Jenney’s First Year LatinLesson 1

1. Lesson 1 Vocabulary2. Latin Nouns – Characteristics

3. 1st Declension Nouns4. Nominative Case – Subject &

Predicate Nominative

Lesson 1 Vocabulary

agricola, agricolae, m.

farmer

aqua, aquae, f.

water

fēmina, fēminae, f.

woman

fortūna, fortūnae, f.

fortune, chance

Gallia, Galliae, f.

Gaul (roughly modern France)

īnsula, īnsulae, f.

island

Ītalia, Ītaliae, f.

Italy

lingua, linguae, f.

language, tongue

littera, litterae, f.

letter (of alphabet)

litterae, litterārum, f. pl.

letter (epistle), letters

memoria, memoriae, f.

memory

nātūra, nāturae, f.

nature

poēta, poētae, m.

poet

prōvincia, prōvinciae, f.

province

puella, puellae, f.

girl

silva, silvae, f.

forest

vīta, vītae, f.

life

est

is; there is

sunt

are; there are

Latin NounsCharacteristics & First Declension

Latin Nouns – Characteristics

• Like English, a Latin noun indicates a person, place, thing, or idea.

• All Latin nouns belong to a family, called a declension.– Declension: group of nouns sharing a similar

ending pattern.• There are 5 declensions, named 1st, 2nd, 3rd,

4th, and 5th.

Three Characteristics

• Every Latin noun has three characteristics:

• Case: indicates the use or grammatical function of the noun [what’s it doing?]

• Number: indicates singular (1) or plural (>1) [how many?]

• Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter

Characteristic 1: Case• Case indicates use (grammatical function) of a

noun in a sentence• English shows case by word order; Latin by word

ending – these are called case endings• There are 6 cases in Latin:– Nominative– Genitive– Dative– Accusative– Ablative– Vocative

Characteristic 2: Number

• Number answers the question how many

• English shows number by changing the ending too in most cases (e.g. boy vs. boys)

• There are two numbers:

– Singular: 1

– Plural: >1

Characteristic 3: Gender

• There are three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter

• In English, gender of a noun is determined by sex– words naming males are masculine– words naming females are feminine– words naming things are neuter

Characteristic 3: Gender

• Gender of Latin nouns can usually be determined like in English, but there are exceptions:– many words expressing things, abstract qualities,

inanimate objects, etc. are masc. or fem., not neut.

• You simply need to memorize the gender of a noun when learning its dictionary form

Dictionary Entry of Latin Nouns• 4 parts of a noun’s dictionary entry:

puella, puellae, f.: girl1 2 3 4

1. Nominative Singular2. Genitive Singular3. Gender4. Definition

Dictionary Entry of Latin Nounspuella, puellae, f.: girl

1 2 3 41. Nominative Singular2. Genitive Singular:– Ending tells you a noun’s declension– Dropping the ending gives you the noun’s stem

3. Gender4. Definition

First Declension Nouns

• Genitive SG ending AE indicates the noun belongs to the 1st declension

• 1st decl. nouns are (usually) easily recognized by the characteristic vowel A

• 1st declension nouns are overwhelmingly feminine in gender

– BUT there are some masculine 1st decl. nouns too (e.g. agricola, -ae, m.: farmer; poēta, -ae, m.: poet)

First Declension Nouns

• 1st decl. nouns have the following case endings:

Singular Plural

Nominative a aeGenitive ae ārumDative ae īs

Accusative am āsAblative ā īs

First Declension Nouns• Declining a noun = creating all of its forms to

show changes in case & number– case & number of a noun do change (endings)

– gender & declension of a noun do not change; they are fixed

To decline a noun:

1. Find the stem (go to Gen. SG & drop ending)

2. Add the case endings to the stem

Translating the Cases• Since different cases represent different uses

of a noun, we translate them using different words.

Case Translate…

Nominative __________Genitive of __________Dative to/for __________

Accusative __________Ablative BWIOAF __________

Translating the Cases

The ablative case is the catch-all preposition case. It can be translated using by, with, from, in, on, or at (usually the preposition will be nearby)

Case Translate…

Nominative __________Genitive of __________Dative to/for __________

Accusative __________Ablative BWIOAF __________

Translating the Cases

• Latin does NOT have words for the definite article (the) or the indefinite article (a/an)

• You must supply either “a/an” or “the”

• Which do you choose when translating?

• Whichever one makes more sense in context

The Nominative Case

Nominative Case

• There are TWO uses of the nominative case:1. Subject– subject is the doer of the action or state of being

in a sentence

– ex.:

Agricola in agrō est.

The farmer is in the field.

Nominative Case

• There are TWO uses of the nominative case:2. Predicate Nominative– a noun (or adjective) used with a linking verb to

define or describe the subject

– ex.:

Ītalia est patria.

Italy is a country.