Building Vocabulary: Nouns and Adjectives by Declension

Why sort words at all?

In the translation paper you meet unseen Latin. Nobody tells you what job each word is doing - you work it out from its ending. That only works if you know which pattern the word follows, because the same ending means different things in different patterns. Those patterns are called declensions, and there are five of them. Sorting your vocabulary by declension is what turns a word list into something you can actually read with.

Five declensions, five genitives

You spot a declension from the genitive singular, which is why vocabulary lists always print it. Learn the noun as a pair.

Match the genitive to its declension

Which declension?

Your vocabulary list gives pars, partis (part). Which declension is it?

• 3rd declension
• 1st declension
• 2nd declension
• 5th declension

The first two, side by side

These two carry most of your vocabulary list, and they behave very differently on gender.

Six words from the list

Every word hidden here is a 1st declension noun from your vocabulary list. Find all six from their English meanings. One of them is written backwards.

Spot the neuters

Select the TWO nouns from your list that are 2nd declension NEUTER.

• templum (temple)
• donum (gift)
• hortus (garden)
• porta (gate)

When the nominative lies to you

Two traps catch people who learn nominatives instead of pairs. nauta (sailor) ends -a and is 1st declension, but it is masculine - because the Romans who did that job were men. So are a few others on the list that name a role rather than a thing. manus (hand, group) ends -us and looks 2nd declension masculine. It is 4th declension and feminine. Its genitive gives it away: manus, not mani. This is why the genitive is worth memorising with every single noun. The nominative alone is not evidence.

The sailor problem

Why can you not tell from nauta alone that it is masculine?

• Because its ending follows the 1st declension, which is nearly always feminine, and only its meaning marks it out as masculine
• Because its genitive is irregular
• Because it is really 2nd declension
• Because it only exists in the plural

How agreement really works

An adjective matches its noun in case, number and gender. It does not have to use the same declension's endings, and that is what trips people up. nauta bonus - "a good sailor". The noun is 1st declension; the adjective bonus takes a masculine ending because the noun is masculine. Not nauta bona. urbs magna - "a big city". The noun is 3rd declension and feminine, so the adjective takes its own feminine ending, magna. templum novum - "a new temple". Neuter noun, neuter adjective.

Make them agree

Build the phrase that means "the angry queen" correctly.

Neither one matches

Two nouns the card does not work, and neither behaves the way a declension-matcher expects. templum is 2nd declension and _____, so "a good temple" is templum _____ and never templum bonus, even though noun and adjective share a declension. miles is 3rd declension and masculine, so "a good soldier" is miles _____, even though the adjective is using 2nd-declension endings and the noun is not. Put the two side by side and the rule is plain: the adjective copies the case, number and _____ of its noun, and takes no notice whatever of its _____.

Work out an unseen noun

You meet a noun you half-remember in a translation passage. Put the steps in the order that actually gets you to its job in the sentence.

• Recall the noun with its genitive, as the list prints it
• Use that genitive to name the declension
• Recall the gender, since the pattern alone does not always give it
• Read the ending on the word in front of you against that declension
• Decide the case, and so what the word is doing in the sentence

Match each noun to the adjective that fits

Your turn: explain the method

A student in the year below says they learn every Latin noun as a single word and its English meaning. Explain why that will not survive the translation paper, and what they should learn instead.

• Say what the genitive singular tells you that the nominative does not
• Give one noun whose nominative would mislead them, and say why
• Explain what an adjective has to agree with
• Explain why an adjective does not always look like the noun it describes