Latin grammar
Latin has a very flexible word order, unlike English, because the language is highly inflected.
In Latin there is no indefinite or definite article. They can be replaced by other adjectivals such as ille (forms of ille gradually changed into simply le or la like what we have in the modern Romance languages today), haec, ea, id, is etc.
Nouns
Cases
On the noun tables there are usually 6 cases:
- Nominative: indicates the subject of the sentence: Cornelia is a girl.
- Genitive: indicates possession (most of the time): The hair of Cornelia is long.
- Dative: indicates an indirect object: He gave the cookie to the boy.
- Accusative: indicates a direct object: Cornelia killed Marcus. Also can be used with a preposition: We went into the bedroom.
- Ablative: many uses, including conditions where English would use a preposition instead
- the object of a preposition: He is inside the palace.
- time: At the tenth hour he died.
- instrument: He beat me with a stick.
- means: He yelled with a great voice.
- agent of a passive verb: The cookie was thrown by Cornelia across the room.
- Vocative: direct address: O Cornelia
There is also something called the locative case, used to describe the location of something. However, only a few nouns survived (such as domus).
Declensions
There are 5 declensions. Most nouns in the 1st are feminine, most in the 2nd are masculine and neuter (usually distinguished by the m. -us and n. -um endings), 3rd can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter, 4th is either masculine or feminine, and 5th is usually feminine with some masculine. Basically, you will have to learn the gender of each noun independently. For each noun, make sure you know which declension it is in, in order to decline it, and what gender it is, so that adjectives agree.
First declension
|
singular |
plural |
| Nominative |
puella |
puellae |
| Genitive |
puellae |
puellārum |
| Dative |
puellae |
puellīs |
| Accusative |
puellam |
puellās |
| Ablative |
puellā |
puellīs |
Second declension
|
singular |
plural |
| Nominative |
amicus |
amicī |
| Genitive |
amicī |
amicōrum |
| Dative |
amicō |
amicīs |
| Accusative |
amicum |
amicōs |
| Ablative |
amicō |
amicīs |
Third declension
|
singular |
plural |
| Nominative |
rēx |
rēgēs |
| Genitive |
rēgis |
rēgum |
| Dative |
rēgī |
rēgibus |
| Accusative |
rēgem |
rēgēs |
| Ablative |
rēge |
rēgibus |
Fourth declension
|
singular |
plural |
| Nominative |
spiritus |
spiritūs |
| Genitive |
spiritūs |
spirituum |
| Dative |
spirituī |
spiritibus |
| Accusative |
spiritum |
spiritūs |
| Ablative |
spiritū |
spiritibus |
Fifth declension
|
singular |
plural |
| Nominative |
diēs |
diēs |
| Genitive |
dieī |
diērum |
| Dative |
dieī |
diēbus |
| Accusative |
diem |
diēs |
| Ablative |
diē |
diēbus |
Adjectives
All adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in number, case and gender. All nouns are either feminine, masculine, or neuter. Genders are grammatical, and do not necessarily correspond to the sex of the object.
Adjectives are either 1/2nd declension or 3rd declension. In 1/2nd declensions, -a endings are treated as feminine and are declined like 1st declension nouns, and -us endings are treated as masculine, and -um endings are treated as neuter and both are declined like second declension nouns.
For example:
- Cornelia bona (feminine) (good Cornelia)
- Cornelius bonus (masculine) (good Cornelius)
- bellum bonum (neuter) (good war)
In 3rd declension adjectives, for masculine and feminine, most of the time there are no changes which are needed to be made to match gender as both masculine and feminine decline the same (make note that in the ablative usually you use an -i instead of -e as most 3rd declension adjectives are -i stemmed.). Neuter has one important difference, as nominative and accusative in all declensions are the same (-um for 2nd etc.) and for plural nominative and accusative have -a (all neuters in all declensions do this as well).
Adjectives can also have comparative forms and superlative forms. Fortior is 'braver' (comparative). Fortissimus is 'bravest' (superlative). Basically, you drop the ending (-a, -us, -um) and place -ior to get the comparative ('braver') or add -issimus to make 'most brave'.
- Cornelia est fortior quam Cornelius.
Cornelia is braver than Cornelius.
(quam after a comparative is 'than', otherwise it usually is feminine singular relative pronoun).
- Cornelia est fortissima. (Cornelia is the bravest.)
Verbs
There are four conjugations in Latin. A verb either falls into one of these conjugations or is considered irregular. In Latin, a verb is defined by its person, number, tense, mood and voice. This gives rise to a large number of forms of each verb - 120, in fact. They are generally learnt in groups of 6, corresponding to a particular mood, tense, and voice. Each verb has two stems - a present stem and a perfect stem, to which various endings are added to make individual forms of verbs.
Uses of the tenses
There are six tenses in Latin. They are:
- Present, indicates actions happening at the time of speaking: The slave carries the jar
- Imperfect, describes actions which were going on over a period of time: The crowd were cheering the gladiators
- Future, used for actions which have not yet taken place, but will do so at some point: He will write the letter tomorrow
- Perfect, describes actions in the past which have finished: He has taught the boy
- Pluperfect, describes actions further in the past: He had taught the boy - notice the difference, it's important
- Future Perfect, used for actions which will be completed some time in the future: By tomorrow, he will have sent the letter
There are three moods:
- Indicative, which states indisputable facts: That slave is carrying a wine jar
- Subjunctive, which is used for possibilities, intentions, necessities etc: The centurion chose a fortified location in order to defeat his enemies.
- Imperative, used for commands: "You, slave! Carry this wine jar!"
There are two voices:
- Active, where the verb is done by the subject: The slave carried the wine jar
- Passive, where the verb is done to the subject: The wine jar was carried by the slave
With this information, we can sort the verbs into their groups of six, starting with the first conjugation, portare, to carry
Active voice
Indicative
| Present |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
porto |
portamus |
| 2nd Person |
portas |
portatis |
| 3rd Person |
portat |
portant |
| Imperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portabam |
portabamus |
| 2nd Person |
portabas |
portabatis |
| 3rd Person |
portabat |
portabant |
| Future |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portabo |
portabimus |
| 2nd Person |
portabis |
portabitis |
| 3rd Person |
portabit |
portabunt |
| Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portavi |
portavimus |
| 2nd Person |
portavisti |
portavistis |
| 3rd Person |
portavit |
portaverunt |
| Pluperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portaveram |
portaveramus |
| 2nd Person |
portaveras |
portaveratis |
| 3rd Person |
portaverat |
portaverant |
| Future Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portavero |
portaverimus |
| 2nd Person |
portaveris |
portaveritis |
| 3rd Person |
portaverit |
portaverint |
Subjunctive
| Present |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portem |
portemus |
| 2nd Person |
portes |
portetis |
| 3rd Person |
portet |
portent |
| Imperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portarem |
portaremus |
| 2nd Person |
portares |
portaretis |
| 3rd Person |
portaret |
portarent |
| Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portaverim |
portaverimus |
| 2nd Person |
portaveris |
portaveritis |
| 3rd Person |
portaverit |
portaverint |
| Pluperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portavissem |
portavissemus |
| 2nd Person |
portavisses |
portavissetis |
| 3rd Person |
portavisset |
portavissent |
Note that there is no Future or Future Perfect in the Subjunctive Mood
Passive voice
Indicative
| Present |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portor |
portamur |
| 2nd Person |
portaris |
portamini |
| 3rd Person |
portatur |
portantur |
| Imperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portabar |
portabamur |
| 2nd Person |
portabaris |
portabamini |
| 3rd Person |
portabatur
| portabantur |
| Future |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portabor |
portabimur |
| 2nd Person |
portaberis |
portabimini |
| 3rd Person |
portabitur |
portabuntur |
| Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portatus sum |
portati sumus |
| 2nd Person |
portatus es |
portati estis |
| 3rd Person |
portatus est |
portati sunt |
| Pluperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portatus eram |
portati eramus |
| 2nd Person |
portatus eras |
portati eratis |
| 3rd Person |
portatus erat |
portati erant |
| Future Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portatus ero |
portati erimus |
| 2nd Person |
portatus eris |
portati eritis |
| 3rd Person |
portatus erit |
portati erunt |
Subjunctive
| Present |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
porter |
portemur |
| 2nd Person |
porteris |
portemini |
| 3rd Person |
portetur |
portentur |
| Imperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portarer |
portaremur |
| 2nd Person |
portareris |
portaremini |
| 3rd Person |
portaretur |
portarentur |
| Perfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portatus sim |
portati simus |
| 2nd Person |
portatus sis |
portati sitis |
| 3rd Person |
portatus sit |
portati sint |
| Pluperfect |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
portatus essem |
portati essemus |
| 2nd Person |
portatus esses |
portati essetis |
| 3rd Person |
portatus esset |
portati essent |
Notice that the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses passive are compound tenses, composed of the past participle and a form of esse, to be. Notice also that the participle is plural in the plural forms.
There are six additional forms of a verb, the six infinitives. These are used in the indirect statement, a very common construction in Latin. The infinitives are:
|
Active |
Passive |
| Present |
portare |
portari |
| Perfect |
portavisse |
portatus esse |
| Future |
portaturus esse |
portatum iri |
| Translation |
Active |
Passive |
| Present |
to carry |
to be carried |
| Perfect |
to have carried |
to have been carried |
| Future |
to be going to carry |
to be going to be carried |
There are three more declensions in Latin. Tabulating them all would take a lot of space. Instead, I'll give some guidelines on how to apply the rules for the first declension onto the others.
First declension, portare, to carry
Present stem: port- (porte- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: portav-
Past participle: portatus
Second declension, docere, to teach
Present stem: doce- (docea- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: docu-
Past participle: doctus
Third declension, trahere, to drag
Present stem: trah- (traha- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: trax-
Past participle: tractus
Fourth declension, audire, to hear
Present stem: audi- (audia- in subjunctive)
Perfect stem: audiv-
Past participle: auditus
The third and fourth declensions form their Future tense in a different way to the first and second:
| Future |
Singular |
Plural |
| 1st Person |
traham |
trahemus |
| 2nd Person |
trahes |
trahetis |
| 3rd Person |
trahet |
trahent |
audire follows the same pattern in the Future as trahere
