Latin/Chapter 1

Chapter one

Lesson Plan

 * Cases
 * Case usage
 * The 1st Declension
 * Vocabulary 2
 * Assignment

Cases
As we learned in the intro there are five cases in the Latin language. Here are the cases again.
 * Nominative
 * Accusative
 * Genitive
 * Dative
 * Ablative

Nominative
The nominative case is the subject, predicate nominatives, and predicate adjectives.

The SUBJECT performs the action.
 * Ex. The FARMER loves the girl.

The PREDICATE NOMINATIVE follows a linking verb( is, are, was, were, ect.) and renames the subject.
 * Ex. The farmer was a POET.

The PREDICATE ADJECTIVE follows a linking verb( is, are, was, were, ect.)and renames the subject.
 * Ex. The farmer is FAMOUS.

Accusative
The accusative case is the direct object/ and object of certain prepositions.

The direct object receives the action as shown in the table below by the highlighted word.

Genitive
The genitive case shows possession and can be thought of as meaning "of the noun" for its other uses too which we will come to later

Dative
The dative case is the indirect object.

Ablative
The ablative case is object of certain prepositions, and other special uses

The 1st Declension
There are five declensions in Latin. Every single noun has a declension. In Latin unlike English every noun has a gender, there are masculine, feminine, and neuter. Also every noun has a number, singular and plural.

So unto 1st declension. The following are the endings for the 1st declension.

So you may ask what are the endings for? Well the endings are to be added to the noun stem. Also the genitive singular ending tells you what declension a noun belongs to.

To find the noun stem drop the genitive singular ending. Ex.
 * Poetae - ae = poet

NOTE! Most nouns in the first declension are feminine. With some exceptions, such as agricola, nauta, and poeta. All 3 of those are masculine nouns.

Here is an example:

puella, -ae f. = girl

Vocabulary 1

 * vita, vitae, f.
 * casa, casae, f.
 * fama, famae, f.
 * familia, familiae, f.
 * fortuna, fortunae, f.
 * terra, terrae, f.

VERBS (you will learn about them in the next chapter.)
 * amo, amare, amavi, amatus
 * habito, habitare, habitavi, habitatus
 * laboro, laborare, laboravi, laboratus
 * paro, parare, paravi, paratus
 * porto, portare, portavi, portatus
 * specto, spectare, spectavi, spectatus

Assignment
Your assignment is to find the meaning of all the words in the vocabulary section. Also to decline all the nouns. To decline them means to put them into a table such as the example of puella in the 1st declension section.

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