Why do we decline nouns in Latin? We decline nouns in Latin to show function. To show the function means, to show how something works for example, “Puer calceos habet” this sentence means, “The boy has shoes. As you may notice, the word for boy is in front which is the subject, but the direct object (shoes) came after. Why don’t we decline nouns in English? We do not decline in English because of the word order. For example “ The boy loves the girls”. If you looks at the sentence the subject comes before the verb. In English almost all nouns are declined, we add ‑s to make plurals. What is the function of nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative nouns?
The nominative case of a noun is used whenever the noun is the subject of the sentence. For example, “Servus est in horto” the subject in this sentence is servus.
The genitive case of a noun is used whenever the noun becomes possessive. For example “servus laborat in villa domini” The slave works in the house of the master. The genitive is showing possession.
The dative case is used for a noun that functions as the indirect object in a sentence. For example “Imperā tor rem senā toribus monstrā vit” The emperor showed the senators the problem.
The accusative case of a noun is used for direct objects For example "We like the farmer", the farmer would be accusative because it is the direct object.
The memorization of noun declensions helps me to translate Latin. It helps me to translate Latin in many different ways, like when the teachers ask a question in class I translate it off the top of my head. When I did not memorize the noun declensions, it was harder for me to translate, I am not a professional on translating latin but memorizing the noun declension makes it easier.