Download latin grammar

CHAPTER I
An Overview of How Latin Words Work
(Noun, Verbs, Adjectives and the rest)
1
Adjectives
2
Adjectives – A Short Intro
What are adjectives? Well, that’s simple enough to answer: Adjectives are words that describe nouns.
What do we mean by that? Let’s look at a regular old noun:
Car
That doesn’t tell you much about it, does it? What kind of car? What color is it? Is it fast or slow? In
order to get more information about this car, you need ADJECTIVES!!
A fast car
A small car
A new car
A slow, dented old car
A bright shiny car
Adjectives in English
With the addition of adjectives, we know much more about the car. Adjectives in English are very simple. In
English, the adjectives always come right before the nouns they are describing (or “modifying”). Look
at those examples above, and think of any combination of noun and adjectives you can: their adjectives always
come in before the word they are modifying.
Adjectives in Latin
Of course, things are different in Latin. Remember how nouns have different cases, depending on what the
noun’s function is in a sentence? Well, adjectives have cases too. Don’t groan yet! Adjectives generally use
the same endings as nouns do, so that if you know your noun endings (suffixes), you already know your
adjective endings (suffixes). Later on we will worry about adjective declensions and gender, and how you
choose the correct case and suffix of a adjective. For now, just remember these very simple rules
concerning Latin adjectives:
1.
Latin adjectives usually* come AFTER the nouns they are describing (or “modifying”).
Let’s look at the following list to see what we mean.
English
Latin
A fast dog
=
A strong man
=
A dead duck
=
A loud noise
=
canis celer
vir fortis
anas mortuum
clamor ingens
* there is an exception to this rule. In Latin, adjectives that describe SIZE or QUANTITY (amount)
come BEFORE the noun (like our English word order). See the examples below...
English
Latin
A big house
magna villa
parva avis
magnum numerum
A small bird
A large number
3
A small man (parvus vir)
adjectives describing size
2.
A strong man (vir fortis)
regular adjective
Latin adjectives always share the same case and number (and gender, but we’ll worry about
that later) as the noun is describing (“modifying”). That means if the noun is the Nominative
singular case, then the adjectives that describe it must also be in the Nominative singular case.
noun
The happy man is working
=
adj.
verb
vir
laetus
laborat
Nom.
sing.
Nom.
sing.
noun
The sad girls are crying
=
Nom.
plur.
adj.
The small dog is barking
=
adj.
Nom.
plur.
noun
Nom.
sing.
noun
adj.
Acc.
sing.
Acc.
sing.
noun
=
adj.
Acc.
plur.
adj.
=
verb
servos tumultuos audimus
Acc.
plur.
They walk with a big dog
verb
infantem tristem video
=
We hear the loud slaves
verb
parvus canis latrat
Nom.
sing.
I see the sad child
verb
puellae tristae lacrimant
noun
verb
cum magnum canem ambulant
Abl.
sing.
Abl.
sing.
You will get very used to seeing adjectives in Latin – by the time we formally study them, you will already
mostly know how they work! Most people find adjectives fairly easy, but don’t let that frustrate you if you
feel overwhelmed. Just be aware of them when they occur and you will get used to how they operate!
A rich man
(vir divis)
A famous old statue
(statua antiqua nota)
4