Latin/3rd Declension Lesson 4

Salvēte!

This lesson will wrap up the 3rd declension, so that we at least have a good overview of this class of nouns. To see the rest of the course, check out the links on the right.

New Grammar
The dative case is the only case in this declension we haven’t covered, and it has consistent endings regardless of gender, and regardless of whether the noun is i-stem or regular, so it shouldn’t be too confusing. Dative case is used for indirect objects, or to express some “to/for” phrases. 3rd declension nouns have -ī in the dative singular and -ibus in the dative plural.

Practice
At this point, we have had a survey of the first three declensions of Latin nouns. There are two more declensions with their own sets of endings, but the vast majority of nouns fall within the first three declensions and the rules we’ve just taught you. For the next several lessons we’ll go back to more general subjects with family, animals, food, etc. as the topics. I hope you’ll enjoy the break from all the intense grammar, while building on the vocabulary you’ve already learned. Bonam fortūnam!