Lesson 11 · Review
Seven words from the world of war. Five nouns name its gear and gains — arma, the defensive weapons (plural only); tēlum, the spear hurled in attack; galea, the helmet; praeda, the booty carried off; and fāma, the reputation it wins. Then the lesson's first two true adjectives, dūrus and Rōmānus — each able to bend into all three genders. Say each aloud; the derivatives in parentheses help fix the meaning.
How an adjective like bonus carries all three genders at once — masculine and neuter on the second declension, feminine on the first — and the lesson's central surprise: an adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number, and case, but need not share its ending. The model pair: nauta bonus, "the good sailor," where a first-declension noun and a second-declension adjective agree without rhyming.
An adjective of this class is three forms in one: masculine bonus, feminine bona, neuter bonum. The masculine and neuter halves decline like second-declension nouns (dominus, pīlum); the feminine half declines like a first-declension noun (domina). Reach for whichever gender your noun calls for.
galea dūra (f.), tēlum dūrum (n.), Rōmānus dūrus (m.) — one adjective, three genders.
To agree, an adjective copies its noun's gender, number, and case — but not necessarily its ending. When the noun and adjective belong to different declensions, the endings will often not rhyme, and that is correct. nauta, "sailor," is masculine yet first-declension; the masculine of bonus is second-declension, so "a good sailor" is nauta bonus, never nauta bona.
nauta bonus (the good sailor), agricola malus (the wicked farmer) — masculine -a nouns taking masculine -us adjectives.
Run noun and adjective through the cases together and each keeps its own pattern: nauta holds its first-declension endings while bonus holds its second-declension masculine endings, even as the two agree at every step.
Sg. nauta bonus · nautae bonī · nautae bonō · nautam bonum · nautā bonō. Pl. nautae bonī · nautārum bonōrum · nautīs bonīs · nautās bonōs · nautīs bonīs.
When est opens a declarative sentence, translate it "there is" rather than "he/she/it is." It announces that something exists or is present, and its subject follows.
Est in vīcō nauta bonus — "There is a good sailor in the village."
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
galea ("helmet") is feminine. Which form of dūrus agrees with it in the nominative singular?
Right. A feminine noun takes the feminine adjective, declined like domina: galea dūra (Rule 1). dūrus is masculine and dūrum neuter.
Not quite — match the adjective to the noun's gender. galea is feminine, declined like domina.
Question 2
tēlum ("spear") is neuter. Which form of dūrus agrees with it in the nominative singular?
Right. A neuter noun takes the neuter adjective, declined like pīlum: tēlum dūrum (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
nauta ("sailor") is masculine but belongs to the first declension. Which form of bonus makes "a good sailor"?
Right. The adjective matches the noun's gender, not its spelling: nauta is masculine, so it takes masculine bonus — nauta bonus (Rule 2). The -a ending of nauta does not make it feminine.
Not quite — nauta looks like a feminine -a noun but is grammatically masculine. Which gender of bonus agrees?
Question 4
Why is "a good sailor" nauta bonus and not nauta bona, even though both words seem to want an -a?
Right. Agreement is grammatical, not a matter of rhyme. nauta is masculine though first-declension, so it takes the masculine (second-declension) bonus — the endings simply differ (Rule 2).
Not quite — the endings need not match. What property of nauta decides which form of bonus to use?
Question 5
"Of the good sailor" (genitive singular) is —
Right. Decline the pair together: nauta takes first-declension nautae, bonus takes second-declension masculine bonī — nautae bonī (Rule 3). bonae would be feminine, and nautārum bonōrum is plural.
Not quite — each word keeps its own declension. Genitive singular of nauta is nautae; what is the masculine genitive of bonus?
Question 6
A sentence opens Est in vīcō nauta bonus. How should Est be translated here?
Right. When est begins a declarative sentence it means "there is" (Rule 4): "There is a good sailor in the village." Its subject, nauta bonus, follows.
Not quite — recall Rule 4. An est that opens the sentence is not the ordinary "he/she/it is."
Answered correctly: 0 / 6