Latin I Capita IX/X Formative Quick Review

• Latin nouns have five declensions. So far, we have covered three.

• It is important to know the main two forms of each noun (its nominative singular and its genitive singular)

• You can tell the declension of a noun by looking at the second form, which is always its genitive singular

• First declension nouns are typically feminine (except for the PPAINs!) and will end in -a for the nominative singular and -ae for the genitive singular

• Second declension nouns are masculine or neuter and will end in -us or -um for the nominative singular (m. and n., respectively) and -i for the genitive singular

• Third declension nouns can be any gender and can have any ending (a "varies" ending) for the nominative singular and -is for the genitive singular

• Third declension nouns use a unique set of endings:

• Nominatives are (varies) for sg. and -es/-a for plural

• Genitives are -is for sg. and -um for plural

• Datives are -i for sg. and -ibus for plural

• Accusatives are -em/(varies) for sg. and -es/-a for plural

• Ablatives are -e for sg. and -ibus for plural

• It can be difficult to discern the gender of a third declension noun, since they all have a (varies) ending for their nominatives and all of their genitives end in -is

• First, do the "natural gender test"

• If that doesn't help, look at the ending of the varies form:

• If the noun ends in -er, -r, or -or, it's likely masculine

• If the noun ends in -s, -o, or -x, it's likely feminine

• If the noun ends in -l, -a, -n, -c, -e, or -t, it's likely neuter

• Some nouns will add an -i in front of the genitive plurals and neuter nominative/accusative plurals

• These nouns are rare, and somewhat unpredictable but generally follow the rule that if the noun is "parasyllabic" (nom & gen have the same # of syllables) or have certain endings (-e, -al and -ar), they'll add the "i stem" endings

• Don't stress about these - even Roman writers didn't :)

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