Now we’ll try to grasp two other concepts for Latin: that of Apposition, and the word order. First apposition.

An appositive is a noun that is place next to another noun as an explanation of the first noun. The two nouns must always be in the same case. Maybe these examples will aid in your understanding.

The president of the United States, George Bush, went home.

President and George Bush are in apposition to one another. George Bush explains who the president is.

I see Mary, my sister, in the garden.

Mary and my sister are in apposition with one another because one explains who the other is.

Now for word order.

This is the basic structure for simple sentences or dependent clauses in Latin.

The subject (nominative case) with all its modifiers, there may be a possible genitive if possession will be indicated.
The indirect object (dative case). But remember there will be clues that you need one. (i.e. there will be certain verbs or adjectives that will demand a dative.
The direct object (accusative case)
Adverbial words or clauses
The verb.

Now the first word of the sentence was usually the main idea that the Romans wanted to emphasize. Normally it’s the subject. But don’t be fooled. The subject is not always the first word. Now if the sentence said something to the effect that “John hit the ball” and “ball” was the key idea, then ball would be the first word in the sentence. But being that it’s the direct object, ball would be in the accusative case. Therefore the sentence in Latin would begin with the accusative case instead of a nominative case. In this case the nominative case would be the second word and the last being the verb. That’s why it’s so important to know the endings, so that in this case you would know to look for a singular nominative in the sentence.

Now it’s time to look at our workbook..

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