What you learned in the last chapter was not the whole story on the second declension. The second declension is divided into two parts: the part you know, and a set of endings which you're going to learn now. This second part contains only neuter nouns. This is important to remember. Unlike the first declension and the first part of the second, whose nouns could be either feminine or masculine, all nouns which follow this second part of the second declension are neuter. Next, the endings of this pattern are nearly identical to those of the second declension you already know. The differences are that (1) the nominative singular ending is always "-um"; (2) the stem is found by dropping off nominative "-um" ending and there is never a stem change; (3) the neuter nominative and accusative plural endings are "-a". You don't have to worry about the vocative singular; it's the same as the nominative singular. Remember, the only place in Latin where the vocative differs from the nominative is in the singular of "-us" ending second declension nouns and adjectives.
A dictionary entry for a noun of this type will look like this: "x"um, -i (n) (where "x" is the stem). Since there is never a stem change, the second entry only gives you the genitive singular ending so that you can see the declension of the noun. The "-um" of the nominative singular and then the "-i" in the genitive tell you that the noun is a neuter noun of the second declension, and that it therefore fits into the subcategory of the second declension. Here are some examples for you to decline and a second declension noun of the "us" type for comparison:
numerus, -i (m) periculum, -i (n) consilium, -ii (n) Nom. ______________ _______________ _______________ Gen. ______________ _______________ _______________ Dat. ______________ _______________ _______________ Acc. ______________ _______________ _______________ Abl. ______________ _______________ _______________ Voc. ______________ N/V. ______________ _______________ _______________ Gen. ______________ _______________ _______________ Dat. ______________ _______________ _______________ Acc. ______________ _______________ _______________ Abl. ______________ _______________ _______________There are a couple of hard and fast rules pertaining to the inflection of all neuter nouns, no matter which declension they belong to, which you may want to commit to memory:
The first entry, as you recall, tells you which declension the adjective uses to modify a masculine noun. It tells you by giving you the nominative singular ending of the declension it uses. The second entry is the nominative singular ending of the declension the adjective uses to modify a feminine noun. The third entry is the nominative singular of the declension the adjective uses to modify a neuter noun.
So how does the adjective "magnus, -a, -um" modify a neuter noun? It uses the "-um" neuter endings of the second declension, so "magnus", when it's modifying a neuter noun, will follow the same pattern as a noun like "periculum, -i (n). Write out all the possible forms of the adjective "great". (Check your work against Wheelock, p. 18.)
"magnus, -a, -um" MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER Nom. _______________ _______________ _______________ Gen. _______________ _______________ _______________ Dat. _______________ _______________ _______________ Acc. _______________ _______________ _______________ Abl. _______________ _______________ _______________ Voc. _______________ N/V. _______________ _______________ _______________ Gen. _______________ _______________ _______________ Dat. _______________ _______________ _______________ Acc. _______________ _______________ _______________ Abl. _______________ _______________ _______________
We need to back up a little. Although you were told otherwise, the real infinitive ending of a Latin verb is not "-re" at all, but "-se". Why does the "-se" become "-re"? It's an invariable rule of Latin pronunciation that an "-s-" which is caught between two vowels -- we call it "intervocalic" -- turns into a "-r-". So the reason "laudare" is not "laudase" is that the original intervocalic "-s-" became an "-r-". So let's look again at the infinitive for the verb "to be": "esse". If we drop off the infinitive ending "-se", we're left with the stem "es-" for the verb. But the stem has no final vowel. For this reason we call "esse" an "athematic verb", because its stem ends in a consonant, not a vowel, as other verbs do. To conjugate the verb, we should therefore add the personal endings directly to the final "-s" of the stem. This is what the formula should be (don't fill in the conjugated form yet).
STEM + PERSONAL ENDING = CONJUGATED FORM 1st es + m = _______________ 2nd es + s = _______________ 3rd es + t = _______________ 1st es + mus = _______________ 2nd es + tis = _______________ 3rd es + nt = _______________Try to pronounce the final form for the first person singular "esm". Do you hear how you're automatically inserting a "u" sound to make the word pronounceable? It sounds like "esum". Try to pronounce "esmus". The same thing happens between the "s" and the "m". You almost have to insert a "u". Now pronounce "esnt". Same thing, right? This is what happened to these forms. Over time, a "u" sound became a part of the conjugation of the verb, and the initial "e-" of the stem of all the forms with this "u" was lost. (I can't account for that.) Write out the resulting forms. Now look at the remaining forms. Is there any trouble adding an "s" or a "t" to the final "s-" of the stem? No. In fact, in the second person singular, the "s" of the personal ending just gets swallowed up by the "s" of the stem: "es + s = es". Where there was no complication in pronouncing the forms, the "e-" of the stem stayed. Now write out the remaining forms of "to be" in Latin.
We divided verbs into two broad classes: verbs which transfer action and energy from the subject to something else (the object), and verbs in which there is no movement of energy from one place to another. Consider this sentence: "George kicked the ball". Here George expended energy -- he kicked -- and this energy was immediately applied to an object -- the ball -- which was changed as a result of what George did to it. We call a verb like this a "transitive" verb and the object affected by it the direct object. In Latin, the direct object of a transitive verb is put into the accusative case. Now look at this sentence: "The river is wide". Is the river doing anything in this sentence to anything else? Does the verb "is" imply that the subject is acting on something else? No. There is no movement of activity from the subject to something else. Verbs like this are called "intransitive" and don't take direct objects. In Latin that means they are not followed by an accusative case. Some more examples of this: "The dog was running away", "We'll all laugh", "The clown didn't seem very happy".
Sometimes it's hard to tell whether a verb in English is transitive or intransitive. A rule of thumb is this. Ask yourself, "Can I 'x' something?" (where "x" is the verb you're investigating). If the answer is "yes" then the verb is transitive; if "no" then it's intransitive. "Can I see something?" Yes; therefore the verb "to see" is transitive. "Can I fall something?" No; therefore "to fall" is intransitive.
Donum est magnum. Dona sunt magna. nominative = nominative nominative = nominative neuter = neuter neuter = neuter singular = singular plural = pluralWhen "sum" links the subject with a noun in the predicate, however, we have a bit of a problem. Nouns have fixed gender, so the noun in the predicate can't agree with the subject noun in quite the same way an adjective can. A noun in the predicate has its own gender which it cannot change. But a noun in the predicate which is tied to the subject by "sum", will agree with the subject in case. Think of the verb "sum" as an equal sign, with the same case on both sides.
Mea vita est bellum (war). nominative = nominative feminine ~ neuter singular = singular
1. bellum, -i (n) "war" 2. bellus, -a, -um "beautiful"The first is an entry for a noun, the second an entry for an adjective. What are the differences? An entry for a noun starts with the nominative singular form, then it gives you the genitive singular. It actually starts to decline the noun for you so that you can tell the noun's declension and whether the noun has any stem changes you should be worried about. The final entry is the gender, since nouns have fixed gender which you must be given. For a noun, therefore, you must be given
You may also be concerned that, given the similar appearance of these two words, you may mix them up in your sentences. Certainly there will be some overlap of the two forms. For example, "bella" is a possible form of the noun "bellum" and the adjective "bellus, -a, -um". But there are also many forms which "bellus, -a, -um" can have which "bellum, -i (n)" can never have. For example, "bellarum" can't possibly come from a second declension neuter noun. Neither can "bellae", "bellas", "bellos", "bella", and some others. If you see "bell- something" in your text, first ask yourself whether the case ending is a possible form from the neuter noun for war. If not, then it's from the adjective for "pretty". In the instances where the forms do overlap, you'll have to let context and your good judgment tell you which it is.
12/31/92