# Latin/Index II

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For explanations of terms used in these grammar tables, check the
Glossary.

## Declension of Nouns

### 1st Declension Masculine (each word has a set gender) puella

  1st Declension   Singular   Plural
  ---------------- ---------- ------------
  nominative       puell-a    puell-ae
  vocative         puell-a    puell-ae
  accusative       puell-am   puell-as
  genitive         puell-ae   puell-arum
  dative           puell-ae   puell-is
  ablative         puell-a    puell-is

### 2nd Declension Masculine/Feminine (each word has a set gender): servus

  2nd Declension Masculine   Singular   Plural
  -------------------------- ---------- -----------
  nominative                 serv-us    serv-i
  vocative                   serv-e     serv-i
  accusative                 serv-um    serv-os
  genitive                   serv-i     serv-orum
  dative                     serv-o     serv-is
  ablative                   serv-o     serv-is

### 2nd Declension Neuter: bellum

  2nd Declension Neuter   Singular   Plural
  ----------------------- ---------- -----------
  nominative              bell-um    bell-a
  vocative                bell-um    bell-a
  accusative              bell-um    bell-a
  genitive                bell-i     bell-orum
  dative                  bell-o     bell-is
  ablative                bell-o     bell-is

### 2nd Declension Masculine: puer

  2nd Declension Masculine   Singular   Plural
  -------------------------- ---------- -----------
  nominative                 puer       puer-i
  vocative                   puer       puer-i
  accusative                 puer-um    puer-os
  genitive                   puer-i     puer-orum
  dative                     puer-o     puer-is
  ablative                   puer-o     puer-is

### 2nd Declension Masculine: ager

  2nd Declension Masculine   Singular   Plural
  -------------------------- ---------- ----------
  nominative                 ager       agr-i
  vocative                   agr-e      agr-i
  accusative                 agr-um     agr-os
  genitive                   agr-i      agr-orum
  dative                     agr-o      agr-is
  ablative                   agr-o      agr-is

### 3rd Declension Masculine or Feminine (each word has a set gender): rex

  3rd Declension   Singular   Plural
  ---------------- ---------- ----------
  nominative       rex        reg-es
  vocative         rex        reg-es
  accusative       reg-em     reg-es
  genitive         reg-is     reg-um
  dative           reg-i      reg-ibus
  ablative         reg-e      reg-ibus

### 3rd Declension Neuter: mare

  3rd Declension Neuter   Singular   Plural
  ----------------------- ---------- ----------
  nominative              mar-e      mar-ia
  vocative                mar-e      mar-ia
  accusative              mar-e      mar-ia
  genitive                mar-is     mar-ium
  dative                  mar-i      mar-ibus
  ablative                mar-i      mar-ibus

### 4th Declension Masculine/Feminine (each word has a set gender) gradus

  4th Declension   Singular   Plural
  ---------------- ---------- -----------
  nominative       grad-us    grad-us
  vocative         grad-us    grad-us
  accusative       grad-um    grad-us
  genitive         grad-us    grad-uum
  dative           grad-ui    grad-ibus
  ablative         grad-u     grad-ibus

### 4th Declension Neuter: cornu

  4th Declension Neuter   Singular   Plural
  ----------------------- ---------- -----------
  nominative              corn-u     corn-a
  vocative                corn-u     corn-a
  accusative              corn-u     corn-a
  genitive                corn-us    corn-uum
  dative                  corn-ui    corn-ibus
  ablative                corn-u     corn-ibus

### 5th Declension Masculine/Feminine (each word has a set gender): res

  5th Declension Feminine/Masculine   Singular   Plural
  ----------------------------------- ---------- --------
  nominative                          r-es       r-es
  vocative                            r-es       r-es
  accusative                          r-em       r-es
  genitive                            r-ei       r-erum
  dative                              r-ei       r-ebus
  ablative                            r-e        r-es

:   **m** = masculine\
:   **f** = feminine\
:   **n** - neuter

**NOTES**

4/5th declensions are modified 3rd declensions, thus behave similarily.
3rd declension is either M/F/N, 4th declension is either M/F/N and 5th
declension is either M/F. So for 3rd, 4th, and 5th declension is of most
importance to memorise the gender because the adjective will still need
to agree (ie have the same) with the noun in both case, gender, and
number.

The Vocative only changes for the 2nd declension masculine singular
(however not for the nouns that leave the -us suffix when in
nominative).

There are a few exceptions in the 1st declension which are not feminine.
Such nouns are poet-a (1st declension masculine, so to agree you need to
use -us on the adjective) and naut-a.

There are a few second declension nouns with irregularities. It is of
most importance that you memorise them.

When memorising a noun\'s meaning, make sure that you also memorise any
irregularities the noun has, the gender, and the declension. Without
doing this you may have trouble translating. For example, 2nd declension
masculines have -us in the nominative singular; however, 4th declension
masculines have -us in the nominative singular, nominative plural and
accusative plural. This may get you confused if you do not memorise the
declension of each noun.

## Single Declension Theory

If you look at the above list of declensions, you may feel that you are
going to be overcome if you have to memorize all of it. Memorization is
indeed the key, but it will be easier than you think.

Each word in Latin has three parts: the root, the stem vowel, and the
ending. There are five vowels in Latin, so there are five stem vowels:
A,O,I,U,E. Any word not really having a stem vowel naturally was given
to I.

If you study the declension patterns enough you will see that there are
many similarities in the declensions. All accusative singulars end in
\"m\" except neuters that sometimes still do. All accusative plurals end
in \'s\' except neuters that always end in *a*. All genitive plurals end
in \"um\", be it *ium, rum, uum* or whatever else.

If you read enough Latin you will actually find that authors would
switch a declension of a word at will if it made the sentence clearer.
Thus many words that are of the 4th declension were sometimes written as
if 2nd, and 5th declension as if 3rd and vice versa. Some ending
patterns that we use for one declension may also be used in another,
again to make the sentence clearer. Thus \"filiabus\" would be used in
any sentence where we want to make it clear that we are talking about
the Daughters and specifically not the Sons. We also see examples of
this in *animabus*. Some think that the *IS* used in the first and
second declensions was actually an abbreviation of *bus*.

Some students find the ablative difficult since it sometimes looks like
the nominative singular, dative plural or neither. All you really need
to do to get the hang of this is to know that in the plural, the
ablative always looks like the dative. If there is no preposition in
front of it then it is probably a dative, unless it is being used in an
ablative construction that would likely be apparent. If there is a
preposition and it looks like a dative, just remember that no
preposition takes a dative, only ever ablative and sometimes accusative.
Dative plural plus preposition equals ablative. The ablative singular is
really just the root plus the stem vowel with no ending to speak of,
since the preposition tells you the grammar of the word.

Some students also get confused by words that are the same in the
nominative singular and plural. Don\'t worry about that; the verb will
tell you which it is since the verb always agrees with the nominative.

It is thought that originally there was only one declension, but during
the task of applying it to every word in natural speech it was found
that some words naturally changed the way the basic sounds of the
original declension worked. Here is one idea of the original basic
declension.

  Case         Root    Stem Vowel   Singular   Plural
  ------------ ------- ------------ ---------- --------
  nominative   puell   a            None       es
  genitive     puell   a            is         rum
  dative       puell   a            i          bus
  accusative   puell   a            m          s
  ablative     puell   a            none       bus

When speaking in everyday conversation, Latin speakers would shorten the
word in their pronunciation so long as it still made sense.

If you go to New Orleans you will likely hear someone say \'prowly\'.
This is not a new dish at a restaurant or a new new code name for the
police, it is actually the local pronunciation of the word *probably*.
It is ok to shorten this word because when it is shortened everyone can
still understand it.

The Latins did the same thing. It is known that *I* can change to *E*
and vice versa, so we can see that pattern in the dative singular of all
declensions. The *IS* of the genitive was kept in the 3rd declension,
shortened in the 1st, 2nd, and 5th and slightly altered in the 4th. The
\'add *M*\' rule of the accusative singular is seen in the altering of
the stem vowel in the 2nd and 3rd declensions. The *ES* of the
nominative plural became *E* in 1st, *I* in 2nd, and *US* in 4th. The
*RUM* of the genitive plural was shortened in the 3rd and 4th
declensions.

The accusative plural as a rule never changes, but keep in mind that
neuter words followed a different pattern of using *A* for the
accusative plural, and all neuters took the accusative singular or
plural for the nominative of the same number.

The *BUS* of the dative/ ablative plural was shortened to *IS* in the
1st and 2nd declensions but kept in the others.

The 4th declension has a tendency to copy the *IBUS* of the 3rd in some
authors but retain the *UBUS* in others.

When studying Latin declensions you really should strive to memorize the
patterns, but also look to see how they are similar to other patterns in
the language as it will help you to remember. Also note that the *IS* of
the genitive singular is what eventually gave us the word *HIS* and the
\'add \'s\'\" rule of English. Latin also gave us the \'add \'s\'\" to
make a plural by way of the accusative plural.

If you study other inflexive languages related to Latin, such as Greek,
you will notice even similarities across languages.

