distinguished by the order of the words. Sometimes, however, the order
is such that we are left in doubt. For example, the sentence _The lady
her daughter loves_ might mean either that the lady loves her daughter,
or that the daughter loves the lady.

1. If the sentence were in Latin, no doubt could arise, because the
subject and the object are distinguished, not by the order of the
words, but by the endings of the words themselves. Compare the
following sentences:

«Domina fīliam amat»
«Fīliam domina amat»
«Amat fīliam domina»
«Domina amat fīliam»
_The lady loves her daughter_

«Fīlia dominam amat»
«Dominam fīlia amat»
«Amat dominam fīlia»
«Fīlia amat dominam»
_The daughter loves the lady_

_a._ Observe that in each case the subject of the sentence ends in
«-a» and the object in «-am». The _form_ of the noun shows how it is
used in the sentence, and the order of the words has no effect on
the essential meaning.

2. As stated above (§23), this change of ending is called
«declension», and each different ending produces what is called a
«case». When we decline a noun, we give all its different cases, or