Latin grammar Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Latin has a very flexible word order, unlike English, because the language is highly inflected.

In Latin there is no indefinite or definite article. They can be replaced by other adjectivals such as ille (forms of ille gradually changed into simply le or la like what we have in the modern Romance languages today), haec, ea, id, is etc.

Table of contents

1 Nouns 1.1 Cases 1.2 Declensions 1.2.1 First declension 1.2.2 Second declension 1.2.3 Third declension 1.2.4 Third declension - neuter nouns 1.2.5 Fourth declension 1.2.6 Fourth declension - neuter nouns 1.2.7 Fifth declension 2 Adjectives 3 Verbs 3.3 Uses of the tenses 3.4 Active voice 3.4.8 Indicative 3.4.9 Subjunctive 3.5 Passive voice 3.5.10 Indicative 3.5.11 Subjunctive

Nouns

Cases

On the noun tables there are usually 6 casess:

• Nominative: indicates the subject of the sentence: Cornelia is a girl.
• Genitive: indicates possession (most of the time): The hair of Cornelia is long.
• Dative: indicates an indirect object: He gave the cookie to the boy.
• Accusative: indicates a direct object: Cornelia killed Marcus. Also can be used with a preposition: We went into the bedroom.
• Ablative: many uses, including conditions where English would use a preposition instead
  • the object of a preposition: He is inside the palace.
  • time: At the tenth hour he died.
  • instrument: He beat me with a stick.
  • means: He yelled with a great voice.
  • agent of a passive verb: The cookie was thrown by Cornelia across the room.
• Vocative: direct address: O Cornelia

There is also something called the locative case, used to describe the location of something. However, only a few nouns survived (such as domus).

Declensions

There are 5 declensions. Most nouns in the 1st are feminine, most in the 2nd are masculine and neuter (usually distinguished by the m. -us and n. -um endings), 3rd can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter, 4th is either masculine or feminine, and 5th is usually feminine with some masculine. Basically, you will have to learn the gender of each noun independently. For each noun, make sure you know which declension it is in, in order to decline it, and what gender it is, so that adjectives agree.

First declension

	singular	plural
Nominative	puella	puellae
Genitive	puellae	puellārum
Dative	puellae	puellīs
Accusative	puellam	puellās
Ablative	puellā	puellīs

Second declension

	singular	plural
Nominative	amicus	amicī
Genitive	amicī	amicōrum
Dative	amicō	amicīs
Accusative	amicum	amicōs
Ablative	amicō	amicīs

Third declension

	singular	plural
Nominative	rēx	rēgēs
Genitive	rēgis	rēgum
Dative	rēgī	rēgibus
Accusative	rēgem	rēgēs
Ablative	rēge	rēgibus

Third declension - neuter nouns

	singular	plural
Nominative	nomen	nomina
Genitive	nominis	nominum
Dative	nomini	nominibus
Accusative	nomen	nomina
Ablative	nomine	nominibus

Fourth declension

	singular	plural
Nominative	spiritus	spiritūs
Genitive	spiritūs	spirituum
Dative	spirituī	spiritibus
Accusative	spiritum	spiritūs
Ablative	spiritū	spiritibus

Fourth declension - neuter nouns

	singular	plural
Nominative	cornu	cornua
Genitive	cornus	cornuum
Dative	cornu	cornibus
Accusative	cornu	cornua
Ablative	cornu	cornibus

Fifth declension

	singular	plural
Nominative	diēs	diēs
Genitive	dieī	diērum
Dative	dieī	diēbus
Accusative	diem	diēs
Ablative	diē	diēbus

Adjectives

All adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in number, case and gender. All nouns are either feminine, masculine, or neuter. Genders are grammatical, and do not necessarily correspond to the sex of the object.

Adjectives are either 1/2nd declension or 3rd declension. In 1/2nd declensions, -a endings are treated as feminine and are declined like 1st declension nouns, and -us endings are treated as masculine, and -um endings are treated as neuter and both are declined like second declension nouns.

For example:

• Cornelia bona (feminine) (good Cornelia)
• Cornelius bonus (masculine) (good Cornelius)
• bellum bonum (neuter) (good war)

In 3rd declension adjectives, for masculine and feminine, most of the time there are no changes which are needed to be made to match gender as both masculine and feminine decline the same (make note that in the ablative usually you use an -i instead of -e as most 3rd declension adjectives are -i stemmed.). Neuter has one important difference, as nominative and accusative in all declensions are the same (-um for 2nd etc.) and for plural nominative and accusative have -a (all neuters in all declensions do this as well).

Adjectives can also have comparative forms and superlative forms. Fortior is 'braver' (comparative). Fortissimus is 'bravest' (superlative). Basically, you drop the ending (-a, -us, -um) and place -ior to get the comparative ('braver') or add -issimus to make 'most brave'.

• Cornelia est fortior quam Cornelius.
  

Cornelia is braver than Cornelius. (quam after a comparative is 'than', otherwise it usually is feminine singular relative pronoun).

• Cornelia est fortissima. (Cornelia is the bravest.)

Verbs

There are four conjugations in Latin. A verb either falls into one of these conjugations or is considered irregular. In Latin, a verb is defined by its person, number, tense, mood and voice. This gives rise to a large number of forms of each verb - 120, in fact. They are generally learnt in groups of 6, corresponding to a particular mood, tense, and voice. Each verb has two stems - a present stem and a perfect stem, to which various endings are added to make individual forms of verbs.

Uses of the tenses

There are six tenses in Latin. They are:

• Present, indicates actions happening at the time of speaking: The slave carries the jar
• Imperfect, describes actions which were going on over a period of time: The crowd were cheering the gladiators
• Future, used for actions which have not yet taken place, but will do so at some point: He will write the letter tomorrow
• Perfect, describes actions in the past which have finished: He has taught the boy
• Pluperfect, describes actions further in the past: He had taught the boy - notice the difference, it's important
• Future Perfect, used for actions which will be completed some time in the future: By tomorrow, he will have sent the letter

There are three moods:

• Indicative, which states indisputable facts: That slave is carrying a wine jar
• Subjunctive, which is used for possibilities, intentions, necessities etc: The centurion chose a fortified location in order to defeat his enemies.
• Imperative, used for commands: "You, slave! Carry this wine jar!"

There are two voices:

• Active, where the verb is done by the subject: The slave carried the wine jar
• Passive, where the verb is done to the subject: The wine jar was carried by the slave

With this information, we can sort the verbs into their groups of six, starting with the first conjugation, portare, to carry

Active voice

Indicative

Present	Singular	Plural
1st Person	porto	portamus
2nd Person	portas	portatis
3rd Person	portat	portant

Imperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portabam	portabamus
2nd Person	portabas	portabatis
3rd Person	portabat	portabant

Future	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portabo	portabimus
2nd Person	portabis	portabitis
3rd Person	portabit	portabunt

Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portavi	portavimus
2nd Person	portavisti	portavistis
3rd Person	portavit	portaverunt

Pluperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portaveram	portaveramus
2nd Person	portaveras	portaveratis
3rd Person	portaverat	portaverant

Future Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portavero	portaverimus
2nd Person	portaveris	portaveritis
3rd Person	portaverit	portaverint

Subjunctive

Present	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portem	portemus
2nd Person	portes	portetis
3rd Person	portet	portent

Imperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portarem	portaremus
2nd Person	portares	portaretis
3rd Person	portaret	portarent

Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portaverim	portaverimus
2nd Person	portaveris	portaveritis
3rd Person	portaverit	portaverint

Pluperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portavissem	portavissemus
2nd Person	portavisses	portavissetis
3rd Person	portavisset	portavissent

Note that there is no Future or Future Perfect in the Subjunctive Mood

Passive voice

Indicative

Present	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portor	portamur
2nd Person	portaris	portamini
3rd Person	portatur	portantur

Imperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portabar	portabamur
2nd Person	portabaris	portabamini
3rd Person	portabatur	portabantur

Future	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portabor	portabimur
2nd Person	portaberis	portabimini
3rd Person	portabitur	portabuntur

Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portatus sum	portati sumus
2nd Person	portatus es	portati estis
3rd Person	portatus est	portati sunt

Pluperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portatus eram	portati eramus
2nd Person	portatus eras	portati eratis
3rd Person	portatus erat	portati erant

Future Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portatus ero	portati erimus
2nd Person	portatus eris	portati eritis
3rd Person	portatus erit	portati erunt

Subjunctive

Present	Singular	Plural
1st Person	porter	portemur
2nd Person	porteris	portemini
3rd Person	portetur	portentur

Imperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portarer	portaremur
2nd Person	portareris	portaremini
3rd Person	portaretur	portarentur

Perfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portatus sim	portati simus
2nd Person	portatus sis	portati sitis
3rd Person	portatus sit	portati sint

Pluperfect	Singular	Plural
1st Person	portatus essem	portati essemus
2nd Person	portatus esses	portati essetis
3rd Person	portatus esset	portati essent

Notice that the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses passive are compound tenses, composed of the past participle and a form of esse, to be. Notice also that the participle is plural in the plural forms.

There are six additional forms of a verb, the six infinitives. These are used in the indirect statement, a very common construction in Latin. The infinitives are:

	Active	Passive
Present	portare	portari
Perfect	portavisse	portatus esse
Future	portaturus esse	portatum iri

Translation	Active	Passive
Present	to carry	to be carried
Perfect	to have carried	to have been carried
Future	to be going to carry	to be going to be carried

There are three more declensions in Latin. Tabulating them all would take a lot of space. Instead, I'll give some guidelines on how to apply the rules for the first declension onto the others.

First declension, portare, to carry

Present stem: port- (porte- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: portav-
Past participle: portatus

Second declension, docere, to teach

Present stem: doce- (docea- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: docu-
Past participle: doctus

Third declension, trahere, to drag

Present stem: trah- (traha- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: trax-
Past participle: tractus

Fourth declension, audire, to hear

Present stem: audi- (audia- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: audiv-
Past participle: auditus

The third and fourth declensions form their Future tense in a different way to the first and second:

Future	Singular	Plural
1st Person	traham	trahemus
2nd Person	trahes	trahetis
3rd Person	trahet	trahent

audire follows the same pattern in the Future as trahere

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