30.03.24: the third declension [2]

I won’t pull any punches; this takes a long time and, at times, involves “pure” learning of new vocabulary as you go along, but, as I’ll go on to show, there are some ways of making the learning easier.

[1] Third declension nouns have a variety of nominative singular endings. Here are some completely random examples but they are all common words:

• arbor: tree
• canis: dog
• caput: head
• cor: heart
• corpus: body
• lac: milk
• lēx: law
• mīles: soldier
• mōns : mountain
• nox: night

[2] The nouns in this declension can be any gender. If a 3rd declension noun refers to a male or a role traditionally associated with males, it will be masculine. Similarly, a female or a role traditionally performed by a female will be feminine:

masculine

• frāter: brother
• gladiātor: gladiator
• pater: father
• rēx: king

feminine

• māter: mother
• obstētrīx: midwife
• soror: sister
• uxor: wife

However, with inanimate nouns, a 3rd declension can be any gender:

• pēs [masculine]: foot
• frōns [feminine]: forehead
• ōs [neuter]: mouth

But knowing the gender is of far less importance than the next point.

Remember the MGM lion: ars grātia artis

[3] 1st and 2nd declension nouns do not change when endings are added, for example:

puell¦a

puell¦am

puell¦ae

etc

All you are doing is adding the endings to the stem of the noun:

hort¦us > hort¦um, hort¦ōs, hort¦īs etc. The stem itself doesn’t change.

However, the stem of many 3rd declension nouns will change. But this is not as random as it first appears. We’ll begin with one example:

rēx: king

> Reg¦em interficiunt: they kill the king.

So, there’s clearly a stem change: rēx > stem rēg-

[images #1 and #2]

First important point: once again, there’s a “domino” effect. If you know the stem change, you can add the endings. The tables are posted for reference but the key point that you get from the tables at this stage is that the stem change – if there is one – is the same throughout.

Look at prīnceps (chief) and tempus (time) in the table and see how they change.

Don’t be concerned about learning all the endings yet.

But how do you learn these stem changes in the first place? See the next post for the second important point.