Dear sister Dipa,

You hit it right!
The nominative is for the doer of the action (the actor, the subject),
the accusative is for the thing or person undergoing the action (the
passive object).
The father is going, (with his chidren or with a wheelbarrow, that
does not matter)the father is singular, so the verb is in singular.

The village is not dative singular, becase there is nothing "given" to
the village. (I once heard that the word dative comes from the old
indian word "dana") The village has to endure the going of the father,
and thus is accusative.

In Narada's course, chapter 25 gives an overview of the use of the
cases. And it is a matter of a whole lot of practise. In English there
is only one case left: the possessive 's like in fathers's house. It
takes time to get used to the fact that in a sentences like "this is
the child" and "I see the child" the word for "child" has a different
ending. In "The child's toys" we have no problem with that fact.

As I am dutch, I know nothing about Englisch grammars. Maybe one of
the other forum-members. (and I have the luck that I learned som
German, some 30 years ago, with dative, accustive and genitive
declensions)

Kind regards

Ria Glas

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "dipaeightprecepter"
<dipaeightprecepter@...> wrote:

>
> I am on lesson two of Elementary Pali Course. Here is number 13 to
> translate into Pali:
> "The father is going with the children to the village."
>
> How do you determine whether the verb is singular or plural?
> I need a rule or a pattern to follow to determine whether the verb is
> singular or plural.
>
> Why isn't "village" dative singular?
>
> If there is a resource with simple Pali and English grammar facts that
> you know of I would greatly appreciate it. My difficulties may be due
> to not being well educated in English grammar. I am struggling with
> determining what the object of a sentence is. I think I have hit on a
> rule that works for me. It is "The object is what the verb touches".
>
> Dipa
>