Noun – Adjective agreement

1. Noun – Adjective agreement Part 1: masculine and feminine nouns of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension

2. 1st declension recap • Remember that we know 3CASES in singular and plural • Nominative – subject of the sentence • Dative—indirect object (to/for) • Accusative—direct object • Nom. puellapuellae • Dat. puellaepuellīs • Acc. puellampuellās

3. 2nd declension recap • We have the same three cases: • Nom servusservī • Dat servoservīs • Acc servum servos But there are a few oddballs whose nom. sing. form will simply end in -er: • Nom puerpuerī • Datpueropuerīs • Acc puerumpueros

4. 3rd declension • Remember these are the super weird ones with many patterns at first, but they all fall in line: • Nom mercatormercatores • Datmercatorismercatoribus • Acc mercatoremmercatores _____________________________________ • Nom senexsenes • Datsenissenibus • Acc senemsenes

5. 3rd declension, cont. • Nom canis canes • Datcanicanibus • Acc canem canes _____________________________________ • Nom rexreges • Datregiregibus • Acc regemreges _____________________________________ • Nom matermatres • Datmatrimatribus • Acc matremmatres

6. Adjectives • “Describers” or words that describe nouns. • Examples: • Happy laetus, a, um • Angry iratus, a, um • Large magnus, a, um • Beautiful pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum • In Latin, these words have to MATCH the word they describe in THREE ways: • Number • Case • Gender

7. Number • If the noun is singular, then the adjective describing it needs to be singular, too. • Ex: servusiratus (the angry slave) • What would be wrong with writing servusirati? • It works the same way if the noun is PLURAL: • ancillaepulchrae (the pretty slavegirls)

8. Case • If I want to say this: • I see an angry slave, which case is slave? • Sense “angry” is describing the slave, which case does it need to be? • Servumiratum • If I want to say “I bought a present for the good girls” which would it be: puellis _______ • Bonae • Bonis • Bonas • So remember; if the word you are describing is nominative, the adjective will also be nominative; if it’s dative, the adjective will be ________, and if it’s accusative, the adj. will be _________

9. Gender –here’s the tricky one • If you are describing something masculine, you need a masculine ending on your adjective. • Servos iratos;Rex bonus;Canes magni • If you are describing something FEMININE, you need a feminine ending on your adjective: • Feminaelaetae;Amphora magna;Villammagnificam • Do you notice anything weird? What do amphora and villa mean? Are these things feminine in English? • In Latin GENDER IS GRAMMATICAL, not just natural • So words that are neither masculine or feminine in English COULD be masculine or feminine in Latin

10. Some oddball gendered nouns • Some unexpected feminine nouns: • Culina -kitchen • Epistula-letter • Flamma-flame • Villa-house • Via-street • Area-courtyard • Aula-palace • Cena-dinner • Pecunia –money NOTICE the PATTERN?

11. Cont. • Oddball masculine nouns • Hortus-garden • Cibus –food • Gladius-sword • Anulus –ring • Notice a pattern here? • MOST nominative singular words that end in –a are FEMININE; MOST nom. sing. words that end in –us are MASCULINE

12. What’s life without some exceptions… • PROFESSIONS that end in –a are MASCULINE • Poeta-poet • Agricola-farmer • Nauta-sailor • So if you wanted to say “good poet,” you would say poeta____ • Bona • bonus • Third declension nouns have weird nominative singulars, so you cant rely on –a or –us for help… • Iuvenis (m.) young man • Mater (f.) mother

13. Genders of some 3rd declension nouns • Iudex –judge (m) • Mons –mountain (m) • Nubes –cloud (f) • Navis—ship (f) • So what can YOU do to tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine? • USE THE BOOK! In the back of the blue book there will be a –m. for masculine nouns and an –f. for feminine nouns