Lesson 10 · Review
Read through the vocabulary and the rules, then test yourself below. Answer in your head before you click.
Six words to carry the lesson: four second-declension masculines in -us (amīcus, populus, Rhēnus, vīcus) and two first-declension feminines in -a (Germānia, and patria brought back from earlier). Rhēnus and Germānia are proper names from the Roman frontier. Say each aloud; the derivatives in parentheses help fix the meaning.
How an adjective takes its noun's gender, number, and case — masculine adjectives declined like dominus, neuters like pīlum — and how a second noun set beside the first to explain it must share its case. The model pairs: dominus bonus, "the good master," and pīlum bonum, "the good spear."
An adjective like bonus is really three forms in one: masculine bonus, feminine bona, neuter bonum. The masculine declines like the noun dominus, the neuter like pīlum, and the feminine like domina (first declension). Choose whichever gender your noun calls for.
amīcus bonus (m.), patria bona (f.), pīlum bonum (n.) — one adjective, three genders.
To agree, an adjective must share three grammatical properties with its noun — gender, number, and case. The two words often rhyme (amīcus bonus), but they need not: what matches is the grammar, not the sound of the ending.
vīcus magnus (m. sg.), populī magnī (m. pl.), frūmentum magnum (n. sg.) — magnus bends to fit each noun.
Set noun and adjective side by side and run them through the cases as one phrase. Masculine dominus bonus follows the -us pattern; neuter pīlum bonum follows -um, with the nominative and accusative always alike.
Sg. dominus bonus · dominī bonī · dominō bonō · dominum bonum · dominō bonō (voc. domine bone). Neuter: nom.=acc. sg. pīlum bonum, nom.=acc. pl. pīla bona.
When a second noun is set beside the first as just another name for it — telling who or what it is — the two are said to be in apposition. The appositive does what an adjective cannot: it names a class or identity (the maidservant, my fatherland).
Lesbia ancilla est bona, "Lesbia, the maidservant, is good"; Germānia, patria mea, "Germany, my fatherland."
RULE. An appositive agrees in case with the noun it explains: the two stand always in the same case, whatever that case happens to be. It is the case, specifically, that the rule fixes — change the explained noun's case and the appositive must follow.
Servus Lesbiam ancillam amat (both accusative); in Germāniā, patriā meā (both ablative).
Pick an answer; wrong picks turn red and you may try again. Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
amīcus ("friend") is masculine. Which form of bonus agrees with it in the nominative singular?
Right. A masculine noun takes the masculine adjective, declined like dominus: amīcus bonus (Rule 1). bonum is neuter and bona feminine.
Not quite — match the adjective to the noun's gender. amīcus is masculine, like dominus.
Question 2
frūmentum ("grain") is neuter. Which form of bonus agrees with it in the nominative singular?
Right. A neuter noun takes the neuter adjective, declined like pīlum: frūmentum bonum (Rule 1). The -us form is masculine, -a feminine.
Not quite — a neuter noun in -um needs the adjective form that ends the same way. Think pīlum bonum.
Question 3
For an adjective to "agree" with its noun, what must it share?
Right. Agreement is grammatical, not a matter of rhyme: the adjective copies its noun's gender, number, and case (Rule 2). The endings often look alike, but that is a side effect, not the requirement.
Not quite — endings can rhyme by coincidence. What three grammatical things does Rule 2 demand?
Question 4
pīlum is neuter, so its nominative plural is pīla. Which form of longus agrees with it there?
Right. A neuter plural ends in -a for the adjective too, since they decline together: pīla longa (Rules 2–3). longī and longōs are masculine plural forms.
Not quite — the adjective must match pīla, a neuter plural. What ending do neuter plurals take?
Question 5
In Rhēnus est in Germāniā, patriā meā ("the Rhine is in Germany, my fatherland"), Germāniā is ablative. Why is patriā also ablative?
Right. patria is another name for Germānia and explains it, so the two are in apposition and stand in the same case (Rule 5). Here that case is the ablative governed by in. The subject is Rhēnus, not patriā.
Not quite — patriā renames Germāniā. What does an appositive copy from the noun it explains?
Question 6
Two nouns are in apposition when the second renames the first. In what must they always agree?
Right. The rule of apposition fixes the case: an appositive stands always in the same case as the noun it explains (Rule 5). Gender and number may differ — only the case must match.
Not quite — recall the exact wording of Rule 5. An appositive agrees with its noun in one thing above all.
Answered correctly: 0 / 6