User:Aegon/High Valyrian Tutorial/1-5
Lesson 5| The Accusative
Grammar: The Accusative
As you learned in the last lesson, the verb 'sagon' (to be) usually takes the nominative case. Most other verbs take the 'accusative' case.
In a sentence, the accusative is the "what" - in English grammar, this is known as the direct object.
For example: The girl sells the sword.
What did the girl sell? The sword. Thus, sword is the direct object, and when we translate it into High Valyrian:
| Example | |||
| High Valyrian: | Riña | korzī | liorza. |
| English: | [The, a] girl | [the] sword | [she] sells. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | ACCUSATIVE | VERB |
Korze, then, is in the accusative, because it is the direct object.
Again, when an adjective describes a noun in the accusative case, the adjective must agree in number, case, and gender.
| Example | ||||
| High Valyrian: | Riña | korzī | rōve | liorza. |
| English: | [The, a] girl | [the, a] sword | big | [she] sells. |
| Explanation: | NOMINATIVE | NOUN ACCUSATIVE | ADJECTIVE ACCUSATIVE | VERB |
Because High Valyrian uses cases to mark the subject and the object of a sentence, word order does not matter although it is common to see the accusative immediately before the verb (or a pre-verbal adjective). Consider:
| taoba riñe urnes | The boy sees the girl |
| riña taobe urnes | The girl sees the boy |
| riñe taoba videt | The boy sees the girl |
| taobe riña videt | The girl sees the boy |
Examples of Adjectives Agreeing with the Nominative and Accusative Case
| Explanation- Daenerys is taking her powerful dragons to the wicked city. | ||||||||
| High Valyrian: | Daenerys | va | oktiot | kōrē | zȳhī | zaldrīzī | kostōbī | jiōrza |
| English: | Daenerys | to | [the, a] city | wicked | her | dragon(s) | powerful | [she] brings. |
Kōrē, a class II adjective, is lunar/solar, locative, and singular to agree with oktiot, the word in the locative case it is describing. The locative occurs due to the preposition va; thusly, va oktiot kōrē is called a prepositional phrase.
Kostōbī, a class I adjective, is solar and accusative to agree with zaldrīzī. Zaldrīzī is accusative because it is the object of jiōrza. Note that zaldrīzī (4sol.) is both the accusative singular and the accusative plural.
| Can you tell if there one or more dragons? |
| Yes! The possessive adjective zȳhī is declined plural. Daenerys is bringing dragons. |
Here is an example of plural adjectives:
| Explanation- The good boys love the wild dogs. | |||||
| Latin: | Pueri (plur) | boni (plur) | amant (plur) | canes (plur, acc) | feroces (plur, acc). |
| English: | [The] boys | good | [they] love | [the] dogs | wild. |
The words bonus and ferocem become boni and feroces to agree with the plurals pueri and canes.
However, if a girl (puella) happened to love that boy:
| Explanation- The good girl loves the good boy. | |||||
| Latin: | Puella | bona | amat | puerum (acc) | bonum (acc). |
| English: | [The] girl | good | [she] loves | [the] boy | good. |
Bonus must become bona in order to modify puella, which is feminine.
Finally, if the girl isn't good, but rather wild:
| Explanation- The wild girl loves the good boy. | |||||
| Latin: | Puella | ferox | amat | puerum (acc) | bonum (acc). |
| English: | [The] girl | wild | [she] loves | [the] boy | good. |
Even though puella is first declension, ferox remains third declension. In the same way, a good lion would be bonus leo.