Nominative case:        The form of the subject. It is used to indicate the subject of a verb.

Genitive case:        The form of possession. Often one conveys the meaning of possession by using the preposition of.

Dative case:         The form of the indirect object. It is indirectly affected. One may often convey the dative case with the preposition to or for.

Accusative case:        The form of the direct object. It is the person or thing directly effected by the action of the verb.

Ablative case:        The form of the adverbial concept. It limits or modifies the verbs by such ideas as:

        
means (by what)        agent (by whom)
accompaniment (with whom)        manner (how)
time (where, within reach)        place (where, from which)

The ablative is sometimes used with a preposition and sometimes without. Some Latin prepositions include ab, by, from, cum, with; de and ex, from, in , in , on.

        memory aide:   biowaf = by, in, on, with, at, from

Vocative case:        The form of direct address. It is used to directly address a person or thing: e.g.  (O) Caesar, (O) Caesar; O fortuna, O fortune

The base of an adjective is found similar to the way a base of a noun is found, dropping the genitive ending. More on adjectives will be discussed later.