Latin/3rd Declension Lesson 3

Salvēte omnēs!

This is our third lesson covering the 3rd declension of Latin nouns. For a guide to previous lessons and a classified vocabulary list, be sure to check out the links on the right.

New Grammar
This time, we will introduce the 3rd declension i-stems. These have the reputation of being tricky; in fact, they are listed as #28 in Latin Student Problems on Tumblr. (We just have to share this for the benefit of all the Latin geeks on Wikiversity!) So, anyway, back to grammar.

We have learned some regular m/f and regular neuter nouns of the 3rd declension in 3 of the cases (and I strongly encourage lots of review of the previous lessons in this declension, since there is so much complexity here). I-stem nouns differ from the regular nouns in having an extra -i- before the ending of the genitive plural. In addition, neuter i-stems have the -i- show up in the nominative and accusative plural, and it is substituted for the -e ending of the ablative singular. But there are not very many neuter i-stems in common use, so the most frequent variant you will see is the one in the genitive plural. Clear as mud? Here are the differences highlighted on this chart:

I-stem nouns have some rules/guidelines that distinguish them from regular 3rd declension nouns, but it might be most helpful just to memorize them as part of your vocabulary study. The vocabulary page will have a model declension for each type of 3rd declension noun. There is also a pretty good survey of 3rd declension nouns (PDF) at The Latin Library that may help to clarify this for you. All the nouns introduced this lesson will be 3rd declension i-stems, and we will particularly focus on the genitive endings in this lesson (but we’ll look at some of the regular nouns too so you can see the difference.) Also note that there are 3rd declension adjectives (there is a teaser for them at the very end of the sentences this lesson) but we won’t be formally introducing them until later.

Practice
That’s a fairly good introduction to i-stems, although there’s a lot of complexity we haven’t touched yet. We’ll have one more lesson on the 3rd declension, focusing on the dative case, and then we will try to give you some lessons that are more topical (food, family, etc.) and less grammatical. Bonam fortūnam!