Jenney’s First Year Latin
Lesson 1
1. Lesson 1 Vocabulary
2. Latin Nouns – Characteristics
3. 1st Declension Nouns
4. Nominative Case – Subject &
Predicate Nominative
Lesson 1 Vocabulary
agricola, agricolae, m.
farmer
aqua, aquae, f.
water
fēmina, fēminae, f.
woman
fortūna, fortūnae, f.
fortune, chance
Gallia, Galliae, f.
Gaul
(roughly modern France)
īnsula, īnsulae, f.
island
Ītalia, Ītaliae, f.
Italy
lingua, linguae, f.
language, tongue
littera, litterae, f.
letter (of alphabet)
litterae, litterārum, f. pl.
letter (epistle), letters
memoria, memoriae, f.
memory
nātūra, nāturae, f.
nature
poēta, poētae, m.
poet
prōvincia, prōvinciae, f.
province
puella, puellae, f.
girl
silva, silvae, f.
forest
vīta, vītae, f.
life
est
is; there is
sunt
are; there are
Latin Nouns
Characteristics & First Declension
Latin Nouns – Characteristics
• Like English, a Latin noun indicates a person,
place, thing, or idea.
• All Latin nouns belong to a family, called a
declension.
– Declension: group of nouns sharing a similar
ending pattern.
• There are 5 declensions, named 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, and 5th.
Three Characteristics
• Every Latin noun has three characteristics:
• Case: indicates the use or grammatical
function of the noun [what’s it doing?]
• Number: indicates singular (1) or plural (>1)
[how many?]
• Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter
Characteristic 1: Case
• Case indicates use (grammatical function) of a
noun in a sentence
• English shows case by word order; Latin by word
ending – these are called case endings
• There are 6 cases in Latin:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
Vocative
Characteristic 2: Number
• Number answers the question how many
• English shows number by changing the ending
too in most cases (e.g. boy vs. boys)
• There are two numbers:
– Singular: 1
– Plural: >1
Characteristic 3: Gender
• There are three genders: masculine, feminine,
neuter
• In English, gender of a noun is determined by
sex
– words naming males are masculine
– words naming females are feminine
– words naming things are neuter
Characteristic 3: Gender
• Gender of Latin nouns can usually be
determined like in English, but there are
exceptions:
– many words expressing things, abstract qualities,
inanimate objects, etc. are masc. or fem., not
neut.
• You simply need to memorize the gender of a
noun when learning its dictionary form
Dictionary Entry of Latin Nouns
• 4 parts of a noun’s dictionary entry:
1.
2.
3.
4.
puella, puellae, f.: girl
1
2
3 4
Nominative Singular
Genitive Singular
Gender
Definition
Dictionary Entry of Latin Nouns
puella, puellae, f.: girl
1
2
3 4
1. Nominative Singular
2. Genitive Singular:
– Ending tells you a noun’s declension
– Dropping the ending gives you the noun’s stem
3. Gender
4. Definition
First Declension Nouns
• Genitive SG ending AE indicates the noun belongs
to the 1st declension
• 1st decl. nouns are (usually) easily recognized by
the characteristic vowel A
• 1st declension nouns are overwhelmingly
feminine in gender
– BUT there are some masculine 1st decl. nouns too (e.g.
agricola, -ae, m.: farmer; poēta, -ae, m.: poet)
First Declension Nouns
• 1st decl. nouns have the following case
endings:
Singular
Plural
Nominative
a
ae
Genitive
ae
ārum
Dative
ae
īs
Accusative
am
ās
Ablative
ā
īs
First Declension Nouns
• Declining a noun = creating all of its forms to
show changes in case & number
– case & number of a noun do change (endings)
– gender & declension of a noun do not change; they
are fixed
To decline a noun:
1. Find the stem (go to Gen. SG & drop ending)
2. Add the case endings to the stem
Translating the Cases
• Since different cases represent different uses
of a noun, we translate them using different
words.
Case
Translate…
Nominative
__________
Genitive
of __________
Dative
to/for __________
Accusative
__________
Ablative
BWIOAF __________
Translating the Cases
Case
Translate…
Nominative
__________
Genitive
of __________
Dative
to/for __________
Accusative
__________
Ablative
BWIOAF __________
The ablative case is the catch-all preposition case. It
can be translated using by, with, from, in, on, or
at (usually the preposition will be nearby)
Translating the Cases
• Latin does NOT have words for the definite
article (the) or the indefinite article (a/an)
• You must supply either “a/an” or “the”
• Which do you choose when translating?
• Whichever one makes more sense in context
The Nominative Case
Nominative Case
• There are TWO uses of the nominative case:
1. Subject
– subject is the doer of the action or state of being
in a sentence
– ex.:
Agricola in agrō est.
The farmer is in the field.
Nominative Case
• There are TWO uses of the nominative case:
2. Predicate Nominative
– a noun (or adjective) used with a linking verb to
define or describe the subject
– ex.:
Ītalia est patria.
Italy is a country.