Latin Foundations
Lesson III
Nouns
In the past two lessons, you have learned about 1st conjugation verbs. Remember, the term
conjugation is just a fancy name for “group” when referring to verbs.
In this lesson, you are going to learn about the 1st declension.
What is a declension?
Answer: A declension is a fancy name for “group” when referring to nouns. There are a
total of 5 declensions in Latin. You are learning the 1st declension.
Cases of Nouns
What is a case?
Answer: A case is when the form of a noun changes to show how it functions within a
sentence. This change is made by using different endings on the stem of a noun.
Note: This is similar to the way in which the form of a verb is changed as learned in
earlier lessons.
The English language does not use cases for nouns. Instead, English sentences follow a
particular word order (left to right). Rather than endings, this word order determines the
function of each word in a sentence.
Nouns have six (6) cases in Latin. It is very important that you memorize these cases in the
order listed below. One by one, you will learn how to use each of these cases.
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
Vocative
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Latin Foundations
Lesson III
1st Declension Endings
Remember that a declension is another name for “group”. Here, you are learning the
endings for the 1st declension. There are a total of five (5) declensions in Latin.
In the following chart, there are two endings for each case; one ending is for a singular
noun and the other ending is for a plural noun. Therefore, there are a total of twelve (12)
endings for Latin nouns!
It is very important that you memorize all of these endings in the same way you
memorized the verb endings. Remember that you need to memorize the singular column
first – top to bottom – and then the plural column – top to bottom.
(Case)
(Number)
Singular
Plural
-a
-ae
-ae
-arum
Dative
-ae
-is
Accusative
-am
-as
Ablative
-a
-is
Vocative
-a
-ae
Nominative
Genitive
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Latin Foundations
Lesson III
The Stem of a Noun
Finding the stem of a noun is very similar to finding the stem of a verb.
1. First, you need to know two (2) Latin forms of the noun and the gender.
2. Then, you need to examine the endings on the two forms to decide what declension
the noun is.
3. Once you decide the declension, you need to take off the ending from the 2nd form
of the Latin noun. Now you have the stem.
Example:
puella, puellae, f.:
girl
1. The two (2) Latin forms and the gender are: puella, puellae, f.
2. These forms use 1st declension endings because their endings are –a, -ae.
3. Remove the ending from the 2nd form (puellae). The ending is –ae. Now you are
left with puell.
Declining a Noun
Declining a noun is very similar to conjugating a verb. To decline a noun, put the correct
declension endings onto the stem of the noun.
Example:
puella, puellae, f.:
girl
(Case)
(Number)
Singular
Plural
puella
puellae
puellae
puellarum
Dative
puellae
puellis
Accusative
puellam
puellas
Ablative
puella
puellis
Vocative
puella
puellae
Nominative
Genitive
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Latin Foundations
Lesson III
Genders
In Latin, each noun has a specific gender assigned to it. As part of learning vocabulary,
you must also memorize the gender for each noun. This will be extremely important for
later lessons. Many other languages, such as Spanish and French, also assign genders to
their nouns. In such languages, there are both masculine and feminine nouns. Latin also
has masculine and feminine nouns, but it also has a third gender, neuter, which basically
means that the noun is neither masculine nor feminine.
Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
puella, puellae, f.:
pecunia, pecuniae, f.:
patria, patriae, f.:
poena, poenae, f.:
porta, portae, f.:
rosa, rosae, f.:
philosophia, philosophiae, f.:
sententia, sententiae, f.:
vita, vitae, f.:
girl
money
fatherland, native land, one’s own country
penalty, punishment
gate, entrance
rose
philosophy
feeling, thought, opinion, vote, sentence
life
* Almost all 1st declension nouns are feminine (f.) in gender. Be careful, however.
There are a few 1st declension nouns that are masculine (m.) in gender.
10. poeta, poetae, m.:
11. nauta, nautae, m.:
12. agricola, agricolae, m.:
poet
sailor
farmer
Exercises
1. Memorize the six (6) Latin Cases in order (top to bottom). These are found on page 1
of Lesson Three.
2. Memorize the 1st Declension Endings (singular column – top to bottom; plural column
– top to bottom). These are found on page 2 of Lesson Three.
3. Make flash cards for all twelve (12) new Latin nouns. These are found on the top of
page 4 of Lesson Three. (Put the two Latin forms and the gender on one side; Put the
English meaning(s) on the other side.)
4. Start memorizing the twelve (12) Latin nouns.
5. Keep practicing your vocabulary from earlier lessons.
6. Select five (5) nouns (your choice) from the vocabulary list above. Decline each of the
nouns you choose.
a. At the top of each chart (you will have 5 charts, one for each noun) write down
the two Latin noun forms, the gender, and the English meaning.
b. Make sure to label your columns “singular” and “plural”
c. Make sure to label the rows with the appropriate Latin case names.
*Your charts should look very similar to the example on page 3 of Lesson
Three.
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