ADJECTIVES

Some terminology you need to know to learn adjectives:

- Case – what the noun is doing in a sentence (Go to the section on cases for more detail)

- Number – singular or plural

- Gender – every noun is either masculine, feminine or neuter.

All adjectives agree with the noun it describes in case, number and gender!

There are 2 main types of adjectives:

1st and 2nd Declension Adjectives:

Adjectives that have endings like this will have the masculine, feminine and neuter endings in the vocab list (e.g. bonus, bona, bonum)

Find the stem by removing -a from the feminine singular form.

If you look carefully:

- The masculine endings are the same as 2nd declension nouns ending in -us (e.g. servus)

- The feminine endings are the same as 1st declension nouns (e.g. puella)

- The neuter endings are the same as 2nd declension nouns ending in -um (e.g. bellum)

Some 1st and 2nd Declension adjectives do not have the masculine nominative singular ending -us.

- miser, misera, miserum (sad)

- pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum (beautiful)

- sacer, sacra, sacrum (sacred)

Although the masculine nominative singular of these adjectives is different, the rest of their endings remain the same as above.

Third Declension Adjectives:

The third declension is split into two groups

- Adjectives ending in -is/-e (e.g. fortis, forte)

- Other adjectives accompanied by their genitive singular ending in -is (e.g. audax, audacis)

3rd Declension adjectives ending -is,-e

The stem is found by removing the -is or -e from the word.

3rd Declension adjectives ending in anything else:

The stem is found by removing -is from the genitive singular.

The endings are very similar to that of 3rd declension nouns. Important to remember is:

- The ablative ends in -i not -e.

- The genitive plural ends in -ium instead of -um.

- The nominative and accusative neuter end in -ia instead of -a.

- The accusative masculine/feminine plural can end in -is instead of -es.

The difference between each form of the 3rd declension adjectives is the irregular nominative singular and nominative/accusative neuter singular forms. These are learnt from the vocab list.

Their irregular form leads to a stem change before the endings.

Sometimes, words in the 3rd declensions do not have the same ending for the masculine and feminine nominative – their endings are the same as the -is, -e type, except for the masculine nominative/vocative singular, which ends differently (often -r)

- E.g. celer, celeris, celere (quick) – THIS IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO RECOGNISE!

For more on adjectives, visit the comparative and superlative sections of grammar!

Pronominal Adjectives

A pronominal adjective is a pronoun which is used to modify nouns. If they stood alone, they would be pronouns in the place of the noun that they represent.

You must know 5 of them:

- alius, alia aliud = the other, another, one (of two)

- alter, altera, alterum = other, another, else

o Declines like miser, misera, miserum

o Genitive singular = alterius; dative singular = alteri

- nullus, nulla, nullum = not any, no

o Declines like bonus, bona, bonum

o Genitive singular = nullius; dative singular = nulli

- solus, sola, solum = alone, only

o Declines like bonus, bona, bonum

o Genitive singular = solius; dative singular = soli

- totus, tota, totum = whole