Lesson 11 · Review
Read through the vocabulary and the rules, then test yourself below. Answer in your head before you click.
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."
Pick an answer; wrong picks turn red and you may try again. 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