Beginner grammar Latin (1)
table of contents
page content
2 Basic Sentence Structure
Nouns
-nominative case
-accusative case
Verbs
-1st, 2nd, and 3rd conjugation
3 Verbs
-irregular esse
Adjectives
4 Pronouns
-personal
-demonstrative
5 Questions
-Yes or No Questions
-interrogative pronouns
, Beginner grammar Latin (1)
Basic Sentence Structure
-Latin word order is not especially important, but the most common order is the SVO order, which
is the same as in English
e.g.: The girl loves the dog.
Subject Verb Object
Nouns
Latin nouns have genders. The nouns in the first declension are feminine and end in ‘-a’ (e.g.:
domina). Second declension nouns are either masculine or neuter. If they are masculine, they end
in ‘-us’ (dominus), if they are neuter, they end in ‘-um’ (theatrum). They change forms according
to their role in the sentence.
The nominative case
-A noun stands in the nominative case when it is the actor in a sentence
e.g.: Tom buys a cat.
Tom is the actor in the sentence since he does something and would therefore be in the
nominative case in Latin
The accusative case
The accusative case is used when the noun is being acted on. In the example sentence above, the cat
would be the accusative object.
singular ! The blue marked endings are
1st 2nd attached to every noun in that
feminine masculine neuter declension. The nominative
nominative domina dominus theatrum singular form is the basic form
accusative dominam dominum theatrum and in order to create the other
plural forms, you need to take the basic
nominative dominae domini theatra endings away and attach the new
accusative dominas dominos theatra
ones instead.
-other than English, Latin does not have a definite article
Verbs
In Latin, every verb ends with -re in its infinitive form. When forming sentences, that ending is
replaced with another ending, depending on the last vowel of the word, the actor in the sentence, etc.
You can just see the ‘-re’ as the Latin equivalent of the English ‘to’ in front of verbs in their
infinitive form (to love, to see, …/amare, videre, …).
-There are four different conjugations (-a; -e; -ē and -i)
-ē is pronounced longer than e
-in order to get the stem of the verb you need to take the ‘-re’ away (so the stem
of ‘amare’ would just be ‘ama’)
-the specific endings are added to this stem
exeptions:
a-; ē-conjugation; 1. form singular: here, the last vowel of the stem is omitted and the ending is
attached to the remaining form
ē-conjugation; 2nd-5th form: ē is exchanged with i
-the most important conjugations are only -a; -e and -ē
table of contents
page content
2 Basic Sentence Structure
Nouns
-nominative case
-accusative case
Verbs
-1st, 2nd, and 3rd conjugation
3 Verbs
-irregular esse
Adjectives
4 Pronouns
-personal
-demonstrative
5 Questions
-Yes or No Questions
-interrogative pronouns
, Beginner grammar Latin (1)
Basic Sentence Structure
-Latin word order is not especially important, but the most common order is the SVO order, which
is the same as in English
e.g.: The girl loves the dog.
Subject Verb Object
Nouns
Latin nouns have genders. The nouns in the first declension are feminine and end in ‘-a’ (e.g.:
domina). Second declension nouns are either masculine or neuter. If they are masculine, they end
in ‘-us’ (dominus), if they are neuter, they end in ‘-um’ (theatrum). They change forms according
to their role in the sentence.
The nominative case
-A noun stands in the nominative case when it is the actor in a sentence
e.g.: Tom buys a cat.
Tom is the actor in the sentence since he does something and would therefore be in the
nominative case in Latin
The accusative case
The accusative case is used when the noun is being acted on. In the example sentence above, the cat
would be the accusative object.
singular ! The blue marked endings are
1st 2nd attached to every noun in that
feminine masculine neuter declension. The nominative
nominative domina dominus theatrum singular form is the basic form
accusative dominam dominum theatrum and in order to create the other
plural forms, you need to take the basic
nominative dominae domini theatra endings away and attach the new
accusative dominas dominos theatra
ones instead.
-other than English, Latin does not have a definite article
Verbs
In Latin, every verb ends with -re in its infinitive form. When forming sentences, that ending is
replaced with another ending, depending on the last vowel of the word, the actor in the sentence, etc.
You can just see the ‘-re’ as the Latin equivalent of the English ‘to’ in front of verbs in their
infinitive form (to love, to see, …/amare, videre, …).
-There are four different conjugations (-a; -e; -ē and -i)
-ē is pronounced longer than e
-in order to get the stem of the verb you need to take the ‘-re’ away (so the stem
of ‘amare’ would just be ‘ama’)
-the specific endings are added to this stem
exeptions:
a-; ē-conjugation; 1. form singular: here, the last vowel of the stem is omitted and the ending is
attached to the remaining form
ē-conjugation; 2nd-5th form: ē is exchanged with i
-the most important conjugations are only -a; -e and -ē
