Noun Declension Paradigms

Basic endings in the various declensions

Technical Disclaimers on the Locative Case

The listed sources are inconsistent on how the locative is formed, so the above table might not agree with your textbook. There is agreement among my textbooks that in the first and second declension, the locative singular is identical with the genitive form, and that in plurals it is always the same as the dative-ablative form. Where they differ is in the locative forms for the singulars of the third, fourth and fifth declension. (It probably never occurs in the fifth declension!) For third declension singular, some say that it may take either the dative or the ablative form, while others say it takes the dative form. (Most of the examples they give seem to be the same as the dative in form.) For fourth declension singular, one says the dative forms are used, but the only actual example seems to be the fourth declension word domus whose locative is domi. But domus affords other problems since it was moving from fourth to second declension in classical times, and this form is consistent with its second declension paradigm.

Principal parts of nouns

matella, matellae. nf. chamber pot.

From the genitive ending -ae, the noun matella is identified as a first declension noun. Dropping the genitive ending gives the base matell- to which endings are added.

Some nouns have plural forms only. For these nouns, the principal parts are the nominative and genitive plural forms. For example:

castra, castrorum. nn. camp.

Again the genitive identifies the declension, in this case second declension, as well as the base castr- to which endings are added.

Basic usages of the various cases

• Nominative: Subject of a sentence, predicate nominatives

  The boat is anchored to the shore.

  When the silly clowns visit Rome, the emperor's sense of humor is a surprising sight to behold.

  Venus, your new hairdo is a pathetic mess.

• Genitive: Possession or attachment. The genitive case was disappearing from colloquial Latin (the Latin of everyday speech, usually called Vulgar Latin) and was often replaced by the preposition de followed by the ablative case.

  When the silly clowns visit Rome, the emperor's sense of humor is a surprising sight to behold.

• Dative: Indirect object. Like the genitive case, the dative case was also disappearing from colloquial Latin. The preposition ad followed by the accusative case was sometimes used as a substitute in colloquial Latin.

  The silly clowns sometimes give the emperor a hard time.

  The silly clowns sometimes give a hard time to the emperor.

• Accusative: Direct object, object of prepositions of motion towards

  When the silly clowns visit Rome, the emperor's sense of humor is a surprising sight to behold.

  The silly clowns sometimes give the emperor a hard time.

  The hen-pecked emperor is travelling to Rome by boat.

• Ablative: Means (instrument), object of prepositions of position and of motion away

  The boat is anchored to the shore.

  The hen-pecked emperor is travelling to Rome by boat.

• Locative: Location or position. In Latin, this case is a remnant of the old Indo-European Locative case. It is used primarily with place names and a handful of nouns denoting classes of places like domus (home). For most purposes it has been superseded by the use of the prepositions in or ad followed by the ablative case.

  We bake our own cookies at home.

  The emperor lives in Rome.

  If the fountain of Tivoli isn't in Copenhagen, then maybe it was moved to Belgium.

• Vocative: Personal address

  Venus, your new hairdo is a pathetic mess.

  Yo dude! Get a haircut!