Declension Guide PDF

Preview

Summary

declensions--noun and adjectives...

Description

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES. It is essential that you know the declensions of the first, second, and third declension nouns and adjectives. Nouns will be listed, both in your dictionary and on tests and quizzes, by the nominative and genitive cases, like ancilla, ancillae. The first form, ancilla, is the nominative; the second, ancillae, is the genitive. From the genitive, we can tell which declension the noun belongs to. The first declension genitive ends in -ae, the second declension in -i, and the third in -is. 1st Declension (mostly feminine) ancilla, ancillae (f) villa, villae (f) Rufilla, Rufillae (f) nauta, nautae (m) Fem. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular puella puellae puellae puellam puella

Plural puellae puellarum puellis puellas puellis

2nd Declension (masculine or neuter)

(NB: Remember, for all neuter nouns: 1) the nominative must match the accusative; 2) accusative plural nominative and accusative always end in –a.)

Masculine: puer, pueri (m) servus, servi (m) Salvius, Salvii (m) Masc. Singular Nom. puer Gen. pueri Dat. puero Acc. puerum Abl. puero Neuter: bellum, belli (n) aurum, auri (n)

Plural pueri puerorum pueris pueros pueris

Neut. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular bellum belli bello bellum bello

Plural bella bellorum bellis bella bellis

3rd Declension (masculine, feminine, or neuter) Masculine: Feminine: (NB: in the third declension, masculine and feminine have identical forms) rex, regis (m) Caesar, Caesaris (m) Bregans, Bregantis (m) civis, civis (m) Singular rex regis regi regem rege

Masc. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Plural reges regum regibus reges regibus

arx, arcis (f) uxor, uxoris (f) lex, legis (f) Fem. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular lex legis legi legem lege

Plural leges legum legibus leges legibus

Neuter: agmen, agminis (n) aequor, aequoris (n) (NB: Remember, for all neuter nouns: 1) the nominative must match the accusative; 2) accusative plural nominative and accusative always end in –a.) Neut. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular agmen agminis agmini agmen agmine

Plural agmina agminum agminibus agmina agminibus

Adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in three ways: gender (masculine or feminine), number (singular or plural), and case (nominative, etc.). 1st and 2nd declension adjectives decline like ancilla when agreeing with a feminine noun and like servus when agreeing with a masculine noun. When adjectives agree with nouns of the same declension, the endings of the nouns and adjectives are identical ( puella bona, servus fessus, bellum malum). Fem. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular puella bona puellae bonae puellae bonae puellam bonam puella bona

Plural puellae bonae puellarum bonarum puellis bonis puellas bonas puellis bonis

Masc. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular servus fessus servi fessi servo fesso servum fessum servo fesso

Plural servi fessi servorum fessorum servis fessis servos fessos servis fessis

Remember, for all neuter nouns:  

Neut. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

The nominative must match the accusative. Accusative plural nominative and accusative always end in –a.

Singular bellum malum belli mali bello malo bellum malum bello malo

Plural bella mala bellorum malorum bellis malis bella mala bellis malis

However, declensions can be tricky when nouns agree with adjectives outside of their declension, because the endings won’t be identical. For example, the Latin for “good king” is rex bonus. Rex is third declension noun, masculine, nominative, singular. Bonus is a 1st or 2nd declension adjective. The only possible forms of bonus in the nominative singular are bona (like villa), which agrees with feminine nouns), bonus (like servus), which agrees with masculine nouns, and bonum (like bellum), which agrees with neuter nouns. Since rex is masculine, bonus is the adjective that must agree with it. The same difficulty occurs with coniunx bona, which is feminine and therefore takes the feminine form of bona. Similarly, agmen is neuter, so it takes the neuter form bonum: agmen bonum. So, rex (3rd decl. m) bonus (1st & 2nd)de c l i ne s : Singular Plural Nom. rex bonus reges boni Gen. regis boni regum bonorum Dat. regi bono regibus bonis Acc. regem bonum reges bonos Abl. rege bono regibus bonis And coniunx (3rd decl. f.) bona (1st & 2nd): Singular Plural Nom. coniunx bona coniuges bonae Gen. coniugis bonae coniugum bonarum Dat. coniugi bonae coniugibis bonis Acc. coniugem bonam coniuges bonas Abl. coniuge bona coniugibus bonis

And agmen (3rd decl. n.) bonum (1st and 2nd):

Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl.

Singular agmen bonum agminis boni agmini bono agmen bonum agmine bono

Plural agmina bona agminum bonorum agminibus bonis agmina bona agminibus bonis...