
| 4 
|-
| Genitive
| ''of''
| '''{{lang|la|rēgis|italic=no}}'''
| of the king, of a king
| '''{{lang|la|rēgum|italic=no}}'''
| of kings, of the kings
| 4
| 2
| 2
|-
| Dative
| ''to, for''
| '''{{lang|la|rēgī|italic=no}}'''
| to the king
| '''{{lang|la|rēgibus|italic=no}}'''
| to kings, to the kings
| 5
| 3
| 3
|-
| Ablative
| ''with, by, from, in''
| '''{{lang|la|rēge|italic=no}}'''
| with the king
| '''{{lang|la|rēgibus|italic=no}}'''
| with the kings
| 6
| 6
| 5 
|}

Sometimes the same endings, e.g. {{lang|la|-ēs}} and {{lang|la|-ibus}}, are used for more than one case. Since the function of a word in Latin is shown by ending rather than word order, in theory {{lang|la|rēgēs dūcunt}} could mean either "the kings lead" or "they lead the kings". In practice, however, such ambiguities are rare.