FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
INTRODUCTION
 As you know, Latin groups its nouns into five families called
“declensions” and nouns in the same declension will follow the same
paradigm (pattern of endings).
 You have already studied the first, second, and third declensions.
 You may recall that we noticed the following pattern regarding the
dominant genders of each declension, of which the distribution of
nouns in each gender proceeds in a palindrome-like fashion:
1st
declension
2nd
declension
3rd
declension
4th
declension
5th
declension
some masculine
MASCULINE
MASCULINE
MASCULINE
some masculine
HARDLY ANY FEMININE
HARDLY ANY FEMININE
FEMININE
NEUTER
FEMININE
NEUTER
FEMININE
NEUTER
FOURTH DECLENSION
 The masculine fourth declension paradigm of endings (also printed on
p. 163 of your textbook) is as follows:
Nominative:
Genitive:
Dative:
Accusative:
Ablative:
singular
plural
-us
-ūs
-uī
-um
-ū
-ūs
-uum
-ibus
-ūs
-ibus
 Notes:
o The lack of a macron distinguishes the nominative singular from
the genitive singular and plural nominative and accusative.
o Several of the forms resemble second declension. It is key to
memorize the genitive singular for vocabulary precisely to be
able to distinguish these words.
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
 The neuter fourth declension paradigm of endings (also printed on p.
163 of your textbook) is as follows:
Nominative:
Genitive:
Dative:
Accusative:
Ablative:
singular
plural
-ū
-ūs
-ū
-ū
-ū
-ua
-uum
-ibus
-ua
-ibus
 Neuter rule: for neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative
endings are the same. This is true across the entire language.
 Notes:
o Notice that the neuter nominative and accusative plural have a
final letter of –a, which is the same as in second and third
declensions.
o The noun domus, -ūs, house, home, is unusual both because of
its gender (feminine) and its declension, which takes endings
from the 2nd declension in the ablative singular (-ō) and
accusative plural (-ōs). Vid. p. 163
 Now look at this masculine fourth declension paradigm of the sample
fourth declension noun portus, harbor, port. The endings will
appear in boldfaced blue.
Nominative:
Genitive:
Dative:
Accusative:
Ablative:
singular
plural
portus
portūs
portuī
portum
portū
portūs
portuum
portibus
portūs
portibus
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
FIFTH DECLENSION
 The feminine fifth declension paradigm of endings (also printed on p.
175 of your textbook) is as follows:
Nominative:
Genitive:
Dative:
Accusative:
Ablative:
singular
plural
-ēs
-ēī
-ēī
-em
-ē
-ēs
-ērum
-ēbus
-ēs
-ēbus
 Virtually every fifth declension noun is feminine except for diēs and
meridiēs.
 Now look at this feminine fifth declension paradigm of the sample
fourth declension noun perniciēs, run, destruction, calamity. The
endings will appear in boldfaced blue.
Nominative:
Genitive:
Dative:
Accusative:
Ablative:
singular
plural
perniciēs
perniciēī
perniciēī
perniciem
perniciē
perniciēs
perniciērum
perniciēbus
perniciēs
perniciēbus
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
USING THE DECLENSIONS
 The case constructions are the same for every declension.
 In other words, it does NOT matter what declension a noun belongs
to as to how it is being used in a sentence. What maters is the case of
the noun.
o nautae portum vacuum mox conspicient.
 portum vacuum is a phrase meaning “the empty harbor”
in the accusative case.
 It is the direct object of conspicient. (“(they) will catch
sight of”).
o illt equus ā portū hodiē vēnit.
 ā portū is a phrase meaning “from the harbor” in the
ablative case.
 portū is the ablative object of the preposition ā/ab,
showing place from which.
o num nostrās faciēs amās?
 nostrās faciēs is a phrase meaning “our faces” in the
accusative case.
 It is the direct object of amās (“(you) like”)
o pars faciēī in illā statuā fracta est.
 pars faciēī is a phrase meaning “part of the face” with the
word faciēī in the genitive case.
 It is the “whole” or partitive genitive after the word pars.
o constitūtā diē, senātōrēs pervenient ad portum.
 constitūtā diē is a phrase meaning “on the appointed day”
with the word diē in the ablative case.
 constitūtā diē is an ablative of time when.
 The same is true for any of the uses of any of the cases.
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
DECLINING NOUNS, STEP BY STEP
 To decline ANY Latin noun (or adjective), you need to follow a few
simple steps.
o STEP #1: Start with the noun in its genitive singular form
 N.B. All Latin dictionaries list the nominative singular
form and the genitive singular ending
 If a dictionary includes a dot ( · ), it does that to
show you where you can remove the nominative
ending and add the genitive ending listed to decline
the noun
 4th Declension SAMPLE ENTRY: port·us, -ūs, m.
harbor, port
o portus is the nominative singular form
o the -ūs next to it is the genitive singular ending
o genitive singular form is portūs
 5th Declension SAMPLE ENTRY: pernici·ēs, -ēi, f.
destruction, ruin, calamity
o perniciēs is the nominative singular form
o the -ēī next to it is the genitive singular ending
o genitive singular form is perniciēī
o STEP #2: Remove the noun’s genitive ending
 TIP: you may want to think of declining like a simple math
problem.
 EXAMPLE:
o 4th declension: (portūs) –– (-ūs) = porto 5th declension: (perniciēī) –– (-ēī) = pernicio STEP #3: Add an ending to the base of the noun.
 Now that you have the base of the noun, port-, you can
change the noun to whatever case and number you want
by adding the appropriate ending.
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
TABLE OF DECLENSIONS 1-5
Declension
Nom. sing.
Gen. sing.
Gen. ending
Base
1st (MF)
fēmina
fēminae
-ae
fēmin-
2nd (MF)
amīcus
amīcī
-ī
amīc-
gener
generī
gener-
2nd (Neuter) rēgnum
rēgnī
-ī
regn-
3rd (M & F) mīles
mīlitis
-is
mīlit-
3rd (Neuter) caput
capitis
-is
capit-
4th (MF)
exitūs
-ūs
exit-
genūs
-ūs
gen-
faciēī
-ēī
faci-
exitus
4th (Neuter) genu
5th (MF)
faciēs
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
PRACTICE:
1. Rome will stand for many years.
2. Listen, Marcus and Manius, to the children who are asking for more
(use plūs) food.
3. What mother wants to live with only (use adv. sōlum) a few of her
children?
4. That journey will be difficult because it is ten miles without good
roads.
5. Study (use studeō, -ēre + dative) the laws this summer for a few
hours before (use conj. antequam) you listen to orators (use ōrātor,
ōrātoris, m.) who speaking today in the senate.
6. For two days, we fortified a part of our camp with a band of slaves.
7. Nevertheless, many of the messengers will gather quickly late in the
day (idiom, check Word Study p. 176).
8. The grain supply in Egypt will be small in only (use adverb sōlum)
one year.
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FOURTH & FIFTH DECLENSIONS
9. The citizens were able (use poterant, imperfect of possum, posse) to
sleep well at night, for the walls of the city will hinder the attacks
(use impetus) of the enemy.
10. Three of the wings of the army (use form of cornu) were fighting
bravely but, after many hours, the weary soldiers began (use form of
incipiō, -ere) to lose hope.
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