Introduction to Latin/Second Declension Nouns and Adjectives

Second Declension
Like the 1st Declension, the 2nd Declension consists of 'stem + ending'. However, the 2nd Declension has different endings and a different stem. The genders of the 2nd Declension are masculine and neuter (not feminine).

Generally, the nominative singular of masculine 2nd Declension nouns ends in either -us, -er, or -ir; the neuter nominative singular ends in -um.

So let's go ahead and learn the 2nd Declension.

2nd Declension Masculine Endings
Notes: 1) for nouns ending in '-er' or '-ir', the vocative singular is the same as the nominative; 2) the stem of each noun is attained from the genitive singular form (just like in the 1st Declension):

2nd Declension Neuter Endings
Notes: 1) In all neuter nouns (not just 2nd Declension; neuter nouns in other declensions will be encountered later on in this course), the nominative and accusative have the same form in both numbers; 2) Notice that the vocative in both numbers has the same form as the nominative.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE BRITISH SYSTEM GOES LIKE THIS- NOM. ACC. GEN. DAT. ABL.

Declining Some Nouns
Now that we know the appropriate endings, we can decline any 2nd Declension noun, right?

Let's give it a try:

Hortus, horti (m.) - garden


 * Stem = hort- which we can see from the genitive singular in the dictionary entry

Now let's try this noun:

puer, pueri (m.) - boy