Nouns and Adjectives
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SOME TERMINOLOGY:
1. Word endings are called inflections.
2. Patterns or sets of endings (inflections) are called declensions.
(You might say that English nouns that add -s to make plurals are one
declension, while another declension might include nouns that change a vowel
(man > men), and nouns that change vowels and endings form a third (mouse >
mice), etc.)
3. The word functions shown by noun and adjective endings (e.g. subject, object, etc.)
are called cases.
Nouns (persons, places, or things) change endings according to specific patterns.
Every noun falls into one and only one declension (pattern):
insula is always 1st declension & always uses endings from the 1st (“a”) pattern.
fluvius is always 2nd and always uses the endings from the 2nd (“us”) pattern.
How do you know which set of endings (=which declension) to use for a noun? Look at
the ending in the readings: If it’s -us, then it has to be 2nd declension and you’ll use
only the endings in that group. Sometimes you have to look up a word or the
instructor will tell you, because usually there is no special logic to what declension a
noun uses--you simply have to memorize it and remember it. Period.
4. Singular or plural is called number; a noun’s ending indicates this.
5. Gender: Nouns have gender (masculine, feminine, neuter); you have to memorize it
at the same time you memorize the word’s declension and meaning. A NOUN’S
GENDER DOES NOT CHANGE. So far (but certainly not always) the nouns whose
singular subject-ending was -a have been feminine, while -us have been
masculine.
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are similar to nouns in some ways, different in others. They use caseendings, for example, but they have to be more flexible in showing gender and
number.
* Car. A car is a car.
* Big. Big car. Big person. Big country. Big ego.
Nouns and Adjectives
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Adjectives have to be flexible enough to fit whatever noun they are associated with.
English uses word order to show what words go with what other words in a
sentence; Latin relies on case-endings.
So, if you have a river, fluvius (Masculine, singular, subject), its adjective has to match
its gender, number, and case so that it can go with that noun in the sentence:
*fluvius magnus (both are masc., sing., subjects)
Make it plural and you have to make the adjective plural to match:
*fluvii magni (both are masc., plural, subjects)
Use a feminine noun, and the adjective needs to be feminine, too:
*insula magna / insulae magnae (fem., subject., singular / plural)
*in insulâ magnâ (feminine, singular, + an ending for use with prepositions)
This shows us that adjectives can use different declensions (patterns) to show different
genders: 1st / “a” (magna ) shows fem., 2nd “us” (magnus ) masc.
Often this relationship is true for nouns, too, but not always. In any event, even
though adjectives can operate in more than one declension, nouns DO NOT have
more than one declension.
Often adjectives are introduced magnus -a -um to show the range of possibilities
(declensions) that they cover. If you want to say something is big, you use the word
MAGN- and then you choose the declension (1st or 2nd / “a” or “us”) that indicates
the gender you need to match your noun: insula MAGN-A, fluvii MAGN-I.
You can think of adjectives and nouns as having a root for meaning and an
ending that shows function.
Be aware that there are other, equally important declensions of nouns and adjectives
coming up; they will use different endings to show the the same functions of cases
and numbers, but you’ll still have to memorize their genders just as for anything.