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LearnLatin2

CHAPTER2

"Cases;FirstDeclension;AgreementofAdjectives"

CASESANDINFLECTION

Considerthefollowingsentence:

"Thegirlsawthedog".Howcan

youtellthatthissentencedoesnotmeanthatthedogisseeing

thegirl?

TheanswerisobvioustoanEnglishspeaker."Girl"

comesbeforetheverb,and"dog"comesafterit,andthis

arrangementtellsusthatthe"girl"isperformingtheactionof

verb,andthe"dog"isreceivingtheaction.Wesaythattheone

whoisperformingtheactionoftheverbisthe"subject"ofthe

verb.So"girl"isthe"subject"of"saw".Thedog,however,is

the"object"oftheverb,sinceit'stheobjectoftheaction.

AndinEnglish,wegenerallyshowthesefunctions--subjectand

object--bypositionrelativetotheverb.Thesubjectofthe

verbtendstocomebeforetheverb,theobjecttendstocome

afterit.

Butpositionisn'ttheonlywayweshowwhichwordisthe

subjectandobjectofaverb.Nowconsiderthissentence:

"HimI

like,themIdespise".Obviouslythissentencehasanusual

arrangementforrhetoricalpurposes,buthowcanyoutellwhois

doingwhattowhom?

EventhoughEnglishgrammarshows

grammaticalrelationshipbetweenwordsinasentencemainlyby

position,inmanyinstancesachangeintheworditselfprovides

youadditionalhelp.Theword"him",althoughitcomesfirstin

thesentence,isnotthesubjectbecauseitsform--"him"

insteadof"he"--isnottheoneusedtoindicatethatit'sthe

subjectoftheverb.Weusetheform"he"toshowthat.

Furthermore,theword"I"istheformweusewhenthefirst

personissubjectoftheverb.Hence,thewords"he"and"I"

changetheirformsastheirgrammaticalfunctioninthesentence

changes.Thechangeinformofawordtoshowgrammatical

functionsiscalled"inflection".

TheEnglishpersonalpronounschangequitealottoshowyouhow

they'rebeingusedinthesentence.Watch.

FORMFUNCTION

Isubject

mypossessor（itowns

something

meobject（somethingis

beingdonetoit）

FirstPersonPronoun

wesubject

ourpossessor

usobject

yousubject

yourpossessor

youobject

SecondPersonPronoun

yousubject

yourpossessor

youobject

he,she,itsubject

his,her,itspossessor

him,her,itobject

ThirdPersonPronoun

theysubject

theirpossessor

themobject

Thisinflection（changeofformtoshowgrammatical

function）inthepronounsisveryusefulforhelpingusto

understandeachother--although,asyoucansee,thesecond

personpronoun"you,etc"doesn'tinflectnearlysomuchasthe

firstandthird.Thepluralformsareevenidenticaltothe

singularforms.Wecanstillgetby.

InEnglish,inflectionisratherlimited,andwerelyon

positionmainlytotelluswhatthewordsinthesentenceare

doingtoeachother.Theonlygrammaticalfunctionsthatinvolve

achangeinformforallnounsisthepossessivecaseandthe

pluralforms,whereweattachan"-s"totheendoftheword.

（InwrittenEnglishweevenincludeanapostrophe"'"markto

helpusseethedifferencebetweenapluralizednounandanoun

that'sinthepossessivecase.）Forexample

SINGULARPLURAL

applesubjectapplessubject

apple'spossessorapples'possessor

appleobjectapplesobject

WatchhowwecombinepositionwithinflectioninEnglishtomake

sensetooneanother.Asyoucansee,positionistheprincipal

guide.

"Theseapples'[plural,possessor]coresarehard,but

apples[plural,subject]areusuallysoft.Whenyou

[singular,subject]buyapples[plural,object],you

[singular,subject]shouldfirstpickupeachapple

[object,singular]andbounceit[singular,object]off

thefloorseveraltimes.Thencheckits[singular,

possessor]skin.Ifit[singular,subject]isbruised,

discretelyputit[singular,object]backwiththe

otherapples[plural,object],makingcertainthatno

one[singular,subject]iswatchingyou[singular,

object]".

UnlikeEnglish,languageswhichrelyprimarilyoninflectionof

wordstoshowgrammaticalrelationshiparecalled"inflected"

languages.English,thoughithassomeinflection,isnotan

inflectedlanguage.Latin,however,isaninflectedlanguage,

becauseitreliesalmostentirelyonchangesinthewords

themselvestoindicatetheirgrammaticalfunctioninasentence.

Thedifferentgrammaticalfunctionsawordcanhaveina

sentenceiscalled"case".InEnglishtherearethree

recognizabledifferentcases,thatisgrammaticalfunctions,a

wordcanhave:

thesubjectivecase,thepossessivecase,andthe

objectivecase.SowesaytherearethreecasesinEnglish.In

Latintherearesixdifferencecases.HerearetheLatincases.

（Don'ttrytomemorizethemallatoncehere.Justreadthrough

thelist;therewillbeplentyoftimetofirmupyour

familiarityofthem.）

LATINAPPROXIMATEENGLISHEQUIVALENT

Nominative（Subjective）

Genitive（PossessiveCase）

Dative（Objectofwordslike"to"or"for"）

Accusative（ObjectiveCase）

Ablative（AdverbialUsages:

"by","with"）

Vocative（DirectAddress）

We'lllookatthewaythesecasesareusedinLatininthenext

partofthesenotes,althoughsomeofthemwon'tbedifficultat

all:

thenominative,genitive,andaccusativecasesarealmost

thesameastheirEnglishcounterparts.Theablative,dativeand

vocativewillneedsomeexplanation.Beforethen,however,let's

lookathowaLatinnouninflectstoshowallthesedifferent

cases.

Let'slookatsomeEnglishpronounswhichinflecttoshow

thethreedifferentcases.Doyouremember"they,their,them?

"

Thepronounisinflectingthroughitsdifferentcases,butwecan

definitelyspotapatternofsimilarityamongthethreeforms.

Thereisadefiniterootoftheword.Theroot（thatis,the

partofthewordthatcontainsthemeaningoftheword）is"the-"

towhichthentheendings"-y","-ir"and"-m".Sowecouldsay

thatthewordisinflectingbyaddingcertaincaseendingstoa

stem.Thestemcontainsthecoreofthemeaningoftheword,and

theendingsmerelyinflectoralteritsgrammar.

ThisispreciselyhowLatinnounsshowtheirdifferent

cases:

theyaddadditionalletterstotheendofthebasicform

oftheword.Thisbasicformthatdoesnotchangethroughoutits

inflectioniscalledthe"stem".Thereare,consequently,two

partsofaLatinwordthatyoumustnote:

thestemandthecase

ending.Thestemcontainsthemeaningofthewordanditsgender

（masculine,feminine,orneuter）.Thecaseendingwilltellyou

（1）howthenounisbeingusedinitssentence,and

（2）whether

thenounissingularorplural.Let'swatchatheLatinnoun

"puella"（girl）asitinflectsthroughitsdifferentcases:

SINGULARAPPROXIMATEENGLISHTRANSLATION

NOMINATIVEpuellagirl

GENITIVEpuellaeofthegirl

DATIVEpuellaeto/forthegirl

ACCUSATIVEpuellamgirl

ABLATIVEpuellaby/withthegirl

VOCATIVEpuellagirl

PLURAL

NOMINATIVEpuellaegirls

GENITIVEpuellarumofthegirls

DATIVEpuellisto/forthegirls

ACCUSATIVEpuellasgirls

ABLATIVEpuellisby/withthegirls

VOCATIVEpuellaegirls

ThestemoftheLatinwordisclearlyvisible.It's

"puell-"towhichdifferentendingsarebeingattached.The

endingsare:

SINGULARPLURAL

NOMINATIVE-a-ae

GENITIVE-ae-arum

DATIVE-ae-is

ACCUSATIVE-am-as

ABLATIVE-a-is

VOCATIVE-a-ae

TherearemanyothernounsinLatinwhichfollowthissame

patternofcaseendingswhentheyinflect.Thispatternof

endingsiscalledthe"firstdeclension"（dehCLENshion）andyou

canseethestrongpresenceofan"-a-".Therearefourother

declensionalpatternsinLatin,butanounwillbelongtoonly

oneofthem.Hencewecansaythat"puella"isafirst

declensionnoun.Theotherdeclensionsarecalled,not

surprisingly,thesecond,third,fourthandfifthdeclension,and

aredistinguishedformoneanotherinpartbythethematic,or

characteristic,vowelthatappearsinitsendings.

REVIEW

Thisisalotofinformationtoabsorbinonesitting.Stopnow

forawhile,thenreadthroughthisreviewstatementbefore

startingonthenextsectionofthischapter.

Alanguagewhosenounsshowtheirgrammaticalfunctioninthe

sentencebychangesinthenounitself,andnotbyposition,is

calledaninflectedlanguage.Thedifferentgrammatical

functionsalanguagerecognizesarecalledcases.InEnglish,

therearethreecases.Theyarethesubjective,thepossessive,

andtheobjective.InLatintherearesixcases.Theyarethe

nominative,genitive,dative,accusative,ablativeandvocative

cases.ALatinnounhastwopartswhichyoumustnote:

ithasa

stem,whichcontainsthenoun'sbasicmeaninganditsgender;and

italsohasacaseendingwhichtellsyouthenoun'scaseandits

number.Apatternofendingswhichareaddedtotheendofa

nountoshowitsgrammaticalfunctioniscalledadeclension.

EachnouninLatinbelongstoonedeclension.Thedeclensions

arecalledthefirst,second,third,fourthandfifth

declensions.

THEFIRSTDECLENSION

Let'shavealookatanotherfirstdeclensionnoun:

"pecuni-"

（money）.

SINGULAR

STEM+CASEENDING=INFLECTEDFORM

N/V.pecuni+-a=_______________

GEN.pecuni+-ae=_______________

DAT.pecuni+-ae=_______________

ACC.pecuni+-am=_______________

ABL.pecuni+-a=_______________

PLURAL

STEM+CASEENDING=INFLECTEDFORM

N/V.pecuni+-ae=_______________

GEN.pecuni+-arum=_______________

DAT.pecuni+-is=_______________

ACC.pecuni+-as=_______________

ABL.pecuni+-is=_______________

Let'stryafewmoreparadigms.Declinethenoun"patri-"

（fatherland）andvit-"（life）.

SINGULAR

patri-vit-

N/V.______________________________

GEN.______________________________

DAT.______________________________

ACC.__________________