Latin basics: nouns (stems and endings), cases, introduction to declensions

In English a particular noun is spelled the same no matter how it's used.  A tree is a tree is a tree is a tree.  Bob is always Bob unless you want to come up with another name for him, Robert or Bobby or Naughty-pants.  The point is that nouns are spelled the same no matter how they're used.

• Subject:  The church is down the road.
• Indirect Object:  Sally gave the church much of her spare time.
• Object of a preposition:  Joe went into the church to get out of the rain.
• Direct Object:  God blessed the church.
• Predicate Nominative:  That building is a church.
• Possessive:  Joe is a member of the church.

The word is spelled the same no matter how it's used.

In Latin, nouns (and adjectives) have two parts, a stem (at the beginning of the word) and a case ending (at the, duh, end of the word).  The stem stays the same, but the case ending changes depending on how the word is being used, i.e. what part of the sentence it is functioning as.  These different ways that a noun (or adjective can be used are called cases. There are five main cases (and two special ones which I'm going to ignore for now):  Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative and Ablative.

For any noun (or adjective) the five cases can perform the following function:

• Nominative:  Subject, Predicate Nominative, Predicate Adjective
• Genitive: Possessive (ex. "Bob's") and implies "of"
• Dative: Indirect Object and implies either "to" or "for"
• Accusative:  Direct Object or the object of some prepositions
• Ablative: the object of some prepositions or implies "by, with, from"

The stem stays the same for each word (with some exceptions) and it is the case ending that is different and determines what case it is and therefore what part of the sentence it can be functioning as.  Declensions are groups of words that all use the same set of case endings.  Once you learn all the endings, you'll know all the cases of the words of that declension.  There are five declensions, or groups of words, that each use the same set of case endings.

Here's an example.  The nominative case for the word "water" is aqua.  Its stem is aqu-.  Its case ending is -a.  The other case endings are -ae (aquae), -ae (aquae), -am (aquam), -a (aqua).  Technically that last one has a macron (long straight bar) above it and that has to do more with pronunciation than anything else and since I don't want to spend the time figuring out how to type the a-with-a-macron, I'm just going to ignore it for now.  Those five "words" are really all the same word, "water," spelled differently, depending on how it's going to be used in a sentence.

• The aqua is cold.  (Nominative)
• The temperature of the aquae is too chilly for me. (Genitive)
• I was getting a glass for the aquae.  (Dative)
• Bill gave the dog some aquam to drink.  (Accusative)
• Sam climbed from the aqua after a long cold swim.  (Ablative)

These are all for singular cases, i.e. one water, the water, a water.  There is another set of endings (-ae, -arum, -is, -as, -is) for plural cases, waters, the waters, those waters.

Generally, we are taught the cases in this order, the 5 singular cases (-a, -ae, -ae, -am, -a) followed by the 5 plural cases (-ae, -arum, -is, -as, -is) and if you can remember those 10 endings, you've got everything you need for every noun in that declension.

It's a good thing we reviewed the parts of speech and parts of a sentence.  Without understanding those, cases and declensions seem like just arbitrary punishment.  They're not and we'll keep building on these concepts.

Latin basics: Parts of a sentence

I know it's no fun to have to go over all this basic English stuff, but trust me, it's worth it.  The 8 parts of speech (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection) are what the words of a sentence actually ARE.  Those same words FUNCTION AS a part of the sentence that they are in.


Knowing how to diagram a sentence isn't really necessary to figuring out what part of the sentence each word is, but it can be handy for keeping track of things.  If it helps you, by all means use it.  I use an inline notation, abbreviations, circles and arrows, above and below the words to mark my sentences.

A sentence has two main parts with lots of modifiers, a subject (who does the action of the sentence) and a predicate (which is the action being done by the subject).  You can have simple subjects (ex. Bob) or not-so-simple subjects (ex. The neighbor boy with the little red wagon).  In a sentence diagram everything to the left of the vertical bar is the complete subject, and everything else (everything to the right of the vertical bar) is the complete predicate.  All sentences have a subject and a predicate.  Even a single word command sentence (ex. "Come!") has an implied subject (i.e. "You").

The parts of a sentence are:

• Subject - does the action of the sentence
• Complete Subject - the entire subject, including all modifiers and prepositional phrases
• Bob loves candy.
• The clown at the party is funny.
• Predicate/Verb/Verb Phrase - is the action or state of being (of the subject)
• Complete Predicate - everything except the complete subject
• Bob loves Sally.
• Juanita has been feeling sad.
• Prepositional Phrase - a preposition and all of its objects and modifiers
• will function as either an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase
• The dog runs along the winding road.
• Direct Object - the person or thing being acted upon directly by the action of the verb
• never occurs in a prepositional phrase
• Samantha tastes the drink.
• Indirect Object - being indirectly acted upon by the subject, i.e. to or for whom/what the action is being done
• never occurs in a prepositional phrase
• I give Sally a thousand dollars.
• Linking Verb - a verb that describes the state of being of the subject
• Tom is sad.
• The boys sit quiet.
• Predicate Nominative - a noun/pronoun that describes the subject through a linking verb
• Spot is a dog.
• Predicate Adjective - an adjective that describes the subject through a linking verb
• Julie is happy.
• Complements - predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, direct objects, or indirect objects

The point to all this is that each part of SPEECH can be used in different parts of SENTENCE.  A noun (also pronoun) can be in the subject, a predicate nominative, direct object, indirect object or prepositional phrase.  In addition to all of those, an adjective or adverb can also be in a predicate adjective.

Let's try a couple of examples:

Bill and I went quickly to the new store.

• Subject:  Bill and I
• Bill (proper noun) and (conjunction) I (pronoun)
• Predicate:  went quickly to the new store.
• went (verb) quickly (adverb) to (preposition) the (article, really just a special type of adjective) new (adjective) store (noun)
• Prepositional phrase: to the new store

Sally was sad and we mocked the poor girl.  (Compound sentence: each clause could function alone as a complete sentence)

• Subject:  Sally (proper noun)
• Predicate:  was (linking verb) sad (predicate adjective)
• Conjunction: and
• Second Subject:  we (pronoun)
• Second Predicate:  mocked (transitive verb) the (adjective) poor (adjective) girl (noun)
• Direct Object: the poor girl

Roger gives the boy money for school.

• Subject:  Roger (proper noun)
• Predicate: gives (verb) the (adjective) boy (noun) money (noun) for (preposition) school (noun)
• Prepositional phrase: for school
• Direct Object: money for school (i.e. the thing that is given)
• Indirect Object: the boy (i.e. to whom the money is given)

That's it for the English review and sets us up for Cases and Declensions, which for most of us are the first concepts of Latin that we need.  They're not specifically Latin things, but we don't really use them in English, so they may seem like they are part of the language.  They're not, but this is where we start to get into the fun stuff.

Latin basics: Parts of speech

In my first year of organized instruction in Latin, that being a weekly class at the wonderful Catholic Church of St. Agnes in St. Paul, Minnesota we started out the year focusing on things most of us had forgotten from elementary school, parts of speech, parts of a sentence and diagramming sentences.  Most of us didn't really understand why we were going back to elementary school topics ESPECIALLY in English; we were here to learn Latin!  Well, after about five or six weeks of hammering on the fundamentals, things started to fall into place.  As a teaser, the reality is, that in Latin, nouns and adjectives look differently than verbs, and, as you build up your vocabulary, you quickly recognize prepositions and conjunctions (remember learning "sight words"!).  As you're trying to translate a sentence (especially with a rather small memorized Latin vocabulary), it's easier to piece together what's going on if you can readily point to a word and identify it as a verb or noun or adjective or whatnot.  Once you know what PART of the sentence it is, then finding the MEANING of the word becomes much easier in looking things up in your Latin dictionary.

Without further ado, here we go:

• Noun - a person, place, thing or idea
• Bob, Mr. Smith, car, heaven, man, thing, tree
• Pronoun - a word that replaces a noun 
• he, she, his, theirs, my our, it, that, which, these
• Adjective - a word that modifies a noun or pronoun 
• happy, quick, sad, young
• Verb - an action or state of being (of the subject) 
• read, throw, is, has, are, can see, have been
• Adverb - a word that modifies a verb, adjective or adverb
• happily, qiuckly, sadly, today, tomorrow, tonight
• Preposition - a word that shows relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word or word group
• under, around, by, near, through
• Conjunction - a word that connects phrases, clauses and sentences
• and, but, or
• Interjection - a word that shows emotion or excitement
• Hey!, Yo!, Ouch!, Yikes!

These are the things that a word IS.  Next we'll look a what the word CAN BE, i.e. what part of a sentence is the word functioning as.  Now that may seem like a subtle distinction, but it's important to understand both WHAT the word is and HOW it's being used because knowing that will lead us into those nasty things called declensions and conjunctions.  But I'm jumping ahead. All these "technical" pieces will build up and connect together and suddenly it'll all make sense.  Be patient and persistent in practicing; it'll be worth it in the end.