Lesson 41 · Review
Learn every noun with its genitive attached — in this lesson the genitive is the only form that shows you the base. One entry is a decoy: rīpa is given with -ae, not -is.
Rīpa, -ae is given with -ae, the signature of the first declension. Its genitive is rīpae and it declines like puella. Only a genitive in -is puts a noun in the third declension.
You have met consonant stems that add -s in the nominative and consonant stems that add nothing. The neuters belong to the second kind — and their silence in the nominative costs you something the masculines never did.
Like the masculines and feminines of Class II, the neuter consonant stems take no ending at all in the nominative singular. The base simply appears, sometimes with a slight change of vowel.
So the base capit- gives the nominative caput with nothing added.
Everything you already know applies here exactly as it did in the first and second declensions:
· The nominative and accusative of neuters are alike, in both numbers.
· In the plural both of them end in -a.
· The dative and ablative plural are always alike.
Hence caput is both "head" as subject and "head" as object; capita is both "heads" as subject and "heads" as object; and capitibus serves for both dative and ablative plural.
Four nominatives of four shapes — flūmen, tempus, opus, caput — and not one of them shows its own base.
| flūmen, n. river | tempus, n. time | opus, n. work | caput, n. head | Terminations Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base / stem | flūmin- | tempor- | oper- | capit- | |
| Nom. sg. | flūmen | tempus | opus | caput | — |
| Gen. | flūminis | temporis | operis | capitis | -is |
| Dat. | flūminī | temporī | operī | capitī | -ī |
| Acc. | flūmen | tempus | opus | caput | — |
| Abl. | flūmine | tempore | opere | capite | -e |
| Nom. pl. | flūmina | tempora | opera | capita | -a |
| Gen. | flūminum | temporum | operum | capitum | -um |
| Dat. | flūminibus | temporibus | operibus | capitibus | -ibus |
| Acc. | flūmina | tempora | opera | capita | -a |
| Abl. | flūminibus | temporibus | operibus | capitibus | -ibus |
Read the Nom. and Acc. rows across, singular and plural. They are the same line twice — that is the whole lesson in one glance.
If nothing is added, why does the nominative not simply show the base? Because in two kinds of stem the vowel shifts before the word can end.
A base ending in -in- shows -e- for its -i- in the nominative singular.
So the base flūmin- gives the nominative flūmen — but the genitive flūminis, the dative flūminī, and the plural flūmina all restore the i.
A neuter base ending in -er- or -or- generally shows -us in the nominative singular.
So oper- gives opus, and tempor- gives tempus. The base returns intact in operis, opera, temporis, tempora.
Four masculines in this lesson also have bases in -ōr- — labōr-, terrōr-, victōr-, ōrātōr- — and none of them becomes -us. Their bases close a word perfectly well, so the nominative is the base: labor, terror, victor, ōrātor.
Compare tempus, temporis (n.) with labor, labōris (m.): the same -or- base, two different nominatives, because one is neuter and the other is not.
Not one of flūmen, tempus, opus, caput reveals its own base, and -us in the nominative might belong to a third-declension neuter or to a second-declension masculine like servus. Only the genitive settles it. Always learn it with the nominative.
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
What is the base of flūmen, flūminis?
Right. Drop -is from the genitive flūminis and flūmin- remains. The nominative flūmen is exactly the form you must not build from: it has swapped the i for an e (Rule 3), so a base taken from it would be wrong in every other case.
Not quite — never take the base from the nominative. Go to the genitive and remove its ending.
Question 2
Why is the nominative flūmen and not flūmin?
Right. Rule 3. Nothing is added and nothing is lost — the i of flūmin- simply appears as e, and the n stays put. Contrast legiō from legiōn- in the last lesson, where the -n- genuinely did drop: these are two different changes, and the genitive tells you which one you are looking at.
Not quite — count the letters. Is the n of flūmin- still present in flūmen, and is anything added after it?
Question 3
What is the accusative plural of caput, capitis?
Right. Rule 2 — a neuter accusative is always like its nominative, and in the plural both end in -a: capit- + -a = capita. The -ēs of capitēs is the masculine and feminine ending (cōnsulēs, patrēs) and is never neuter; capitum is the genitive plural.
Not quite — -ēs belongs to the masculines and feminines. Which single letter ends every neuter nominative and accusative plural?
Question 4
You meet the word opera standing alone in a sentence. What can you say about its case?
Right. This is the point of the lesson. Because a neuter nominative and accusative are alike, the ending alone can no longer tell you whether the word acts or is acted upon; opera is "works" as subject and "works" as object indifferently. Word order, the verb, and the rest of the sentence must decide. The same ambiguity holds in the singular, where opus is both.
Not quite — look at the Nom. pl. and Acc. pl. rows of the paradigm. Are they different forms?
Question 5
Which word in this lesson's vocabulary is not a third-declension noun?
Right. Its genitive is rīpae, in -ae — the mark of the first declension — so it declines like puella. Calamitās, calamitātis is third declension of the class you met two lessons ago: it adds -s to the base calamitāt-, whose -t drops before the s.
Not quite — ignore the nominatives entirely and look only at the genitive each word is given with. One of the three does not end in -is.
Question 6
Tempus (base tempor-) and labor (base labōr-) both have bases ending in -or-. Why is one nominative tempus and the other labor?
Right. Rule 4 is a statement about neuter bases in -er- and -or-, so tempor- gives tempus and oper- gives opus. The masculines labor, terror, victor, and ōrātor keep their bases whole. Option c cannot be right for a further reason: these stems take no termination at all, so -us is a change in the base, not an ending added to it.
Not quite — both are third declension, and their genitives temporis and labōris prove it. Compare the two nouns' gender instead.
Answered correctly: 0 / 6