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How
to Find the Root of a Noun
We
find the root of a noun by taking the ending off the genitive singular. Why
the genitive singular, you ask? Because the nominative case is often irregular
and features a stem not used by any other form of the noun. The genitive
singular is the first form in the list that features the root word found in
all other forms of the noun. Also, the genitive is a good form to focus on
because it also tells us which declension every noun belongs to. So once you
learn the genitive form of a noun, it becomes very useful indeed.
Dictionary
entries often read this way for nouns:
corpus, corporis, n. body
ager, agrī,
m. field
magister, magistrī, m. teacher
It
is clear in these examples that the dictionary presents the nominative and
then the genitive forms of these nouns. In order to find the root of each
word, simply remove the genitive ending (which changes with each
declension). Then you can add on the appropriate endings for the word's
declension to form the other cases in singular and plural. We see the
necessity for this kind of dictionary entry since in each case provided
above, the nominative form does not include the true root of the
noun, but is irregular.
However,
you are much more likely to find the following kinds of abbreviated entries
for nouns in a Latin dictionary:
amicus,
- ī,
m. friend
puer, - ī,
m. boy
puella, - ae, f. girl
Such
entries must be expanded: -
ī
means that this ending, -
ī,
is added on to the root of the noun. But I just told you that you find the
root by taking off the genitive ending! So what do you do if you are just
given an ending??? Here is the rub: dictionaries say amicus,
- ī,
m. friend
because the word is a regular second declension masculine word. They assume
that you will know that amicus,
- ī
is shorthand for amicus,
amicī.
Mystery solved. In these cases, the nominative is not irregular,
that's all.
copyright
2001 Janice
Siegel,
All Rights Reserved
send comments to: Janice Siegel (jfsiege@ilstu.edu)
date this page was edited last:
06/29/2005
the URL
of this page:
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