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Declining a Latin Noun
Related Book
Latin For Dummies
By
Clifford A. Hull, Steven R. Perkins, Tracy Barr
They say that old Latin teachers never die — they just decline. Whether this is true of teachers, declining and declension are facts of life that all Latin nouns must face. A declension is a group of nouns that form their cases the same way — that is, use the same suffixes. To decline a noun means to list all possible case forms for that noun.
Latin has five declensions; this article looks at the first two.
First-declension nouns
The first noun group that uses the same suffixes to form case is, not surprisingly, called first declension. All the nouns in the first declension use the endings shown in Table 1 to indicate case in a sentence. These nouns are masculine or feminine because the first declension has no neuter nouns.
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Table 2 shows the full declension of the noun
puella (pu-
ehl-luh), which means “girl.”
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Here’s an example with the words
terra (
tehr-ruh; land),
agricola (uh-
grih-koh-luh; farmer), and
puella (pu-
ehl-luh; girl):
Terram agricolarum puella amat. tehr-ruhm uh-gri-ko-
luh-rum pu-
ehl-luh
uh-muht.
Using the case endings to put the nouns in the right position, you can translate this sentence: “The girl loves the land of the farmers.” Here’s how:
- Terra (land) ends in -am, so its case is accusative. In other words, it’s the direct object.
- Agricola (farmer) ends in -arum, the plural genitive, which shows possession. Because it’s genitive, stick the words of the in front of the noun: of the farmers.
- Puella (girl) ends in -a, which is the singular nominative case. That makes puella the subject.
- Amat (love) is the verb. It means “she loves.”
Put it all together, and you have “Land of the farmers girl loves.” Okay; that doesn’t read like an English sentence. So put the words in the order they would be in an English sentence — subject, verb, and direct object — throw in a couple articles for good measure, and
now you get “The girl loves the land of the farmers.” Voila!
Second-declension nouns
Flamma fumo est proxima (
fluh-muh
foo-mo ehst
prohks-ih-muh). According to the Roman playwright Plautus, “Flame is closest to smoke.” In English, you say, “Where there’s smoke, there must be fire.” And where there’s one noun declension, there must be more.
Second–
declension nouns are a bit more expressive than first-declension nouns because they have two separate sets of endings for masculine and neuter genders. Second declension has few feminine nouns, and these have the same endings as masculine nouns.
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Note: Some second-declension nouns use
-r for the nominative singular form. Two examples of second declension masculine nouns are
amicus (uh-
mee-kus), the word for “friend,” and
ager (
uh-gehr), the word for “field.”
Table 4 shows the full declension of the masculine nouns
amicus and
ager.
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Second-declension neuter nouns have endings similar to those of the masculine/feminine genders. In fact, because they’re so much alike, they can be grouped together in this declension. Pay particular attention to where the suffixes are different (shown in boldface in Table 5).
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Table 6 shows the decline of
saxum (
suhk-sum), a second-declension neuter noun that means “rock.”
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You can see that the only place where neuter nouns are different is in the nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural forms, which have the endings
-um and
-a. This presents an interesting situation: The suffix
-a can also be a singular ending in first declension. Look at the following sentence:
Portat saxa puella in aqua. pohr-tuht
suhk-suh pu-
ehl-luh ihn
uh-kwuh.
Portare means “to carry,” a
saxum is a “rock,”
puella means “girl,” and
aqua is “water.” But if you know the definitions, you’re only halfway to understanding the sentence. The preceding Latin sentence means one of the following translations, but which one?
The girl in the water carries rocks.
The girls in the water carry rocks.
The girl in the water carries a rock.
The girls in the water carry a rock.
The girl on the rocks carries water.
The girls on the rocks carry water.
The girl on the rock carries water.
The girls on the rock carry water.
Remember that word order in Latin plays less of a role in determining meaning than it does in English. The only way to know for certain is to know to what declension each of the nouns belongs, and checking a Latin dictionary can tell you this. Along with the definition and gender, each noun entry gives the nominative and genitive singular forms. You can spot a first-declension noun from a genitive singular ending in
-ae, and a second-declension noun from a genitive singular ending in
-i. The dictionary entries for the nouns in the preceding Latin sentence look like this:
saxum, saxi, n (rock)
puella, puellae, f (girl)
aqua, aquae, f (water)
From this, you can see that
saxum is a second-declension word, and both
puella and
aqua are first declension because of the genitive singular endings (
saxi, puellae, and
aquae). Knowing this, you can figure out that the correct translation of the sentence is actually “The girl in the water carries rocks.”
Some second-declension masculine nouns have
-ius for a nominative singular ending, and some neuter nouns have
-ium. These nouns used a single
-i for the genitive singular ending until the Age of Augustus, which began in the first century B.C. After that time, the genitive singular for these nouns became
-ii. Most dictionaries retain the older spelling with a single
-i, and that is the form you see in this book.
You can always determine the declension and gender of a noun just by checking its dictionary entry.
About the Book Author
Clifford A. Hull has taught Latin, Greek, medicalterminology, and classical mythology.
Steven R. Perkins has taught Latin for a decade.
Tracy Barr has served as an editor, editorial manager,writer, and consultant on For Dummies books.
Cheat Sheet
Latin For Dummies Cheat Sheet
Related Book
Latin For Dummies
By
Clifford A. Hull, Steven R. Perkins, Tracy Barr
To get a handle on Latin, you have to study the normal language things like verb conjugations, including those irregular verbs and verb endings. You need to pay attention to noun cases as well, and learn the basic question words and the short words that help you connect your thoughts. And, as you discover more Latin, you come to realize that its contributions to English are evident in words you use every day, so, even though there are no native Latin speakers anymore, the language lives on.
Latin Noun Cases
In Latin, what form a noun takes depends on how it’s being used. You use different forms of a noun if it’s a subject, another if it’s an indirect object. The following table lists noun cases and uses.
Basic Noun Case Uses
Nominative subject
Genitive possession
Dative indirect object
Accusative direct object, place to which, extent of time
Ablative means, manner, place where, place from which, time when, time
within which, agent, accompaniment, absolute
Common Irregular Latin Verbs
Like any language, Latin has regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs follow common rules when you conjugate them; irregular verbs follow their own rules. The following table shows some of the most used irregular verbs, their conjugations, and pronunciations:
Verb Meaning
fero, ferre, tuli, latus (feh-
ro, fehr-
reh,
tu-
lee, lah-
tus) to bear, carry
sum, esse, fui, futurus (sum, ehs-
seh, fu-
ee,
fu-too-
rus) to be
volo, velle, volui (woh-
lo, woh-
leh,
woh-lu-
ee) to want
nolo, nolle, nolui (no-
lo, no-
leh,
no-lu-
ee) not to want
malo, malle, malui (mah-
lo, mah-
leh,
mah-lu-
ee) to prefer
eo, ire, ii, iturus (eh-
o, ee-
reh, ih-
ee,
ih-too-
rus) to go
Helpful Latin Verb Endings
In Latin, you don’t always need two words to form a complete sentence. The ending of a verb can provide a pronoun, so the quote attributed to Julius Caesar — “Veni, vidi, vici” — grammatically translates as “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The following table shows verb endings and the pronouns they represent:
Singular Plural
–o, –r, –m, –i = I –mus, –mur = we
–s, –ris, –isti = you (s.) –tis, –mini = you (pl.)
–t, –tur = he, she, it –nt, –ntur = they
Counting On — and Pronouncing — Roman Numerals
Actual Latin speakers — or more truthfully writers — used Roman numerals instead of the Arabic system English speakers use today. But Roman numerals are still in use, probably most notably in counting Super Bowls and in copyright dates. The following table shows you the basic numbers, the Latin, and the pronunciation:
Roman Numeral Latin English
I unus (oo-
nus) one
II duo (du-
oh) two
III tres (trays) three
IV quattuor (kwuht-tu-ohr) four
V quinque (kween-
kweh) five
VI sex (sehks) six
VII septem (sehp-
tehm) seven
VIII octo (ohk-
to) eight
IX novem (noh-
wehm) nine
X decem (deh-
kehm) ten
L quinquaginta (
kween-kwah-gihn-tah) fifty
C centum (kehn-
tum) one hundred
D quingenti (kween-gehn-
tee) five hundred
M mille (mihl-
leh) thousand
Useful Little Latin Words
In Latin, as in other languages, little words can mean a lot. How can you make a point without being able to say, “I see your point,
but . . .?” The short Latin words in the following table provide some crucial transition words:
Word Meaning
et (eht), atque (uht-kweh), ac (ahk), que (kweh) and
sed (sehd) but
autem (ow-
tehm) however
aut (owt) or
sive . . . sive (see-
weh, see-
weh) whether . . . or
neque (neh-
kweh), nec (nehk) and not
ita (ee-
tuh), sic (seek), tam (tuhm) so
si (see) if
nisi (nih-
sih) if . . . not
Latin Question Words
Being able to ask questions is an important part of learning any language. Latin question words are listed in the following table. Use them and you can sound both knowledgeable (not many people can speak Latin) and puzzled (because they are questions after all).
Word Meaning
cur? (kur) why?
ubi? (u-
bee) where?, when?
quis? (kwihs) who?
quid? (kwihd) what?
quantus? (kwuhn-
tus) how great?
quot? (kwot) how many?
qualis? (kwuh-
lihs) what kind of? agent, accompaniment, absolute
About the Book Author
Clifford A. Hull has taught Latin, Greek, medicalterminology, and classical mythology.
Steven R. Perkins has taught Latin for a decade.
Tracy Barr has served as an editor, editorial manager,writer, and consultant on For Dummies books.