Exhibeo, exhibere, exhibui, exhibitum means “to show,” “display,” or “present.” In Elementary Latin, it often appears with a dative indirect object naming the person to whom something is shown.
Exhibeo, exhibere, exhibui, exhibitum is a Latin verb meaning “to show,” “display,” or “present.” In Elementary Latin, you will usually meet it when a sentence has one thing being shown and a person receiving that action, which makes it a good verb for practicing indirect objects.
The basic pattern is simple: something gets shown, and someone gets shown it. Latin often marks that receiver with the dative case, not with a preposition the way English uses “to” or “for.” So if you see exhibeo in a sentence, ask yourself who is being shown the item or idea. That person is usually the indirect object.
A short example like librum puellae exhibeo means “I show the book to the girl.” Librum is the direct object because it is the thing being shown. Puellae is in the dative because she is the one receiving the action. This structure is a big reason instructors use exhibeo when introducing indirect objects, because the meaning is clear and the case ending does the work.
The verb can also feel a little broader than simple visual “showing.” In Latin, exhibeo can suggest presenting, producing, or displaying something in a more formal way. A writer might use it for showing evidence, presenting an object, or revealing a quality. That range matters because it reminds you that Latin verbs often carry a wider sense than the first English gloss you memorize.
For forms, exhibeo follows the patterns you practice in verb conjugation charts, so it also serves as a review word for tense and person endings. In reading, though, its real value is structural: it helps you spot the direct object, identify the dative receiver, and keep the sentence’s action straight even when word order shifts.
This verb shows up right where Elementary Latin grammar starts to feel useful: you can see how endings, not English word order, tell you who is doing what to whom. With exhibeo, the direct object and the indirect object often sit close together in the sentence, so you have to read the endings carefully instead of guessing from position.
That skill carries over to translation work. If you can explain why puellae is dative in librum puellae exhibeo, you are not just memorizing a vocabulary item, you are reading the sentence’s structure. The same habit helps with other verbs of giving, telling, and showing, which are common in beginner passages and drills.
It also helps you separate meaning from form. Sometimes English wants “show to,” “present to,” or “display for,” but Latin may encode that relationship in the case ending alone. Once that clicks, indirect objects start to look less random and more like a pattern you can recognize quickly in class exercises and quizzes.
Keep studying Elementary Latin Unit 8
Visual cheatsheet
view galleryIndirect Object
Exhibeo is a classic verb for seeing an indirect object in action. The indirect object names the person or thing receiving the showing, so it answers “to whom?” or “for whom?” When you translate or parse a sentence with exhibeo, identifying the indirect object is usually the first step to getting the whole sentence right.
Dative Case
The dative case is the case Latin uses for the person who receives the action of exhibeo. In a sentence like librum puellae exhibeo, puellae is dative because she is the one the book is shown to. Spotting the dative ending is what lets you recognize the indirect object without relying on English word order.
Accusative Case
Exhibeo almost always works with an accusative direct object, because something has to be shown. If you can find the accusative noun first, it often tells you what is being displayed, and then the dative tells you to whom it is shown. The two cases work together to build the sentence’s full meaning.
monstro, monstrare, monstravi, monstratum
Monstro is another “show” verb, so it can appear in similar grammar exercises. Comparing it with exhibeo helps you notice that different verbs can create the same indirect-object pattern. That makes it easier to translate by structure instead of trying to memorize each sentence as a separate chunk.
A quiz item or translation question will often ask you to identify the indirect object in a sentence with exhibeo, or to choose the correct English rendering of the dative. You might see a short Latin sentence and need to label which noun is the thing being shown and which noun is the recipient. In a written exercise, you may also be asked to supply the correct dative ending or explain why a noun is indirect rather than direct.
When you translate, start by finding the accusative object, then look for the dative noun tied to exhibeo. That habit keeps you from swapping the roles of the nouns when word order changes. If the teacher gives you a fill-in-the-blank or parsing task, know that exhibeo is a strong signal that a dative indirect object is likely nearby.
Exhibeo means “to show,” “display,” or “present” in Elementary Latin.
When you see exhibeo, look for a dative indirect object naming the person receiving the action.
The thing being shown will usually be in the accusative case as the direct object.
Latin word order can move around, so the endings matter more than where the words sit in the sentence.
This verb is useful because it gives you a clear example of how indirect objects work in real Latin sentences.
It is a Latin verb meaning “to show,” “display,” or “present.” In beginner Latin, it is especially useful because it often appears with a dative indirect object, which shows who receives the action. That makes it a common grammar example in translation practice.
The person receiving what is shown usually goes in the dative case. For example, librum puellae exhibeo means “I show the book to the girl,” where puellae is the indirect object. The book is the direct object because it is the thing being shown.
They are very close in meaning, since both can mean “show” or “display.” In class, the bigger difference is usually how you recognize the sentence structure, not the English gloss. Both verbs can help you practice spotting a direct object plus a dative indirect object.
Puellae is indirect because it names the person who receives the showing, not the thing being acted on directly. Latin marks that receiver with the dative case. The book is what gets shown, so it stays as the direct object.