(2) PRONOUNS stand instead of Nouns; as ego, I; tu, thou; ille, he. (3) ADJECTIVES express the qualities of persons and things; as, unus dives et alter pauper, the one rich and the other poor. (4) VERBS tell what persons and things do, suffer, or are; as, scribae dicunt, the scribes say; agnus occisus est, a lamb was slain; lex est bona, the law is good. (5) ADVERBS show how, when, or where a thing is done; as, Venio cito, I come quickly. (6) PREPOSITIONS govern the cases of nouns and pronouns, and show their relation to each other; as, Vado ad Patrem, I go to the Father. (7) CONJUNCTIONS join together words and sentences; as, oves et boves, sheep and oxen. (8) INTERJECTIONS are words of exclamation; as, Ecce Homo! Behold the man! § 6. Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Verbs are inflected, i.e., their endings are changed in order to show their relation to other words, where we in English use prepositions, by, with, from, in, to, for, &c. The inflection of Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives is called DECLENSION; that of Verbs, CONJUGATION. NOUNS. § 7. Nouns are declined by Number and Case. There are two numbers, Singular and Plural. The SINGULAR Speaks of one, and the PLURAL of more than one; as discipulus (sing.), a disciple; discipuli (plur.), disciples. § 8. There are six CASES, Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Ablative. (1) The NOMINATIVE CASE usually goes before the verb, and answers the question Who? or What? As, Who sleeps? ANS., Puella dormit, the maid sleepeth. (2) The GENITIVE CASE is translated by, of, or 's, and answers the question whose? As, Whose son? ANS., fabri filius, the carpenter's son. (3) The DATIVE CASE answers the question to or for whom or what? As, To whom was it given? ANS., Dutum est puellae, it was given to the damsel. (4) The ACCUSATIVE CASE generally follows the verb, and answers the question whom or what? As, Whom does the Father love? ANS., Pater amat Filium, the Father loveth the Son. (5) The VOCATIVE CASE is translated by O; as Mi fili, O my son. (6) The ABLATIVE CASE is translated by the prepositions by, with, from, in, and others; as, In domo Patris mei, in my Father's house. § 9. All Latin Nouns are arranged in five classes, called DECLENSIONS, distinguished by the endings of the Genitive Case Singular : (1) ae, (2) i, (3) Ys, (4) ūs, (5) ĕī. § 10. There are Three GENDERS, Masculine, Feminine, Neuter. OBS.-When a noun may be either Masculine or Feminine, it is said to be of the Common Gender; as parens, parent. FIRST DECLENSION. § 11. The Nominative Singular of Nouns of the First Declension ends in a, and the Genitive in ae. The OBS.-Every noun is made up of two parts; (1) the STEM, that part of the word which remains unchanged; and (2) the CASE-ENDING. stem of a noun may always be found by throwing away the case-ending of the gen. sing. Stem, mens. Case-endings a, ae, am, arum, is, as. Nouns of the First Declension are Feminine, except the names of males, as Poeta, a poet; Propheta, a prophet. Decline also; Turba, a multitude; puella, a girl; causa, a cause; scriba, a scribe; poeta, a poet; porta, a gate; propheta, a prophet; flamma, a flame; stella, a star; epistola, a letter. |