17 Noun Declensions (Families)

 

“Until this crowd thins out, we should focus on studying. We have given some love to Verbs, but we’ve neglected their partners, Nouns, the names or labels for objects, people, and places. Every Latin noun belongs to a Declension. A Declension is the family the noun belongs to – the pattern its forms follow – like the Conjugations of verbs. There are five Declensions. We will discuss four today and save the third declension for tomorrow. Here are the dictionary forms of several Latin nouns, grouped by declension. Copy these nouns into your book:”

First Declension

dea, de-aefemininegoddess

familia, famili-aef.family

fēmina, fēmin-aef.woman

patria, patri-aef.country

via, vi-aef.road; journey

vīta, vīt-aef.life

 

Second Declension

amīcus, amīc-īmasculinefriend

inimīcus, inimīc-īm.enemy, “A personal enemy – an ‘unfriend’.”

animus, anim-īm.mind (singular); passions (plural)

deus, de-īm.god; “Nominative Plural is dī.”

populus, popul-īm.people

 

līber, līber-īm.child

puer, puer-īm.boy

vir, vir-īm.man

 

Fourth Declension

manus, man-ūsf.hand

Senātus, Senāt-ūsm.Senate

 

Fifth Declension

rēs, r-eīf.thing; fact; property

rēs pūblica, r-eī pūblic-ae f.republic

diēs, di-ēīf. or m.day

fīdēs, fīd-eīf.trust; trustworthiness

spēs, sp-eīf.hope

 

“The dictionary form tells you several things about a noun. One is its Gender; every Latin noun has a Gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Perceived gender roles determine the grammatical gender of some nouns: fēmina, ‘woman’, is feminine, and vir, ‘man’, is masculine. Yet patria, ‘country’, is feminine, even though it literally means ‘fatherland’. So, a noun’s gender is not predictable, and needs to be memorized.”

“The dictionary form also tells you a noun’s Meaning. When we translate into English, we do our best to convey the meaning with a suitable English noun. These translations are not set in stone, since English itself evolves. I have given you one or two possible translations, to get you started, but a good dictionary will show you others, teaching you the nuances of each word.”

“The first part of the dictionary entry (the two forms, like dea, de-ae) shows you the Declension

to which the noun belongs, allowing you to know all of its different Case Forms.