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Latin from scratch course › #2: Second declension and adjectives › #2.7: Second declension

Latin from scratch #2.7: The second declension

In the seventh class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the second declension, which is slightly more difficult than the first one, since we need to learn three different tables; most of the cells are the same, though.

Contents

  • Nominative ending in ‑us
  • Nominative ending in ‑er
  • Nominative ending in ‑um

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 09m 56s ⌛):

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Morphology of the second declension

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As already said, the second declension is more complex than the first declension, since we have three types, which we classify according to their statement:

  • nominative singular ‑us (masculine and feminine)
  • nominative singular ‑er (masculine)
  • nominative singular ‑um (neuter)

They’re pretty much the same, but with some differences.

Nominative ending in ‑us

Most of them are masculine. However, names of plants are feminine (e.g. pinus alta est), as well as the nouns humus ‘soil, earth’, alvus ‘belly, abdomen’ and colus ‘spinning wheel’.

nom. sg.dominŭsnom. pl.dominī
voc. sg.dominĕvoc. pl.dominī
ac. sg.dominŭmac. pl.dominōs
gen. sg.dominīgen. pl.dominōrum
dat. sg.dominōdat. pl.dominīs
ab. sg.dominōab. pl.dominīs

Nominative ending in ‑er

This group is different from the first one only in its nominative-vocative singular, which end in ‑er. These are always masculine.

nom. sg.puernom. pl.puerī
voc. sg.puervoc. pl.puerī
ac. sg.puerŭmac. pl.puerōs
gen. sg.puerīgen. pl.puerōrum
dat. sg.puerōdat. pl.puerīs
ab. sg.puerōab. pl.puerīs

It could be considered a different subcategory, but let’s just include them here: the noun vir, viri ‘man, male person’ and its compounds (duumvir, duumviri; triumvir, triumviri, etc.)

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Nominative ending in ‑um

These are always neuter. All neuter nouns, in any declension, have the peculiarity of having the same nominative, vocative and accusative (singular, and then plural).

nom. sg.bellŭmnom. pl.bellă
voc. sg.bellŭmvoc. pl.bellă
ac. sg.bellŭmac. pl.bellă
gen. sg.bellīgen. pl.bellōrum
dat. sg.bellōdat. pl.bellīs
ab. sg.bellōab. pl.bellīs

We include in this category, despite ending in ‑us, these three words: pelagus ‘sea’, virus ‘poison’ y volgus ‘masses, common people’.

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Now that we have learned the second declension, we can put it together with the first declension and study the first-class adjectives.

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Next: The second 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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