Nominative: subject and predicate nominative (puella est discipula). Genitive: possession (domus patris), partitive (pars mīlitum), with verbs of remembering and forgetting. Dative: indirect object, advantage/disadvantage, with compound verbs and adjectives (mihi placet). Accusative: direct object; motion towards, with ad / in, or no preposition with names of cities and towns (Rōmam īre); extent of time or space.

Vocative: direct address (amīce!). Ablative: see table — the workhorse case. Key prepositions: in + abl. (in, on), ex / ē, dē, ab / ā (from, by), cum (with), sine (without), prō (for); in + acc. (into), ad (to, towards), per (through), propter (because of).

Ablative absolute: a noun or pronoun + participle in the ablative, grammatically independent of the sentence: urbe captā, fūgērunt (with the city captured, they fled). Translate by time, cause, or condition as sense demands.