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Latin
Nouns
Knowing Nouns
In the Latin Language
“Latin is a dead language, that is
plain to see. First it killed the
Romans, and now it’s killing me!”
What is a Noun?
A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.
This may seem simple, but there is much
more to nouns than that. Nouns bring the
actions that the verbs represent out of
abstraction and into the real world. Just
who was he who did that? To whom did he
do it? In what place? Using what tool?
Whose tool was it? The verb may be the
essential core of a sentence, but the
nouns are what make the gossip
worthwhile!
The Anatomy of a Latin Noun
Noun endings are crucial in Latin. They
are the only way you know how a noun
functions in a sentence. They must be
learned BY HEART. The best plan is to
make yourself a chart (or really study
mine), adding to it as you learn new sets
of endings. There are THREE main
characteristics by which nouns can be
described: gender, number, and case.
Gender
 Words in English have gender. However, we
aren’t conscious of it. However, it is easy to
think of the word “woman” as feminine, “man” as
masculine, and “book” as neuter (neuter is the
Latin word for neither). Most of the gender
assignations in English make sense, the only
odd one being “ship” which is feminine, whereas
it should be neuter. In Latin, however, they have
many words like “ship” that are assigned a
gender based on no real “reason.”
Number (The Easy One!)
As with verbs, there are two numbers:
singular and plural.
That’s it. Cool. Finally, something about
Latin that is easy!
Case (The Complicated One)
The concept of grammatical case is
difficult to explain. To say that case refers
to a system of endings for nouns that
reveal a noun’s function in a sentence is a
bit bland, but the way to do it. In modern
English, we are left only with one case for
nouns and three cases for pronouns. The
one surviving case is genitive, which
shows possession (ex, Donna’s garden).
The Declensions (Groups)
Nouns are divided into classes called
declensions.
English Declensions
2nd
3rd
6th
1st
4th
5th
Car church ox
goose deer
louse
Dog tomato child foot
moose mouse
Can you see on what basis these words are
divided into these declensions (i.e., groups)?
How Many Declensions?
Latin has five declensions, plus a handful
of irregular nouns. Because of all the
cases involved, Latin nouns have more
than just a plural to worry about. Every
noun can take TEN forms, one for each of
the five cases, singular and plural.
First Declension
 The gender of all first declension words is
feminine unless the word refers to a male being
(e.g., nauta, “sailor”).
ala “wing”
 Nominative
 Genitive
 Dative
 Accusative
 Ablative
Sing. Plural
Sing. Plural
-a
-ae
-ae
-am
-a
ala
alae
alae
alam
ala
-ae
-arum
-is
-as
-is
alae
alarum
alis
alas
alis
Second Declension
Second declension words are either
masculine or neuter.
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
Sing.
-us
-i
-o
-um
-o
Plural
-i
-orum
-is
-os
-is
Sing.
servus
servi
servo
servum
servo
Plural
servi
servorum
servis
servos
servis
puer, ager, and templum are all second declension words and
follow the same format, except the nominative singular is just the
word as listed above. Also, templum has two differences: the
nominative and accusative plural end with –a. Also, ager is
declined in an odd way—the “e” is dropped and you have instead
agri, agro, agrum, etc.
Third Declension
 MOST LATIN NOUNS ARE THIRD DECLENSION,
so it is an extremely important group. They also
constitute the least friendly of the declensions. They
aren’t hostile, but they are very particular. Third
declension has words of ALL Genders. There is no
predictable nominative singular ending in third
declension. You must learn each one as you learn
your vocabulary. Many 3rd declensions have stem
changes (like ager). The endings are the same for
masculine and feminine words. Neuters follow the
double neuter rule (-nom. and accus. forms are
always the same and nominative plural always ends
in –a).
Third Declension Chart
 M/F
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
N
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
Sing.
Plural
Sing.
Plural
-varies
-is
-i
-em
-e
-es
-um
-ibus
-es
-ibus
homo
hominis
homini
hominem
homine
homines
hominum
hominibus
homines
hominibus
Sing.
Plural
Sing.
-varies
-is
-i
-varies
-re
-a
-um
-ibus
-a
-ibus
iter
itineris
itineri
iter
itinere
Plural
itinera
itinerum
itineribus
itinera
itineribus
Fourth Declension
 Fourth declension words are masculine. There
are two common exceptions, namely manus
(“hand”) and domus (“house”), which are
feminine. (There are also a few neuters, but they
are really uncommon).
• Sing.
 Nom. -us
 Gen. -us
 Dat. -ui
 Accus.-um
 Abl. -u
Plural
Sing.
Plural
-us
-uum
-ibus
-us
-ibus
manus
manus
manui
manum
manu
manus
manuum
manibus
manus
manibus
Fifth Declension
 Fifth declension words are all feminine with one
exception—dies (“day”), which is masculine. There are
no neuters. 5th declension has the smallest population of
all the declensions. Ironically, the most common noun I
the whole Latin Language, res (“thing”) belongs to this
group.
Sing. Plural
Singular
Plural
 Nom.
-es
-es
fides
fides
 Gen.
-ei
-erum
fidei
fiderum
 Dat.
-ei
-ebus
fidei
fidebus
 Accus.
-em
-es
fidem
fides
 Abl.
-e
-ebus
fide
fidebus
A Little Further Explanation
Latin nouns are classified into declensions
based on how they form their genitive
case. The genitive case is the second one
down on the charts, right after the
nominative. When you look up a noun in
the dictionary, or when you learn your
vocabulary, you will find dictionary entries
that look like this:
terra, terrae, f. ground
terra, terrae, f. land
 terra is the nominative case form. This is
especially important for the third declension
words since there is no regular, predictable
nominative ending for the third declension
words. terrae is the genitive form. It is
extremely important. It tells you two crucial
things. First, it says what declension the word
belongs to. Their nominative forms or genders
don’t play a role in that decision. On the next
page, I will have a breakdown on how you can
tell them apart.
The Chart
 All nouns with a genitive in –ae are first
declension.
 All nouns with a genitive in –i second
declension.
 All nouns with a genitive in –is are third
declension.
 All nouns with a genitive in –us are fourth
declension.
 All nouns with a genitive in –ei are fifth
declension
More about the genitive
 In addition to signaling declension, the genitive
form shows you whether the word has a stem
change, and if it does, what the change is. For
example this word: deus. deus, dei, m. god.
Deus is second declension and becomes dei
when you decline it. Likewise, the word rex,
regis, m. king shows you that it is third
declension. The genitive entry shows you that
the “x” will be dropped and a “g” added. The “is”
on regis shows that it is third declension
Quick Recap of the Cases
As a Latin verb has various inflections or
terminations which signal its particular role
in a given sentence, so a Latin noun has
various terminations to show whether it is
used as the subject or the object of a verb,
whether it indicates the idea of
possession, and so on. The various
inflected forms of a noun are called
“cases.”
Nominative
The Romans used the nominative case
most commonly to indicate the subject of
a verb.
Example: Tom is a good sport. Tom is the
subject.
Genitive Case
 When one noun was used to modify another, the
Romans put the modifying noun in the genitive
case. The genitive case is generally used to
denote possession and the meaning of the
genitive case can generally be ascertained by
translating it with the preposition “of.” A Latin
noun in the genitive case usually follows the
noun it modifies. Example:
 Let’s go to Tom’s house. OR Let’s go to the
house of Tom.
Dative Case
The Romans used the dative to mark the
person of thing indirectly affected by the
action of the verb. The nouns in the dative
case are usually indirect objects and can
be determined by using the words “to” or
“for” with the noun.
The emperor explained the situation to the
senators. “Situation” is the direct object
and “senators” is the indirect object (note
the “to”)
Accusative Case
The Romans used the accusative case to
indicate the direct object of the action of
the verb, the person or thing directly
affected by the action of the verb.
I took the “dog” for a walk. Dog is the
direct object.
Ablative Case
 The ablative case we sometimes call the adverbial case
because it was the case used by the Romans when they
wished to modify, or limit, the verb by such ideas as
means (by what), agent (by whom), accompaniment
(with whom), manner (how), place (where; from which),
time (when or within which). The Romans used the
ablative sometimes with a preposition and sometimes
without one. There is no simple rule of thumb for
translating this complex case. HOWEVER, you will find
little difficulty when a Latin preposition is used such as
(a/ab, by or from; cum, with; de and e/ ex, from; in, in or
on; pro, in front of ; sine, without ; sub, under).
 Example: The soldier killed the enemy with a sword.
Vocative Case
The Romans used the vocative case,
sometimes with the interjection O
(example O fortuna) to directly address a
person or thing. In modern punctuation
the vocative (or noun of direct address) is
separated from the rest of the sentence by
commas.
That’s it. That’s Nouns.
All you need to do now is memorize and
practice!!!!