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Latin from scratch course › #2: Second declension and adjectives › #2.8: First-class adjectives

Latin from scratch #2.8: 2-1-2 adjectives

In the eighth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll start studying adjectives: 2-1-2 or first-class adjectives. Actually, this class doesn’t include any new morphology, but we do have to be aware of the (morpho)syntactic new challenges.

Contents

  • Morphology of 2-1-2 adjectives
  • Syntax of adjectives
    • Adjective-noun agreement

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 10m 08s ⌛):

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Morphology of 2-1-2 adjectives

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The statement of these adjectives consists of the following: nominative singular masculine, feminine and neuter. According to this, we have two groups:

  • ‑us, ‑a, ‑um (e.g. altus, alta, altum)
  • ‑er, ‑a, ‑um (e.g. miser, misera, miserum)

The second group (‑er, ‑a, ‑um), just like 2nd declension nouns in ‑er, are only different from the first group in their nominative-vocative singular, which ends in ‑er.

Masculine sing.Feminine sing.Neuter sing.Masculine pluralFeminine pluralNeuter plural
altŭsaltăaltŭmaltīaltaealtă
altĕaltăaltŭmaltīaltaealtă
altŭmaltămaltŭmaltōsaltāsaltă
altīaltaealtīaltōrumaltārumaltōrum
altōaltaealtōaltīsaltīsaltīs
altōaltāaltōaltīsaltīsaltīs

You don’t have to learn any new endings whatsoever, since all of these endings we already learned when studying the 1st and 2nd declensions. Adjectives, when masculine or neuter, have 2nd declension endings, whereas the feminine column corresponds to the 1st declension.

Syntax of adjectives

Now that we have introduced a new type of word, we have to study how adjectives interact with other words in the sentence. This is what we know as agreement between adjective and noun (or pronoun).

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Adjective-noun agreement

It’s actually quite simple. The rule is as easy as this: adjectives must agree in gender, number and case with the noun they refer to.

Dominus probus est.
The master is good.

Puella proba est.
The girl is good.

Marcus videt servos improbos.
Mark sees naughty slaves.

Puer improbe, i domum!
Naughty boy, go home!

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It is very important to understand what we can see in the last example: the agreement is in gender-number-case, not in ending! This is even more obvious in the following examples:

Catilina est malus pravusque.
Catilina is bad and depraved.

Alvus hirundinis candida est.
The belly of the swallow is white.

Now we are ready to keep practicing analysis and translation. It’s important indeed to practice the second declension and the agreement between adjectives and nouns.

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Join the Latin from scratch course!

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Next: The second declension, and adjectives →

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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