Knowing Nouns

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Knowing Nouns
Latin Nouns

• In the Latin Language
• Latin is a dead language, that is plain to see.
  First it killed the Romans, and now its killing
  me!

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What is a Noun?

• A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. This
  may seem simple, but there is much more to nouns
  than that. Nouns bring the actions that the verbs
  represent out of abstraction and into the real
  world. Just who was he who did that? To whom did
  he do it? In what place? Using what tool? Whose
  tool was it? The verb may be the essential core
  of a sentence, but the nouns are what make the
  gossip worthwhile!

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The Anatomy of a Latin Noun

• Noun endings are crucial in Latin. They are the
  only way you know how a noun functions in a
  sentence. They must be learned BY HEART. The
  best plan is to make yourself a chart (or really
  study mine), adding to it as you learn new sets
  of endings. There are THREE main characteristics
  by which nouns can be described gender, number,
  and case.

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Gender

• Words in English have gender. However, we arent
  conscious of it. However, it is easy to think of
  the word woman as feminine, man as masculine,
  and book as neuter (neuter is the Latin word
  for neither). Most of the gender assignations in
  English make sense, the only odd one being ship
  which is feminine, whereas it should be neuter.
  In Latin, however, they have many words like
  ship that are assigned a gender based on no
  real reason.

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Number (The Easy One!)

• As with verbs, there are two numbers singular
  and plural.
• Thats it. Cool. Finally, something about Latin
  that is easy!

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Case (The Complicated One)

• The concept of grammatical case is difficult to
  explain. To say that case refers to a system of
  endings for nouns that reveal a nouns function
  in a sentence is a bit bland, but the way to do
  it. In modern English, we are left only with one
  case for nouns and three cases for pronouns. The
  one surviving case is genitive, which shows
  possession (ex, Donnas garden).

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The Declensions (Groups)

• Nouns are divided into classes called
  declensions.
• English Declensions
• 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
• Car church ox goose deer louse
• Dog tomato child foot moose mouse
• Can you see on what basis these words are divided
  into these declensions (i.e., groups)?

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How Many Declensions?

• Latin has five declensions, plus a handful of
  irregular nouns. Because of all the cases
  involved, Latin nouns have more than just a
  plural to worry about. Every noun can take TEN
  forms, one for each of the five cases, singular
  and plural.

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First Declension

• The gender of all first declension words is
  feminine unless the word refers to a male being
  (e.g., nauta, sailor). ala wing
• Sing. Plural Sing. Plural
• Nominative -a -ae ala alae
• Genitive -ae -arum alae alarum
• Dative -ae -is alae alis
• Accusative -am -as alam alas
• Ablative -a -is ala alis

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Second Declension

• Second declension words are either masculine or
  neuter.

Sing. Plural Sing. Plural Nominative -us -i se
rvus servi Genitive -i -orum servi servorum D
ative -o -is servo servis Accusative -um -os se
rvum servos Ablative -o -is servo servis
puer, ager, and templum are all second declension
words and follow the same format, except the
nominative singular is just the word as listed
above. Also, templum has two differences the
nominative and accusative plural end with a.
Also, ager is declined in an odd waythe e is
dropped and you have instead agri, agro, agrum,
etc.
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Third Declension

• MOST LATIN NOUNS ARE THIRD DECLENSION, so it is
  an extremely important group. They also
  constitute the least friendly of the declensions.
  They arent hostile, but they are very
  particular. Third declension has words of ALL
  Genders. There is no predictable nominative
  singular ending in third declension. You must
  learn each one as you learn your vocabulary.
  Many 3rd declensions have stem changes (like
  ager). The endings are the same for masculine and
  feminine words. Neuters follow the double neuter
  rule (-nom. and accus. forms are always the same
  and nominative plural always ends in a).

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Third Declension Chart

• M/F Sing. Plural Sing.
  Plural
• Nominative -varies -es homo homines
• Genitive -is -um hominis hominum
• Dative -i -ibus homini
  hominibus
• Accusative -em -es hominem
  homines
• Ablative -e -ibus homine
  hominibus

N Sing. Plural Sing.
Plural Nominative -varies -a
iter itinera Genitive -is -um
itineris itinerum Dative -i
-ibus itineri itineribus Accusative
-varies -a iter itinera Ablative -re
-ibus itinere itineribus
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Fourth Declension

• Fourth declension words are masculine. There are
  two common exceptions, namely manus (hand) and
  domus (house), which are feminine. (There are
  also a few neuters, but they are really
  uncommon).
• Sing. Plural Sing. Plural
• Nom. -us -us manus manus
• Gen. -us -uum manus manuum
• Dat. -ui -ibus manui manibus
• Accus.-um -us manum manus
• Abl. -u -ibus manu manibus

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Fifth Declension

• Fifth declension words are all feminine with one
  exceptiondies (day), which is masculine.
  There are no neuters. 5th declension has the
  smallest population of all the declensions.
  Ironically, the most common noun I the whole
  Latin Language, res (thing) belongs to this
  group. Sing. Plural Singular Plural
• Nom. -es -es fides fides
• Gen. -ei -erum fidei fiderum
• Dat. -ei -ebus fidei fidebus
• Accus. -em -es fidem fides
• Abl. -e -ebus fide fidebus

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A Little Further Explanation

• Latin nouns are classified into declensions based
  on how they form their genitive case. The
  genitive case is the second one down on the
  charts, right after the nominative. When you
  look up a noun in the dictionary, or when you
  learn your vocabulary, you will find dictionary
  entries that look like this
• terra, terrae, f. ground

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terra, terrae, f. land

• terra is the nominative case form. This is
  especially important for the third declension
  words since there is no regular, predictable
  nominative ending for the third declension words.
  terrae is the genitive form. It is extremely
  important. It tells you two crucial things.
  First, it says what declension the word belongs
  to. Their nominative forms or genders dont play
  a role in that decision. On the next page, I
  will have a breakdown on how you can tell them
  apart.

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The Chart

• All nouns with a genitive in ae are first
  declension.
• All nouns with a genitive in i second
  declension.
• All nouns with a genitive in is are third
  declension.
• All nouns with a genitive in us are fourth
  declension.
• All nouns with a genitive in ei are fifth
  declension

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More about the genitive

• In addition to signaling declension, the genitive
  form shows you whether the word has a stem
  change, and if it does, what the change is. For
  example this word deus. deus, dei, m. god.
  Deus is second declension and becomes dei when
  you decline it. Likewise, the word rex, regis,
  m. king shows you that it is third declension.
  The genitive entry shows you that the x will be
  dropped and a g added. The is on regis shows
  that it is third declension

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Quick Recap of the Cases

• As a Latin verb has various inflections or
  terminations which signal its particular role in
  a given sentence, so a Latin noun has various
  terminations to show whether it is used as the
  subject or the object of a verb, whether it
  indicates the idea of possession, and so on. The
  various inflected forms of a noun are called
  cases.

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Nominative

• The Romans used the nominative case most commonly
  to indicate the subject of a verb.
• Example Tom is a good sport. Tom is the subject.

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Genitive Case

• When one noun was used to modify another, the
  Romans put the modifying noun in the genitive
  case. The genitive case is generally used to
  denote possession and the meaning of the genitive
  case can generally be ascertained by translating
  it with the preposition of. A Latin noun in
  the genitive case usually follows the noun it
  modifies. Example
• Lets go to Toms house. OR Lets go to the house
  of Tom.

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Dative Case

• The Romans used the dative to mark the person of
  thing indirectly affected by the action of the
  verb. The nouns in the dative case are usually
  indirect objects and can be determined by using
  the words to or for with the noun.
• The emperor explained the situation to the
  senators. Situation is the direct object and
  senators is the indirect object (note the to)

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Accusative Case

• The Romans used the accusative case to indicate
  the direct object of the action of the verb, the
  person or thing directly affected by the action
  of the verb.
• I took the dog for a walk. Dog is the direct
  object.

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Ablative Case

• The ablative case we sometimes call the adverbial
  case because it was the case used by the Romans
  when they wished to modify, or limit, the verb by
  such ideas as means (by what), agent (by whom),
  accompaniment (with whom), manner (how), place
  (where from which), time (when or within which).
  The Romans used the ablative sometimes with a
  preposition and sometimes without one. There is
  no simple rule of thumb for translating this
  complex case. HOWEVER, you will find little
  difficulty when a Latin preposition is used such
  as (a/ab, by or from cum, with de and e/ ex,
  from in, in or on pro, in front of sine,
  without sub, under).
• Example The soldier killed the enemy with a
  sword.

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Vocative Case

• The Romans used the vocative case, sometimes with
  the interjection O (example O fortuna) to
  directly address a person or thing. In modern
  punctuation the vocative (or noun of direct
  address) is separated from the rest of the
  sentence by commas.

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Thats it. Thats Nouns.

• All you need to do now is memorize and
  practice!!!!