2nd Class Adjectives

SECOND CLASS ADJECTIVES

Second class adjectives are those that are declined using the Third Declension, except that the ablative singular ends in -i instead of -e. They are classified into three groups:

Group 1 refers to adjectives that have three different suffixes according to the gender: masculine, feminine or neutral.

Example: acer (m.), acris (f.) acre (n.) - sour, proud

acer defensor (m.) proud defender

acris domina (f.) sour lady

acre verbum (n.) sour word

Group 2 refers to adjectives that have only two suffixes, one for the masculine or feminine, and another for the neutral.

Example: brevis (m.), brevis (f.) breve (n.) - short

brevis sermo (m.) short speech

brevis via (f.) short road

breve verbum (n.) short word

Group 3 has only one type of suffix for the three types of gender.

Example: felix (n., f. & n.) - happy - blessed

felix annus (m.) happy year

felix vita (f.) happy life

felix saeculum (n.) happy century

I will now show the paradigm for the three groups.

Group 1

	Singular			Plural
	m.	f.	n.	m.	f.	n.
Nom	acer	acr-is	acr-e	acr-es	acr-es	acr-ia
Gen	acr-is	acr-is	acr-is	acr-ium	acr-ium	acr-ium
Dat	acr-i	acr-i	acr-i	acr-ibus	acr-ibus	acr-ibus
Acc	acr-em	acr-em	acr-e	acr-es	acr-es	acr-ia
Voc	acer	acr-is	acr-e	acr-es	acr-es	acr-ia
Abl	acr-i	acr-i	acr-i	acr-ibus	acr-ibus	acr-ibus

Group 2

	Singular			Plural
	m.	f.	n.	m.	f.	n.
Nom	brev-is	brev-is	brev-e	brev-es	brev-es	brev-ia
Gen	brev-is	brev-is	brev-is	brev-ium	brev-ium	brev-ium
Dat	brev-i	brev-i	brev-i	brev-ibus	brev-ibus	brev-ibus
Acc	brev-em	brev-em	brev-e	brev-es	brev-es	brev-ia
Voc	brev-is	brev-is	brev-e	brev-es	brev-es	brev-ia
Abl	brev-i	brev-i	brev-i	brev-ibus	brev-ibus	brev-ibus

Group 3

	Singular			Plural
	m.	f.	n.	m.	f.	n.
Nom	felix	felix	felix	felic-es	felic-es	felic-ia
Gen	felic-is	felic-is	felic-is	felic-ium	felic-ium	felic-ium
Dat	felic-i	felic-i	felic-i	felic-ibus	felic-ibus	felic-ibus
Acc	felic-em	felic-em	felix	felic-es	felic-es	felicv-ia
Voc	felix	felix	felix	felic-es	felic-es	felic-ia
Abl	felic-i	felic-i	felic-i	felic-ibus	felic-ibus	felic-ibus

EXAMPLES

I suggest that you learn the following adjectives as you will meet them often in your readings:

m.	f.	n.	meaning
acer	acris	acre	sour, proud
celeber	celebris	celebre	famous, celebrated, crowded
celer	celeris	celere	fast, speedy
saluber	salubris	salubre	healthy, salubrious
campester	campestris	campestre	rural, rustic
equester	equestris	equestre	equestrian
pedester	pedestris	pedestre	pedestrian
silvester	silvestris	silvestre	sylvan, woodland
terrester	terrester	terrestre	terrestrial
vetus	vetus	vetus	ancient, old

Here are some frequent combinations of adjectives and nouns

dominus acer	harsh master
vir celeber	famous man
nobilis vir	illustrious man
locus saluber	healthy place
pugna pedestris	infantry battle
flumen celere	fast river
pugna terrestris	field battle
senex vetus	very old man

f. > femina celebris

n. > vinum vetus

Exercises

1- Imperator cum equestribus copiis ad Alpes pervenerat.

2- Cicero, celeber orator, multas orationes in foro recitaverat.

3- Salubribus herbis curate, medici, corporis morbos.

4- Veteres et moris antiqui memores

5- Vergilius poeta¹ apium industriam celebrat. (watch out on this one)

6- Legiones per fertiles regiones ad flumen Rhenum procedebant.

7- In studio Latini sermonis, senes atque iuvenes, graves difficultates non invenietis. (this is a bit of a lie!)

8- Homines loquaces plerumque² mendaces sunt.

9- Veloces naves explorabunt Africae litora.

Translation hints:

1- Poeta is an attribute of the subject, hence translate it as: ...,the poet,...

2- Plerumque means "on the whole", "mostly".

(An hyperlinked translation of each sentence will be made available)

N.B.

There are no third class or higher adjectives.

The next topic on adjectives concerns 1) the grade of adjectives, or more simply put, the treatment of comparative adjectives of the type: big, bigger, biggest; 2) classes of adjectives, viz. possessive, relative, etc., and 3) the numeric adjectives, one, two, three, first, second, third, one each, two each, etc

I will cover this part in the next module.

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