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Noun Declensions. 1st: mostly feminine, with a few masculine. ancilla, poēta, aqua 2 nd : masculine (- us ) or neuter (- um ) dominus, servus, templum, ātrium
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Noun Declensions • 1st: mostly feminine, with a few masculine. • ancilla, poēta, aqua • 2nd: masculine (-us) or neuter (-um) • dominus, servus, templum, ātrium • 3rd: all genders; usually with one stem in the nominative (with neuters, nominative and accusative) and another for the other cases • leō, leōnis; mīles, mīlitis; custōs, custōdis • 4th: masculine (-us) and neuter (-ū) • gradus, portus, cornu • 5th: feminine, except for diēs, which can be masculine or feminine
Dictionary Entries • The dictionary will give you the nominative singular, genitive singular and gender of a noun. To save space, the genitive singular can be abbreviated: • ancilla, ancillae f. OR ancilla, -ae f. • dominus, dominī m. OR dominus, dominī m. • mīles, mīlitis m. OR mīles, -itis m. • The genitive singular lets you know how the stem changes in a 3rd declension noun and also tells you if a noun in –us is 2nd or 4th declension • servus, -ī m. v. portus, -ūs m. • The vocabulary at the back of Cambridge Book 1 gives you the accusative singular instead because the genitive is not introduced until Book 2.
General Tips • The accusative singular in masculine and feminine nouns always ends in –m • dominum, ancillam, mercātōrem • The accusative plural of masculine and feminine nouns always ends in -s • dominōs, ancillās, montēs • The genitive plural always ends in -um • dominōrum, ancillārum, montium • The dative and ablative plural are always the same and end in –īs or –bus • cum ancillīs, cum dominīs, sine mīlitibus, omnibus crēdite • The neuter nominative and accusative are always the same • forum est pulchrum, forum spectāmus • The neuter nominative/accusative plural always ends in –a • computātra nōn sunt animālia (so a word ending in –a isn’t always a singular, 1st declension noun)
1st DECLENSION IRREGULARITIES • The Dat/Abl plural of fīlia (daughter) and dea (goddess) are fīlābusand deābus to avoid confusions with fīliīs (< fīlius, son)and deīs (< deus, god) • With names of cities and small islands, the Locative endings –ae (sing.) and –īs(plr) are used instead of prepositions to give the meaning `in’ or `at’: • Rōmae, in Rome (but in urbe Rōmā, in the city of Rome) • Athēnīs, in Athens (but in urbeAthēnīs
2nd DELCENSION - IRREGULARITIES • With names of cities and small islands, the LOCATIVE endings –ī (sing.) and –īs (plr) are used instead of prepositions to give the meaning `in’ or `at’: • Marcus Londiniī et Pompeiīs habitābat • Nouns in –us change to –e when the person is being addressed but the –us is simply dropped if `i’ precedes it (VOCATIVE case) Ad urbem, Marce et Iūlī, venīte! • A preceding `i’ may be dropped before the –ī of the GENITIVE and LOCATIVE Pater Iulī Londīnī habitat Julius’s father lives in London. • The address (VOCATIVE) form of deus is the same as the nominative, while dī is often used instead of deīin the NOM plural, deum instead of deōrum in the GEN plural and dīs for deīs in the DAT and ABL plural. • Dī nōbīs favent • vir (man) uses vir- as the stem for all cases after the NOM/VOC singular
3rd declension: SeXy nouns • 3rd declension nouns ending in –s or–x with the same number of syllables in nominative and genitive singular (e.g cīvis, cīvis,citizen; ignis, ignis, fire) or with a one-syllable nominative singular and a stem for the genitive ending in two consonants (urbs, urbis or nox, noctis) have the genitive plural in –ium: e,g, civium, urbium • These nouns also have an alternative accusative plural ending in –īs (e.g. cīvīs videō or cīvēs videō, I see the citizens). This ending, rarely used in beginners’ books, is quite common in Latin literature. • If the nominative and genitive singular are exactly the same, the ablative singular can end in –ī as well as in –e (e.g. cum cīvī or cum cīve (with a citizen), sine ignī or sine igne (without fire))
3rd declension: neuter nouns with –ia plural • Neuter nouns ending in –e, -al or –ar (e.g. mare, maris, sea; animal, animālis, animal) also have genitive plural nominative in –ium • They have nominative and accusative plural in –ia • Their ablative singular ALWAYS ends in -ī
3rd DECLENSION IRREGULARITIES • With names of cities and small islands, the Locative endings –e or -ī (sing.) and –īs(plr) are used instead of prepositions to give the meaning `in’ or `at’: • Carthāgine habitābāmus • Novemdracōnibus habitābam • bōs, bovis m/f, ox/cow: GEN plr. bovumor boum, DAT/ABL plr. bovibus, bubus or bobus • vīs f, force: only has ACCUS vim and ABL vī in singular; regular plr vīrēs, vīrium must be carefully distinguished from 2nd declension vir, virī (man).
