![]() Draconis provides a thorough selection of examples of why you need both forms to properly decline nouns and adjectives. Joonas covers the reasons for learning the three pieces of information: the nominative, the genitive and the gender. So in the end, you need all three of the nominative, genitive, and gender no one or two of those will suffice. Corporis "of the body", nominative corp us.Floris "of the flower", nominative flo s.Tūris "of the incense", nominative tū s.Turris "of the tower", nominative turr is.Nōminis "of the name", nominative nōm en.Hominis "of the person", nominative hom ō.Servus bon us "a good slave", masculineĪll three of these decline like servus (with a genitive in -ī), but their genders are different.Īnd unfortunately you can't always derive the nominative from the genitive, either:.These three nouns all follow the -us, -ī pattern, but have different genders: You also need the gender to deal with adjectives, because (most) adjectives reflect the gender of the noun they're modifying, not the declension pattern. You need the genitive to know which of these patterns it follows. Quite a lot of Latin nouns end in -us it's one of the best-known features of the language. Joonas's answer is spot-on, but to give some more illustrations: It is not problemam or problematem but problema. To give a single fuller example, you need to know both the genitive and the gender to figure out the singular accusative of problema. Just memorize the gender with this word or look it up in a dictionary. It helps if you remember that all words in -ma, gen. ![]() Therefore a dictionary will tell you that it's neuter. If you have learned the case endings well, you will recognize that castra has to be neuter, and it is indeed.Īs discussed earlier, agricola could be feminine or masculine based on form.īut with a third declension word like problema you cannot tell the gender by the nominative and the genitive.Īnd you cannot tell the singular accusative and plural nominative and accusative without knowing the gender. (The singular castrum exists also but is rarer.) The declensions are first, third, and second, and castra is plural. With the genitives - agricolae, problematis, castrorum - you know much more. The words agricola, problema, and castra all seem to end in -a.īut based on that alone you can't figure out the other forms. That's why you should learn the gender and why a dictionary will give it to you. The words agricola and traha are declined exactly the same way: agricolam/traham, agricolae/trahae and so on.īut they are different gender, and there is no way you can tell that by looking at the forms.Ī sledge ( traha) does not have a natural gender, so it is feminine like most words of the first declension.Ī farmer is primarily male, so agricola is masculine instead.īut sometimes you would guess wrong, and you should not rely on guesswork. In fact, the singular nominative is the least necessary piece of information out of the three, but it is sometimes necessary and in my opinion always useful. You cannot reliably deduce the gender from the forms, although one can often guess well and there are some clear cases. To be able to fully use a noun, you need to know all its forms and its gender. That is the minimal amount of information to deduce how to use the noun.ĭrop any one of the three, and you will have some ambiguities. Why are each of these forms necessary for memorisation? ![]() That's the whole point for learning all of them. Can they not be worked out from each other?
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