Chapter 2: Nouns and Cases; First Declension; Agreement of Adjectives

Declension

            In English, meaning is determined by word order.  Most often, you only change a noun to indicate its number (plural vs singular).

Dennis likes Susan.                                       Susan likes Dennis.

The monkey likes the mouse.                        Monkeys like mice.

           Only a few English words change their form as their function in the sentence changes.

He likes her.                                                   She likes him.

            In Latin, almost every noun changes its ending to indicate its number as well as its function.  Latin nouns change their endings in one of five predictable patterns, called DECLENSIONS.

Case

            A noun must be either singular or plural (its number), and it must belong to one of 6 cases.  Here is a brief list of the English equivalents to the 6 Latin cases (your Wheelock textbook has a more extensive description):

LATIN CASE                                                 APPROXIMATE ENGLISH EQUIVALENT

Nominative                                                      Subject of verb

Genitive                                                           Possessive; 's or 'of'

Dative                                                              Indirect object; 'to' or 'for'

Accusative                                                       Object of verb

Ablative                                                           For now only used in special cases

Vocative                                                           Direct Addressee, 'O Caesar!'

            Every noun in an English sentence must fit into one of these cases, and must be either singular or plural; you should be able to identify the number and case for nouns in an English sentence:

1)  Your Majesty, the sculptor is building statues for the queen of the Scythians.

2)  The sailors will give a present to the farmer's girl.

            To read a Latin sentence, you must look at the noun endings.  Word order will almost always not help you.  The following sentences are sufficient translations of 'The poet praises philosophy':

3a)  Poeta laudat philosophiam.

b)  Philosophiam laudat poeta.

c)  Laudat poeta philosophiam.

d)  Laudat philosophiam poeta.

            In each case, the '-am' at the end of 'philosophi-' tells you it is the thing praised (the object), while the '-a' at the end of 'poet-' tells you it is the thing that is praising (the subject).

Agreement of adjectives and nouns

            In English, most adjectives are simply inserted in front of the noun they modify; very few adjectives change their form along with the noun:

red car                                                             red cars

big car                                                             big cars

that car                                                             those cars

            In Latin, since word order is not so important, the adjective must have the same case, number, and gender as its noun, so that you know the noun to which it belongs.

Puella mea rosâs videt.                                    My girl sees roses.

Puella meâs rosâs videt.                                  The girl sees my roses.

Advice

            Latin word order is flexible, but has a general pattern:

a)  verbs very often come at the end

b)  nominatives (subjects) usually begin the sentence

c)  accusatives (objects) usually are in between

d)  genitives almost always follow the noun they are modifying

If you are having problems, try following these rules when translating a Latin sentence:

a) Find the verb; translate it.

b) If the verb is in the 3rd person, look for a nominative (singular or plural, depending on the verb).

c) Look for an accusative; make it the object of the verb.

d) Take account of the rest of the words in the sentence.

Example 1 (from Optional Exercises, Chapter 2, #19:

19)  Vîta multîs puellîs fortûnam dat.

a)  Find verb: 'dat' = 'he/she/it gives'

b) Look for a singular nominative: 'vîta' = 'life'

c) Look for an accusative: 'fortûnam' = 'fortune'.  The sentence thus far runs 'Life gives luck.'

d) Finish the sentence: how do we render 'multîs' and 'puellîs' ('many' and 'girl') both are plural and dative, so the adjective 'many' modifies 'girl'; translate it 'to/for many girls'.  A good translation would thus be: 'Life gives luck to many girls.'

Example 2 (Optional Exercises, Chapter 2, #22

22) Vîtam sine pecûniâ nôn amâtis.

a) Find verb: 'amâtis' = 'you (plural) love'

b) There will be no nominative, because the verb is not 3rd person.

c) Look for an accusative: 'vîtam' = 'life'.  So far, we have 'You love life'.

d) Finish the sentence: How to translate 'sine pecûniâ nôn'?  'nôn' is just an adverb that modifies the verb = 'You do not love'.  'Sine' is a preposition, meaning 'without' and as the vocabulary tells you, the noun that follows it will be in the ablative, and sure enough pecûniâ with the long '-â at the end is an ablative, so translate it 'without money'.  The whole sentence runs: 'You do not love life without money.'

Dictionary conventions for nouns

            When you look up nouns in the dictionary at the back you will find something like this:

'pecunia, -ae (f)'

            This is dictionary shorthand.  The first entry is the nominative singular; the second entry the genitive singular ending; the third entry the gender of the noun.  It will soon become apparent why you need these three particular pieces of information about nouns.