Latin/2nd Declension Lesson 3

Salvēte omnēs!

New Grammar

The genitive case is used to show possession, or more broadly, in expressions that use “of” in English. The genitive singular is the marker that tells us what declension a noun belongs in: for the 2nd declension, the genitive singular ending is –ī and the genitive plural is –ōrum. This is true whether the noun is masculine or neuter in gender. Because the gen. s. ending -ī helps us to classify the nouns in the 2nd declension it is standard to list all nouns with nom. and gen. s. Thus the listing:

medicus, ī = doctor

tells us that it is a second declension noun because of the –ī ending in the genitive singular, it is masculine because of the –us ending in the nom., and when we look specifically at the form medicī we could translate it either as “the doctor’s” or “of the doctor.” Since it is a masculine noun, medicī could also be the nominative plural form "the doctors"; the difference has to be determined by context. This gets easier with practice.

case name	sing.	pl.	typical use
nominative (m.)	-us/-r	-ī	subject or predicate noun
nominative (n.)	-um	-a	“
genitive	-ī	-ōrum	possession, the “of” case
dative	-ō	-īs	indirect object, the “to/for” case
accusative (m.)	-um	-ōs	direct object (also some objects of preps.)
accusative (n.)	-um	-a	“
ablative	-ō	-īs	objects of prepositions, etc. “by/with/from” case

New Vocabulary

avus, ī	grandfather
dominus, ī	lord, master, owner
fīlius, ī	son
numerus, ī	number
populus, ī	nation, a people (usually singular)
Rōmānus, ī	a Roman (m.)
servus, ī	slave, servant
cōnsilium, ī	plan, counsel, advice
forum, ī	forum, marketplace, public square, court
frāgum, ī	strawberry
verbum, ī	word
Rōmānus, a, um	Roman
vērus, a, um	true, real

New sentences

Hōrologium avī meī est altum.	My grandfather’s clock is tall.
Dominus servī in forō est.	The slave’s master is in the forum.
Vir frāgum puerī edit.	The man eats the boy’s strawberry.
Multī virī in forō oppidī sunt.	Many men are in the town’s forum.
Cōnsilium medicī tuī bonum est.	Your doctor’s advice is good.
Terram Rōmānōrum vidētis.	You see the land of the Romans.
Puellae frāga puerōrum edunt.	The girls are eating the boys’ strawberries.
Agricola Rōmānus multōs equōs habet.	The Roman farmer has many horses.
Agricola altus magnum numerum equōrum habet.	The tall farmer has a large number of horses.
Equī Mārcī in agrīs ambulant.	Marcus’ horses are walking in the fields.
Cum amīcō fīliī tuī labōrō.	I work with your son’s friend.
Verba Gāiī nōn sunt vera.	The words of Gaius (Gaius’ words) are not true.
Fīlius amīcī nostrī nova cōnsilia habet.	Our friend’s son has new plans.
Forum populī in oppidō est.	The people’s marketplace is in the town.
Vīnum bonum avī meī bibimus.	We drink my grandfather’s good wine.
Avus puerī est Rōmānus, sed in Galliā est.	The boy’s grandfather is Roman, but he is in Gaul.
Vox populī, vox Deī.	The voice of the people, (is) the voice of God. (sneaking a few extra words in, but this is a “real” Latin saying in common use even today!)
Ultimus Rōmānōrum es.	You are the last of the Romans. (a compliment – you are the last remnant of a noble but vanishing breed!)

Practice

Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson
Step one	First learn the words using this lesson: 2nd Declension vocabulary
Step two	Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: 2nd Decension Sentences
Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function)

In the next lesson we will look at the use of the dative case in the 2nd declension. Thank you for following along. Valēte!

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Latin

2nd Declension Lesson 4 →