The First Declension First declension nouns have stems ending in -a, and their genitive singular form ends in -ae. First declension nouns are almost all feminine; the exceptions being those nouns that are associated with tradtionally male occupations (i.e. nauta (sailor), agricola (farmer), poeta (poet), etc.). puella is often used as a model first declension noun Singular Case Noun General Translation/Use Ending NOM puel'la (a or the) girl -a Subject or Predicate Nominative GEN puel'lae of (a or the) girl -ae Several uses (possession, description, etc.) DAT puel'lae (to or for) (a or the) girl -ae Several uses, but is often the indirect object ACC puel'lam (a or the) girl -am Most commonly seen as direct object ABL puel'lā No General Translation -ā Many uses (I have written a separate paper on this) VOC puel'la girl! -a Direct address Plural Case Noun/Use General Translation/Use Ending NOM puel'lae girls, the girls -ae Subject or Predicate Nominative GEN puelā'rum of girls, of the girls -ārum Several uses (possession, description, etc.) DAT puel'līs (to or for) girls (the girls) -īs Several uses, but is often the indirect object ACC puel'lās girls, the girls -ās Most commonly seen as direct object ABL puel'līs No General Translation -īs Many uses (I have written a separate paper on this) VOC puel'lae girls! -ae Direct address The base of a first declension noun is identified by dropping the -ae ending from the genitive singular. Endings are then added to this base The Nominative Case Subject. The subject of a verb is always in the nominative case. Predicate Nominative. When a noun, in the nominative case, is used with an auxilary verb to define or say something about the subject it is called a predicate nominative. Gallia est prōvincia. -- Gaul is a province. Vocabulary agricola, -ae, m., farmer memoria, -ae, f., memory aqua, -ae, f., water nātūra, -ae, f., nature fēmina, -ae, f., woman poēta, -ae, m., poet fortūna, -ae, f., fortune, chance prōvincia, -ae, f. province Gallia, Gal'liae, f., Gaul puella, -ae, f., girl īnsula, -ae, f., island silva, -ae, f., forest Ītalia, Īta'liae, f., Italy vīta, -ae, f., life lingua, lin'guae, f., tongue, language est, is, there is littera, -ae, f., letter (of alphabet) sunt, are, there are in plural, letter (epistle), letters NOTE: Latin has no articles (a, an, and the, are not represented); therefore, puella may be translated as "girl" or "the girl," depending on the context in which it is used. Exercises 1. Decline each of the nouns in the vocabulary list (declension is demonstrated previously on this page) 2. Pronounce each of the following nouns. Give case, number, and gender, then translate into English. fēminīs (dative only) puellae (multiple translations) memoriam silvās īnsulam Poētae sunt agricolae. Ītalia Gallia est prōvincia. linguārum Sunt litterae. 3. Translate into Latin. Give case, number, and gender. nature (accusative only) of the women for the girls of fortune of life letter (multiple translations) for the poets There is water The province is Gaul. The farmers are poets. Conjugation of Sum (Active Voice, Indicative Mood, Present Tense) sum, esse, fuī, - (futūrus) Singlular Plural ------------------------- ------------------------- 1st sum (I am) sumus (we are) 2nd es (you are) estis (you all are) 3rd est (he/she/it/there is) sunt (They/there are)