Talk:Latin/2nd Declension Lesson 1

The page needs to be de-expertized.

Let me start with the fact that I am a beginning student learning Latin and I really do appreciate the time and effort that others have put into creating the Latin language content on Wikiversity. Of course, as a beginner, I might be a pretty good case for measuring the effectiveness or usability of the pages in these courses. I certainly acknowledge that those who have created these pages and edited ahead of me are experts - and that shows in the writing. For instance, on this page, the following statement describes the 2nd Declension:

"Masculine nouns follow the pattern of either us, ī or r, ī for their nom. and gen. s."

What does that even mean? It was clearly written by an expert in declension of Latin nouns. Does it mean that either the nominative or the genitive ends in us i i or r? What's the meaning of the s at the end? i is listed twice at the start for perhaps the nom. case, as an alternative with r and then by itself. That's confusing and I, for one, have no idea what it means. Is the statement suggesting that genitive cases end in s for masculine nouns of the 2nd declension pattern?

Clearly the author of that line knows exactly what he or she is talking about but it is not at all clear for those who do not know. One of the most difficult things in teaching and creating content for teaching is to put things we understand completely into words that the beginner will understand. It would be great if the experts who created the content, or if experts who are still involved in the Wikiversity project, would review the content to make sure the language fits for the target audience. I understand if they're all busy on other things and I want to do my part as well to repay for the value I get from these pages. If it's not changed before I can do it, I'll research the intent of the statement shown above and rewrite it in something more understandable by beginners. Diprestonus (discuss • contribs) 18:19, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Hi @Diprestonus, thanks for pointing this out. @CarpeLanam might be able to help as she wrote the content originally but I will suggest an edit for this at least.

The examples given include "ager" and "ursus". You can see these end in "-us" and "-r". These are the nominative form endings. "s" refers to "singular", as opposed to "pl", "plural". These details are also set out in the table, which may this easier to parse. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 16:34, 14 August 2023 (UTC)