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.
I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 05m 26s ⌛):
BUY THE COURSE for full access, including:
📺 videos with analysis-translation 🔍 support 👨🏫 no ads anywhere 🛑
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)
Do you love classics? Are you interested in Latin? Would you like to receive cool emails about that stuff? I’m quite sure you would: join the newsletter! 📧
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. | exercitŭs | nom. pl. | exercitūs |
| voc. sg. | exercitŭs | voc. pl. | exercitūs |
| ac. sg. | exercitŭm | ac. pl. | exercitūs |
| gen. sg. | exercitūs | gen. pl. | exercitŭŭm |
| dat. sg. | exercitŭī | dat. pl. | exercitĭbŭs |
| ab. sg. | exercitū | ab. 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
Theory without practice is absolutely useless. With a one-time payment, you’ll have the full course forever, with all the theory explained in video and dozens of hours of practice analyzed and explained step by step by me on the screen.
Join the Latin from Scratch course! ⚡
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. | cornū | nom. pl. | cornŭă |
| voc. sg. | cornū | voc. pl. | cornŭă |
| ac. sg. | cornū | ac. pl. | cornŭă |
| gen. sg. | cornūs | gen. pl. | cornŭŭm |
| dat. sg. | cornŭī | dat. pl. | cornĭbŭs |
| ab. sg. | cornū | ab. pl. | cornĭbŭs |
And that’s everything you need to know about the fourth declension. Now let’s study the last one: the fifth declension!
Join the Latin from scratch course!
Theory without practice is absolutely useless!
With a one-time payment you'll have the full course forever, with all the theory explained in video (no dirty YouTube ads) and, most importantly, dozens of hours of practice analyzed and explained step by step by me on the screen. Join now!
