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LESSON 1
Introduction 1
Pre Grammar
Dictionary 1
First Translation
Grammar 1
Exercises 1
Runnning Vocabulary 1
L.LT1.- Ovid
Self Test 1
LESSON 2
Introduction 2
Verb Example
Verb Practice
Declension 2
Adjectives 1st Class
Translation Exercise 2
L.LT.2- Plautus
L.LT.2- Lucretius
Exercises 2
Declension and Logic Analysis 
I said that Latin does not have any articles, either the determinative article "the" or the non-determinative  article "a" or "an"; their proper names are "definite" or "indefinite" articles, respectively.  Latin does away with articles because it uses different endings in most of its words. The pattern of terminations (endings) is called declension.   While this definition of declension is simple, its application is, at first, somewhat traumatic!

Declension  (Declinatio)

By declension is meant the variation of form or inflection of a word to define its different cases, numbers and genders.

Latin has 6 cases, 3 genders and 2 numbers. 

 

  1. Case
    The word case refers to the function of a word within the context of a clause; in other words whether the word in question is performing the function of subject, direct object or indirect object, or some other grammatical function. This will become clear shortly.
    By convention, Cases don't exist in English, but they do in Latin. However, read the section lower down on the right-hand-side of this page.
  2. Gender
    The three genders are feminine, masculine and neutral, like in English.
  3. Number
    The numbers are  singular or plural, again, like in English.  

Some simple arithmetic would show that if we take a theoretical word, a name say, there could be as many as 6x3x2 ways of inflecting (spelling) that word to cover all possibilities.  In practice if a name is masculine then its gender is reduced to 1, hence there will be 6x2 ways of inflecting (spelling) that name. Many adjectives have the full 36 variations in spelling!  For example, the adjective bonus (good) has 36 different spellings; click HERE to see the list.

Logic Analysis (i.e. Grammatical Analysis of the Structure of a Sentence)

 

Let's start with two simple words and a simple sentence.

The words: ancilla = maid
                    puer    = boy

In English we can say maid or maids and that covers all possible spellings of that word; similarly with boy and boys.
In addition, the relative position it occupies in the sentence defines what happens to these words. 

Consider the following short sentence:

The boy loves the maid. (1)

Let's do some logical analysis of this sentence:
The boy     is the subject
loves          is the verbal predicate1
the maid    is the direct object.

 

Reason thus: The boy (subject)
                        loves... (verbal predicate) 
                        who?, what?

The answer to who? what? is the direct object that complements the verb of the clause or sentence. 

In grammar a complement is a word, phrase, or clause that is added to the verb of a sentence to complete its predicate. 

 

If we were to turn the sentence around, its meaning would be totally changed:

The maid loves the boy. (2)

The maid is now the subject and the boy the direct object.

In Latin, this confusion can never happen, because when I spell maid for the direct object case, its spelling is unique and different than if I spell maid for the subject function.

Here they are:

Ancilla > subject case
Ancillam > direct object case

Puer > subject case
Puerum > direct object case

Loves > verb, not noun, translated with "amat". 

 
 
NOTE:
1- A predicate is the fundamental part of a sentence or clause that contains the verb and states something about the subject. If the verb is intransitive the sentence or clause is, normally, complete; but if the verb is transitive, it will require a complement (direct or indirect object, or both) to complete it.
Key structure of a clause: subject + predicate + complement

Let's translate the two phrases into Latin:

Puer amat ancillam.  (1)

N.B.: even if you were to change the word order to: ancillam amat puer, its meaning would remain unchanged; it is still the maid that receives the love from the boy, and not the other way around. 

If we meant the meaning of sentence (2), i.e. "the maid loves the boy," we need to write:


Ancilla amat puerum.  (2)

In this other case if we change the word order to puerum ancilla amat, the meaning remains unchanged; viz. ancilla is still the subject and puerum is still the direct object.


You will also notice that the two different cases have taken care of the articles because in the translation we translate "the maid" and not just " maid" as a noun in English, normally, begs articulation, hence the articles.

Here is the full declension of ancilla

 CaseSingularPluralMeaning
Nominative

ancilla

ancillae 

the maid(s)

Genitive

ancillae 

ancillorum

of the maid(s)

Dative

ancillae

ancillis

to the maid(s)

Accusative

ancillam

ancillas

the maid(s)

Vocative

ancilla

ancillae

O maid(s)

Ablative

ancilla

ancillis

with the maid(s)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusions:

 

1- In Latin, the relationship that a noun plays in a sentence is defined not by its position in the sentence, or the type of preposition/article that precedes it, but by each case.  So the nominative case is always used for the subject, and the accusative case for the direct object. The function of the other cases will be explained in Lessons 2.

 

2- In translating from Latin into English you will need to add articles and prepositions to your English sentence structure in order to convey the correct meaning of the Latin sentence itself.

 

3- The process of declension of a word refers to the ability to write that word in any of the six cases shown in the table above. The full listing of cases will be referred to as a paradigm.

 

4- In Latin, the following Parts of Speech are declined: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives and Verbs; in the case of verbs it is preferred to call it conjugation rather than declension. Declension and Conjugation form what is called inflexion. Hence the inflexion of nouns, adjectives and pronouns fall under the category of declension and that of verbs under conjugation.

 

5- The other Parts of the Latin Speech are not declined, i.e. the words don't change and maintain the same form irrespective of which case they are associated with.

E.g.: the conjuction et (and) never changes, or the preposition ab (from) also never changes.  Adverbs and interjections are also not declined. Great!

 

English Language Cases

Did you know that the English language has three cases?

 

1- Nominative

2- Possessive

3- Objective

 

1- In the nominative and objective cases, nouns do not change their form; it is their position in the sentence, together with the articles/prepositions that normally precede them, that define whether they perform the nominative function (subject) or the objective function (complement of the verb).

 

2- The possessive case changes its form simply by adding 's, or just the apostrophe '  at the end of the noun.     

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Pagina recensita:  Pridie Calendas Septembres, MMVIII