Latin Grammar Review Sheets: 1st/2nd declension agreement

before viewing this page, make sure you have the index cards you need. You should have a set of 1st and declension noun cards, one card each for the 1st declension, 2nd declension masculine, and 2nd declension neuter (if you haven't gotten to 2nd declension neuter yet, this will still make sense).

you also need a set of 1st and 2nd declension adjective cards. One should be labeled FEMININE, one MASCULINE, and one NEUTER. The endings will be identical to the noun cards listed above (the feminine adjective endings = 1st declension noun endings, the masculine adjective endings = 2nd declension noun endings, and the neuter adjective endings = 2nd declension endings).

In Latin, adjectives and nouns agree in CASE, NUMBER, and GENDER. It is very easy to identify adjective/noun pairs in Latin, or to put the correct endings on adjective/noun pairs when translating phrases into Latin. BUT YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF THINKING THAT THEY SHOULD "LOOK ALIKE". Follow these simple steps:

1. identify the case and number of the noun by its ending (you must know the declension to do this) fuller explanation

3. check the ending of the adjective: it must agree with the noun in case, number and gender fuller explanation

1. Always seek out the noun first because nouns have a gender that never changes. The first thing you have to know about any noun in any sentence is what declension it belongs to. This is important because you need to know which index card to refer to (in your head or in your pocket) so you can accurately identify the case and number of the noun by its ending (e.g., if you don't know what declension periculum, periculi belongs to, you might incorrectly identify pericula as a nominative singular of the first declension, when it is in fact nominative or accusative plural or the second declension. See how dangerous that can be?) top

2. The next step is to identify the gender of the noun. This is easy, since nouns have a gender that never changes. It is what it is. Memorize a noun's gender when you memorize it as a vocabulary word. Rarely, nouns will be identified as m/f, meaning that it can be either masculine or feminine (canis, canis, m/f - "dog" - is such an example in the third declension). top

3. Finally, check the ending of the adjective: it must agree with the noun in case, number and gender. Adjective endings for 1st/2nd declension adjectives are very similar to noun endings from the 1st/2nd declension (there is such a thing as third declension adjectives, which you won't be surprised to hear use 3rd declension noun endings, sort of). In order to check the ending of your adjective, access the appropriate adjective index card: gender is the attribute you must identify first. The gender of the noun dictates the gender of the adjective, so go to that index card. Once there, draw an imaginary line down in either the singular or plural column, and an imaginary line across whatever case the noun is in. The lines will intersect on the correct ending for your adjective: top

1. puella, puellae is a 1st declension noun (we know this because the genitive of the word ends in -ae. All words whose genitive singular ends in -ae are 1st declension nouns). When we look at our 1st declension index card, we see that -a is the nominative singular ending.

3. We now access our 1st/2nd declension feminine ADJECTIVE index card. On this feminine gender card, we need to find the ending corresponding to nominative singular, and it turns out to be a:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
NOMINATIVE	- a	- ae
GENITIVE	- ae	- ārum
DATIVE	- ae	- īss
ACCUSATIVE	- am	- ās
ABLATIVE	- ā	- īs
4. We put the nominative singular feminine adjective ending (-a) on the root of the adjective. The dictionary listing of the adjective is bonus, -a, um. This provides the nominative singular form for all three genders so you can make it agree with ANY gender noun in ANY case and in ANY number. We find the root by taking the ending off the genitive of any gender (it is easiest to rely on masculine since it comes first...the nominative is bonus, and the genitive would be boni, so the root is bon-). Now add back the appropriate ending (feminine nominative singular) onto the root...and you have bona. 5. The final form for the nominative singular of "good girl" is then puella bona, as in this sentence: Puella bona puerum spectat. "The good girl watches the boy." EXAMPLE #2: "good boy" in the accusative singular 1. puer, pueri is a 2nd declension noun (we know this because the genitive of the word ends in -i. All words whose genitive singular ends in -i are 2nd declension nouns). When we look at our 2nd declension NOUN index card for the accusative singular, we see that -um is the accusative singular ending. 2. We know that puer, pueri is masculine in gender because we memorized it. 3. We now access our 1st/2nd declension masculine ADJECTIVE index card. On this masculine gender card, we need to find the ending corresponding to nominative singular, and it turns out to be um: masculine adjective endings of the 1st/2nd declension
\	SINGULAR	PLURAL
NOMINATIVE	- us (-er)	- i
GENITIVE	- i	- orum
DATIVE	- o	- īss
ACCUSATIVE	- um	- os
ABLATIVE	- o	- īs

4. We put the accusative singular masculine adjective ending (-um) on the root of the adjective. The dictionary listing of the adjective is bonus, -a, um. This provides the nominative singular form for all three genders so you can make it agree with ANY gender noun in ANY case and in ANY number. We find the root by taking the ending off the genitive of any gender (it is easiest to rely on masculine since it comes first...the nominative is bonus, and the genitive would be boni, so the root is bon-). Now add back the appropriate ending (masculine accusative singular) onto the root...and you have bonum.

5. The final form for the accusative singular of "good boy" is then puer bonum, as in this sentence: Puella puerum bonum spectat. "The girl watches the good boy."