Latin is a language that uses
inflexion, that is, a language whose word endings tell the
function of a word in a sentence. The different ending sets of nouns are called
declensions and there are five common declensions in Latin. The declension discussed here will be the
First Declension.
Nouns in Latin have three different attributes: their gender, their number, and their case. While using the First Declension, you will only use case and number. In order to change a noun in the First Declension, you must find its stem, or root. Do this by removing the ae from the Dative form of the noun. Now, you are ready to add endings. Use this table:
___________________________________________
| =FIRST DECLENSION= |
| |
|CASE SINGULAR | PLURAL |
|------------------------------|------------|
|Nominative: a | ae |
|Genitive: ae | ārum |
|Dative: ae | īs |
|Accusative: am | ās |
|Ablative: ā | īs |
|___________________________________________|
(Characters with a macron over them are held
longer, like a musical note. If you cannot
see any macrons, then your character set
capabilities are lacking.)
An example would be:
Aqua, feminine: water
To use the First Declension on aqua you would do something like this:
___________________________________________
| FIRST DECLENSION: aqua |
| |
|CASE SINGULAR | PLURAL |
|------------------------------|------------|
|Nominative: aqua | aquae |
|Genitive: aquae | aquārum |
|Dative: aquae | aquīs |
|Accusative: aquam | aquās |
|Ablative: aquā | aquīs |
|___________________________________________|
Tada! There's your First Declension. Enjoy.