Lesson 45 · Review
Nine of these fifteen words are adjectives of the third declension — the six in -is that look alike, and the three odd nominatives you must learn one at a time.
An adjective is listed by its nominatives, and the number of forms printed tells you its class before you read another word. Three forms — ācer, ācris, ācre — means three endings. Two forms — brevis, breve; fortis, forte; omnis, omne — means two. One form followed by a genitive — pār, gen. paris; vēlōx, gen. vēlōcis — means one ending, and the genitive is printed because you cannot get the base from the nominative alone (par-, vēlōc-).
paucī, -ae, -a and secundus, -a, -um are not of this lesson's kind at all: they are adjectives of the first and second declensions. paucī is naturally plural — few of anything is more than one. secundus means second and also favorable, the opposite of adversus: a following wind is a favorable wind.
The words in parentheses are English derivatives, and they are the cheapest way to fix the six adjectives in -is: brevity, difficult, facile, fortitude, grave, omnibus.
Four rules, and the fourth is a one-glance sorting test you can apply to any adjective you meet.
A Latin adjective is either of the first and second declensions, like bonus, aeger, līber — or else it is of the third declension. There is no other home.
Nearly all adjectives of the third declension have i-stems, and they are declined almost exactly like the i-stem nouns of the last lessons. You already own these endings; they are simply being worn by adjectives now.
Every adjective you have met so far had a different nominative for each gender — bonus, bona, bonum — and is therefore an adjective of three endings. Third-declension adjectives fall into three classes:
I. Three endings — a different nominative for each gender.
II. Two endings — masculine and feminine alike, the neuter different.
III. One ending — masculine, feminine, and neuter all alike.
The nominative alone tells you the class. In -er → three endings. In -is → two endings. Anything else → one ending.
ācer → three · brevis, difficilis, facilis, fortis, gravis, omnis → two · pār, vēlōx → one
One model for each class. Read down the columns and you will find only two places where the genders part company.
Class I · three endings · ācer, ācris, ācre, keen, eager · stem ācri- · base ācr-
| Masc. sg. | Fem. sg. | Neut. sg. | Masc. & fem. pl. | Neut. pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | ācer | ācris | ācre | ācrēs | ācria |
| Gen. | ācris | ācris | ācris | ācrium | ācrium |
| Dat. | ācrī | ācrī | ācrī | ācribus | ācribus |
| Acc. | ācrem | ācrem | ācre | ācrīs, -ēs | ācria |
| Abl. | ācrī | ācrī | ācrī | ācribus | ācribus |
The stem is ācri- and the base ācr-, yet the masculine nominative singular is ācer, not ācr. An e is slipped in to make the base speakable — the same courtesy Latin paid to ager and pater. It appears in that one form and nowhere else: everything below the top-left cell is built on ācr-.
Class II · two endings · omnis, omne, every, all · stem omni- · base omn-
| Masc. & fem. sg. | Neut. sg. | Masc. & fem. pl. | Neut. pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | omnis | omne | omnēs | omnia |
| Gen. | omnis | omnis | omnium | omnium |
| Dat. | omnī | omnī | omnibus | omnibus |
| Acc. | omnem | omne | omnīs, -ēs | omnia |
| Abl. | omnī | omnī | omnibus | omnibus |
This is the largest class — the six adjectives in -is from the vocabulary all decline exactly so. Translate omnis every in the singular and all in the plural: omnis vir, every man; omnēs virī, all the men.
Class III · one ending · pār, equal · stem pari- · base par-
| Masc. & fem. sg. | Neut. sg. | Masc. & fem. pl. | Neut. pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | pār | pār | parēs | paria |
| Gen. | paris | paris | parium | parium |
| Dat. | parī | parī | paribus | paribus |
| Acc. | parem | pār | parīs, -ēs | paria |
| Abl. | parī | parī | paribus | paribus |
One nominative serves all three genders — but the genders part company in exactly two places: the accusative singular (parem for masculine and feminine, pār for neuter) and the nominative and accusative plural (parēs, parīs against paria). Everywhere else the forms are identical.
vēlōx declines the same way, on the base vēlōc-: vēlōcis, vēlōcī, vēlōcem, vēlōcī; vēlōcēs, vēlōcium, vēlōcibus, vēlōcīs or -ēs, vēlōcibus. The neuter plural is vēlōcia.
Four small observations that turn the three tables above into one habit of the eye.
All three paradigms show the same four marks: ablative singular in -ī, genitive plural in -ium, neuter plural in -ia, and accusative plural in -īs or -ēs.
The first of these is worth a second look. The i-stem nouns often softened the ablative singular to -e (mare beside marī); the adjectives never do. An ablative singular in -ī is the adjective's signature.
An adjective must match its noun in gender, number, and case. It need not, and often cannot, match its declension: the noun keeps its own endings, and the adjective keeps its own.
vir ācer · legiō ācris · animal ācre · ager omnis · scūtum omne · proelium pār
vir is a second-declension masculine noun, yet its adjective is the third-declension form ācer. legiō is feminine, so ācris; animal is neuter, so ācre. Two different declensions standing side by side in agreement is the normal case, not an exception.
The genitive singular ācris and the accusative plural ācrīs differ by a single mark of quantity. In writing, the macron decides the case; in speech the length of the vowel does. Read the mark — it is the whole difference between of the keen soldier and the keen soldiers as an object.
Not quite every adjective of one ending follows the i-stem pattern. A few have consonant stems, and those are declined exactly like the consonant-stem nouns you learned earlier — ablative singular in -e, genitive plural in -um. Rule 2 says nearly all for this reason.
Six out of six before you start the exercises.
Question 1
Three adjectives from this lesson: ācer, fortis, vēlōx. Using rule 4, how many endings has each?
Right. Rule 4 sorts by the nominative: in -er → three endings, in -is → two, anything else → one. So ācer, ācris, ācre is class I; fortis, forte is class II, along with brevis, difficilis, facilis, gravis, omnis; and vēlōx is class III, with pār. The vocabulary entry prints the answer too — count the nominatives it lists.
Not quite — look only at the last letters of each nominative, and recall which ending rule 4 assigns to which class.
Question 2
What is the ablative singular of omnis, and why does it never soften to -e?
Right. The ablative singular in -ī is the first of the four i-stem badges, and it is the one place where the adjectives are stricter than the nouns: mare could appear beside marī, but omnis, ācer and pār give omnī, ācrī, parī and nothing else. Note also that the neuter -e of option b is a genuine form — omne — but it is the nominative and accusative, not the ablative.
Not quite — check the ablative row of all three paradigms. They agree, and the lesson makes a point of the fact that the nouns did not.
Question 3
Why is it legiō ācris and not legiō ācra, when legiō is feminine?
Right. The adjective supplies its own feminine form from its own declension; the noun has no say in which endings the adjective uses. That is why vir ācer works just as well — a second-declension noun beside a third-declension adjective, agreeing in gender, number, and case while declining differently. Option a inverts the principle: if an adjective had to copy its noun's declension, vir ācer would be impossible, since vir is of the second declension and ācer has no second-declension forms at all. Option c misreads the class — ācer has three endings (ācer, ācris, ācre), not two.
Not quite — ask what exactly an adjective must match. Then check whether vir ācer would still be possible under your answer.
Question 4
Which line gives the three i-stem forms of omnis correctly?
Right. Ablative singular -ī, genitive plural -ium, neuter plural -ia: the badges every i-stem adjective wears. Option a softens the ablative and drops the i from the genitive plural — both consonant-stem habits. Option b puts the masculine and feminine plural omnēs where the neuter omnia belongs; neuters end in -a in the nominative and accusative plural without exception.
Not quite — three badges, three checks: does the ablative singular end in a long ī, the genitive plural in -ium, and the neuter plural in -ia?
Question 5
You meet ācrīs in a sentence. How does it differ from ācris?
Right. This is the lesson's one trap for the eye: ācris with a short i is the genitive singular (and, in class I, the feminine nominative singular as well), while ācrīs with a long ī is the accusative plural, the i-stem alternative to ācrēs. The macron carries the whole distinction — in speech, the length of the vowel does. The ablative plural is ācribus and nothing else.
Not quite — the two forms are distinguished by one mark of quantity. Find each of them in the ācer table and name the case where it sits.
Question 6
pār is an adjective of one ending: the nominative is alike for all three genders. Where do the genders still differ?
Right. "One ending" is a statement about the nominative singular only. The neuter law does the rest: a neuter's nominative and accusative are always alike, so the accusative singular splits into parem (masc. and fem.) and pār (neut.), and the plural splits into parēs, parīs against paria. The genitive, dative and ablative are the same for all genders throughout, so option c is not a real distinction — and parum is not a form of this word at all.
Not quite — run your finger down the pār table and stop at every row where the neuter column disagrees with the one beside it. There are exactly two such places.
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