#solis-studies

Latin 1.2.1 Noun cases, first and second declensions

Latin is an inflected language. It changes form or ending of some words when the way in which they are used in sentences changes.

LATIN NOUNS

Gender (masc., fem., neuter) – depends on the suffix attached to the word

The gender of adj. + noun have to match.

*there are no articles in Latin.

The 5 Basic Noun Cases

case – the particular use of a noun in a sentence.

nominative – the subject

genitive – indicates possession

dative – indirect object

accusative – direct object

ablative – expresses how, when, where, or why

subject – the person or thing being described or performing the action

object – the person or thing that is acted upon by the subject

direct object – receives the action of a sentence; whom, what

indirect object – affected by the action; receives the direct object

Jake(subj.) ate the cereal(DO).

Jake gave me(IO) some cereal.

Declining a Latin Noun

declension – a group of nouns that form their cases the same way

to decline a noun – to list all possible case forms for that noun

First-Declension Nouns (only masc./fem., no neuter)

First-Declension Case Endings

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative            -a                            -ae

genitive                 -ae                         -arum

dative                   -ae                          -is

accusative            -am                        -as

ablative                -a                           -is

Declining a First-Declension Noun

puella – girl

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative           puēlla                     puēllae

genitive                puēllae                   puellārum

dative                   puēllae                  puēllis

accusative            puēllam                 puēllas

ablative                puēlla                    puēllis

Ex: Terram agricolarum puella amat.

terram: terra (land); -am – accusative; DO

agricolarum: agricola (farmer); -arum –plural genitive; “of the farmer”

puella: (girl); -a – singular nominative; subject

amat: (love); verb; “she loves”

So then: The girl loves the land of the farmers.

  Second-Declension Nouns

Second-Declension Masc./Fem. Case Endings

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative              -us (-r)                  -i

genitive                   -i                           -orum

dative                      -o                          -is

accusative              -um                      -os

ablative                   -o                          -is

Declining a Second-Declension Masc. Noun

amicus­ – friend

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative             amīcus                  amīci

genitive                  amīci                      amicōrum

dative                     amīco                    amīcis

accusative             amīcum                 amīcos

ablative                  amīco                    amīcis

  Second-Declension Neuter Case Endings

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative              -um                        -a

genitive                   -i                           -orum

dative                      -o                          -is

accusative             -um                        -a

ablative                 -o                            -is

*underlined endings are different from gendered noun endings

Declining a Second-Declension Neuter Noun

saxum – rock

Case                      Singular               Plural

nominative             sāxum                   sāxa

genitive                  sāxi                        saxōrum

dative                     sāxo                       sāxis

accusative              sāxum                   sāxa

ablative                  sāxo                       sāxis

Ex: Portat saxa puella in agua.

portare (to carry)

saxum (rock) – accusative singular (DO)

puella (girl) – nominative singular (Subj.)

agua (water) – ablative singular (where)

So then: The girl in the water carries rocks.

*a Latin dictionary gives the nominative and genitive singular forms

1.1 

The Indicative Mood - used for making factual statements/describing obvious qualities of a person/situation. Present tenses used in the indicative mood include the simple present and the preterite.

(Simple present can be used to talk about habitual actions, routines, things happening now or in the near future, universal truths, facts, hypotheticals, lapses of time, and for ordering in restaurants and stores)

Subject & Verb Agreement

A complete sentence has two elements: a subject (who) and an agreeing verb form (action).

Jaime reads a book.

               Subject = Jaime                Verb = reads

Jorge vive en España.

               Subject = Jorge                 Verb = vive

Subjects can be expressed as pronouns

               yo [I]

               tú [you, informal]

               él/ella/usted [he/she/you, formal] – Usted shortened to Ud.

               nosotros(as) [we, masc. or mixed,(we, fem.)]

               vosotros(as) [you all, informal, masc. or mixed,(you all, informal, fem.)] – Spain only

               ellos(as)/ustedes [they, masc.(they, fem.)/you all] – Ustedes shortened to Uds.

a.      mi amiga – ella

b.      él y yo - nosotros

c.       Ud. y Uds. – ustedes

d.      Tomás - él

e.       Jaime y Kristina – ellos

f.        Las señoritas – ellas

a.       A Kristina no le gusta conducir. Ella viaja por tren.

b.      A mí me gusta charlar. Yo hablo con mis amigos todos los días.

c.       A Jaime le gusta el fútbol. Él juega los domingos.

Latin 1.1: Vowels, diphthongs, consonants, pronunciation

Long Vowels

a or ā — ah (father)

e or ē — ay (they)

i or ī — ee (seed)

o or ō — oh (note)

u or ū — oo (rude)

y or ȳ — uw (über)

a long vowel in Latin is indicated by a macron (a line over the vowel, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ) — but it isn’t typically written out, I’ve just written them to help with pronunciation

Short Vowels

a — a (about)

e — e (bed)

i — ih (pin)

o — (pot)

u — (put)

y — uw (Hütte)

Diphthongs

ae — ai (aisle)

au — ou (about)

ei — ey (hey)

eu — eyoo (feud)

oe — oi (coil)

ui — ooey (gooey)

diphthongs are pronounced as one syllable, and there are only 6 diphthongs in Latin (so if you see “ii” it is not a diphthong — they are separate syllables)

if there are two vowels that would normally be a diphthong, but the second letter has a diaeresis (looks like an umlaut in German), it indicates that the two vowels are separate syllables

Consonants

c  — k (can)

g  — g (good)

j  — y (youth)

r  — rr (erre / pronounced as modern day Italians and Spaniards do)

s  — s (soft)

v  — w (woman)

x  — ks (wax) 

z  — dz (adze)

bs  — ps (lapse)

bt  — pt (except)

ch  — kh (chaos)

gn  — ngn (hangnail)

ti  — ti (patio)

ph  —  p-h (top-heavy)

th  — t (tourist)

pronounce most consonants as you would in English

i and u can be used as consonants; pronounced as y in yellow (modern Latin texts use j instead of an i when i is used as a consonant, but it retains the y pronunciation 

 Julius would be Iulius (YOO-lee-oohs)

consonant sounds should be distinct

ch pronounced as k-h in blockhead

ph pronounced as p-h in uphill

*when a consonant is doubled, both consonants are pronounced as separate consonants

tt in admittent pronounced as admit-ten

for pronunciation, it’s a general rule to stress the syllable that is second or third from the last 

for 3+ syllables — if next-to-last syllable is heavy, it takes the stress, falls on the syllable before it

a heavy syllable has a 

long vowel

dipthong

short vowel followed by two or more consonants (x is considered a double consonant)

Practice (taken from one of the books I’m using)

1: Pāter, cur dignitātem in vīris Romānis non vīdeo

1: Father, why do I not see dignity among the Roman men?

2: Cur me rōgas

2: Why are you asking me?

1: Quod māgna de dignitāte scrībis et dīcis

1: Because you write and speak great things about dignity

2: Fāma in māgnis , dīgnitas autem in humilitāte hābitat

2: Fame live in great things, but dignity lives in humility 

If you want to hear how Latin is spoken, I recommend ScorpioMartianus on YouTube. His entire channel is dedicated to the language (like, conversational Latin, songs in Latin and Greek, Latin expressions, and he even does tours in Latin!)