The Latin Declensions: A Brief Guide by Sean Gabb
English is mostly an “uninflected language” – that is, the relationship between words in a sentence is shown by their
position and by the use of prepositions. Nouns only change by adding “s” or “es” or “en” to show plural forms. Verbs
mostly change only in the third person singular – eg, “I see,” “you see,” “he sees.” In Latin – an “inflected language”
– relationship is shown mostly by changes to the ends of words. Here is a very brief guide to Latin nouns.
The Nominative • vir est validissimi
• He is a man of the greatest strength
The nominative is used for the subject of the sentence:
The Dative
• The dog is in the garden
• canis in horto est The dative is used to show something being done to or
for something else:
The Vocative
• I give the money to the mistress
The vocative is used when somebody is directly • ego pecuniam dominae do
speaking to that object/person:
The Ablative
• “Septimus, where are you?”
• “Septime, ubi es tu?” The ablative is similar to the accusative, but is used
when something is indirectly happening to the object.
The Accusative In English, the noun is normally preceded by “by,”
“with,” “from,” “on,” “under,” and similar words:
The accusative is used for the object of the sentence,
when something is happening directly to it. • The dog is in the garden
• canis in horto est
• I see the dog
• ego canem video The ablative can also show time within which
something will or did happen:
It can also be used to express time during which
something happens: • tribus horis e balneo surgam
• I shall get out of the bath in three hours
• tres horas in balneo sedi
• I sat in the bath for three hours The Locative
The Genitive The locative is used for places in which something
happened. It is only used for cities, islands and a few
The genitive is used to show possession. In English, it other nouns:
translates as “of...”
• Is domi est
• The house of the master • He is at home
• villa domini
The locative case is not listed in tables of Latin nouns,
It can also show quantity and quality: as it has largely disappeared by the Classical period. It
is treated as a special part of the ablative case.
On the next page, I give the main forms of the five declensions of nouns. These can be taken more or less as applying
also to the adjectives. There are differences, but these are easily recognised, and can be explained as and when they
are seen.
Note: Many endings are the same for different cases. The reason for this is that Classical Latin grammar is a snapshot
of a language in the process of becoming less inflected – some point between the hyper-inflections of its parent Aryan
language and its fairly uninflected Italian, French and Spanish children.
The First Declension puella - girl (f)
Singular Plural
Nouns in the first declension are normally feminine, but there
Nominative puella –a puellae –ae
are a few exceptions, for example “nauta” and “agricola”. The
table shows the six main case forms (not locative), the Vocative puella –a puellae –ae
formation for the noun “puella” and the suffixes that you must Accusative puellam –am puellas –as
add to form any case in the first declension Genitive puellae –ae puellarum –arum
Dative puellae –ae puellis –is
Ablative puella –a puellis –is
The Second Declension
Nouns in the second declension are normally either masculine or neuter. There are two different tables to learn, one for each of the
common second declension genders.
dominus - master (m) templum - temple (n)
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative dominus –us domini –i Nominative templum –um templa –a
Vocative domine –e domini –i Vocative templum –um templa –a
Accusative dominum –um dominos –os Accusative templum –um templa –a
Genitive domini –i dominorum –orum Genitive templi –i templorum –orum
Dative domino –o dominis –is Dative templo –o templis –is
Ablative domino –o dominis –is Ablative templo –o templis –is
The Third Declension rex - king (m)
Singular Plural
The third declension contains nouns with strange endings, for
Nominative rex no pattern reges –es
example “rex” and “mercator”. Consequently, it can contain
any gender. However, regardless of gender, all the nouns use Vocative rex as nominative reges –es
the same endings. The best rule for recognising a third Accusative regem –em reges –es
declension noun is to look at the nominative singular. If it does Genitive regis –is regum –um
not end in “us,” “a” or “er,” it is probably third declension.
Dative regi –i regibus –ibus
Ablative rege –e regibus –ibus
The Fourth Declension The Fifth Declension
The fourth declension mainly contains masculine nouns. There The fifth declension does not contain many nouns. Most of the
are not many nouns in this declension, but you need to look out nouns are feminine, but there are exceptions, for example
for them, as they can look like second declension nouns “dies” These nouns often look as if they are third declension.
manus - hand (f) dies - day (m)
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative manus –us manus –us Nominative dies –es dies –es
Vocative manus –us manus –us Vocative dies –es dies –es
Accusative manum –um manus –us Accusative diem –em dies –es
Genitive manus –us manuum –uum Genitive diei –i dierum –erum
Dative manui –ui manibus –ibus Dative diei –i diebus –ebus
Ablative manu –u manibus –ibus Ablative die –e diebus –ebus