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Latin from scratch course › #4: Third declension › #4.11: Third declension of nouns

Latin from scratch #4.11: The third declension of nouns

In the eleventh class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the third declension, the most complex but probably the most prolific. That’s why it is so important to master it already. Also, what we’re about to learn now will be necessary for the 3rd declension adjectives.

Contents

  • Consonant-stem
    • Masculine-feminine declension
    • Neuter declension
  • i-stem
    • Masculine-feminine declension
    • Neuter declension

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 18m 06s ⌛):

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Morphology of the third declension

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The third declension is divided into two big groups. We can quickly classify a 3rd declension noun by looking at the statement:

  • consonant-stem: nouns with a different amount of syllables between the nominative and the genitive (e.g. mi‑les, mi‑li‑tis)
  • i-stem: nouns with the same amount of syllables (e.g. ci‑vis, ci‑vis)

However, there are exceptions where the rules are the opposite:

  • consonant-stem (but look like i-stem): mater, matris; frater, fratris; pater, patris
  • i-stem (but look like consonant-stem): nouns whose nominative singular ends in 2 or more consonants and whose genitive singular has 2 consonants right before ‑is (e.g. mons, montis; urbs, urbis; pars, partis)

The distinction between these two groups is relatively important, since there are some different endings.

Consonant-stem

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Masculine and feminine nouns are declined the same, whereas neuter nouns have some already known particularities.

Precisely because of these particularities, it is important to quickly identify neuter nouns, which meet one of the following criteria:

  • nominative singular in ‑men (e.g. carmen, carminis; flumen, fluminis)
  • nominative singular in ‑us and genitive singular in ‑eris, ‑oris or ‑uris (e.g. vulnus, vulneris; corpus, corporis; ius, iuris); not to be confused with 2nd or 4th declension nouns, which can also end in ‑us!
  • dental-stem (d, t) with a nominative not ending in ‑s (e.g. caput, capitis; cor, cordis; lac, lactis)

In the following four tables, you have to take into account that the nominative and vocative (and accusative neuter) singular do not have an ending of their own; instead, each specific word has its own ending for those cases.

Masculine-feminine declension

nom. sg.homonom. pl.hominēs
voc. sg.homovoc. pl.hominēs
ac. sg.hominĕmac. pl.hominēs
gen. sg.hominĭsgen. pl.hominŭm
dat. sg.hominīdat. pl.hominĭbus
ab. sg.hominĕab. pl.hominĭbus

Neuter declension

nom. sg.caputnom. pl.capită
voc. sg.caputvoc. pl.capită
ac. sg.caputac. pl.capită
gen. sg.capitĭsgen. pl.capitŭm
dat. sg.capitīdat. pl.capitĭbus
ab. sg.capitĕab. pl.capitĭbus

i-stem

The i-stem declension is not so common in nouns, but it is widely used in adjectives.

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Also this group has masculine-feminine and neuter paradigms. To find out what nouns are neuter, we should look at the nominative singular: they end in ‑e (e.g. mare, maris; rete, retis). However, many of them have lost this ‑e, which makes them look like consonant-stem; we know they are i-stem because the nominative ends in ‑al or ‑ar, as long as they don’t refer to persons (e.g. animal, animalis; vectigal, vectigalis; exemplar, exemplaris).

Masculine-feminine declension

nom. sg.hostisnom. pl.hostēs
voc. sg.hostisvoc. pl.hostēs
ac. sg.hostĕmac. pl.hostēs (-is)
gen. sg.hostĭsgen. pl.hostiŭm
dat. sg.hostīdat. pl.hostĭbus
ab. sg.hostĕab. pl.hostĭbus

The accusative plural is most often ‑ēs, but it can appear as ‑is.

Neuter declension

nom. sg.marenom. pl.mariă
voc. sg.marevoc. pl.mariă
ac. sg.mareac. pl.mariă
gen. sg.marĭsgen. pl.mariŭm
dat. sg.marīdat. pl.marĭbus
ab. sg.marĭab. pl.marĭbus

That’s most of the theory we need to know about the third declension. Now let’s learn its adjectives.

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Next: The third declension of 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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