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Latin from scratch course › #7: Fourth and fifth declensions › #7.15: Fourth declension

Latin from scratch #7.15: The fourth declension

In the fifteenth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the fourth declension. The first, second and third declensions are the most common ones, but we will find some frequent nouns in this fourth declension, which by the way shouldn’t be confused with the second declension.

Contents

  • Nominative ending in ‑us
  • Nominative ending in ‑u

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 05m 26s ⌛):

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Morphology of the fourth declension

In the fourth declension we will find two groups, clearly differentiated by the statement:

  • nominative singular ‑us (masculine and feminine)
  • nominative singular ‑u (neuter)

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They’re pretty much the same, but with the already familiar differences in the neuter nouns.

Nominative ending in ‑us

Masculine and feminine nouns in the fourth declension are declined exactly the same. The only way to know if a noun is masculine or feminine is by looking it up in the dictionary.

nom. sg.exercitŭsnom. pl.exercitūs
voc. sg.exercitŭsvoc. pl.exercitūs
ac. sg.exercitŭmac. pl.exercitūs
gen. sg.exercitūsgen. pl.exercitŭŭm
dat. sg.exercitŭīdat. pl.exercitĭbŭs
ab. sg.exercitūab. pl.exercitĭbŭs

In some words, mostly disyllabic, with nominative singular in ‑cus, we will often find their dative-ablative plural in ‑ubus instead of ‑ibus (e.g. arcus, ‑us: arcibus → arcubus to distinguish it from arcibus ← arx, arcis).

Nominative ending in ‑u

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Neuter nouns in the fourth declension have the same special features we find in neuter nouns of other declensions: same nominative-vocative-accusative, and plural in ‑a. We know a noun is neuter because of the first form of the statement.

nom. sg.cornūnom. pl.cornŭă
voc. sg.cornūvoc. pl.cornŭă
ac. sg.cornūac. pl.cornŭă
gen. sg.cornūsgen. pl.cornŭŭm
dat. sg.cornŭīdat. pl.cornĭbŭs
ab. sg.cornūab. pl.cornĭbŭs

And that’s everything you need to know about the fourth declension. Now let’s study the last one: the fifth declension!

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Next: The fourth declension →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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