29.04.24: review: adjectives [1]: 1st / 2nd declension [1]

Adjectives in Latin are in two groups:

[i] 1st / 2nd declension adjectives

[ii] 3rd declension adjectives (which were discussed very recently)

These two groups are so-called because they have the same endings as [i] 1st / 2nd declension nouns and [ii] 3rd declension nouns

We’ll focus on [i]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBA46LamsWY

Nouns

• puella, -ae [1/f(emnine)]: girl; first declension noun
• servus, -ī [2/m(asculine)]: slave; second declension noun
• oppidum, -ī [2/n(euter)]: town; second declension noun

[1] Now see these nouns operating with 1st / 2nd declension adjectives:

Masculine

• servus bonus: a good slave

Feminine

• puella Rōmāna: a Roman girl

Neuter

• oppidum parvum: a small town

1st / 2nd declension adjectives are usually listed as:

• bonus [masc.], -a [fem.], -um [neut.]

[2] Some adjectives of the same type have -er; see what happens:

• pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum: beautiful i.e. the /e/ in the masculine singular is dropped when any ending is added.
• piger, pigra, pigrum: lazy

Not all adjectives of this type lose the /e/ but most of the common ones do, and, when it happens, it’s indicated in the list.

miser, -a, -um (wretched), a common adjective found in the literature, is an example of where it does not lose the /e/

• miser, misera, miserum

[3] Adjectives are most often listed in tables in the order masculine, feminine, neuter [image #1]

[4] What must be absolutely stressed is that the nouns and adjectives happen to share the same endings which is why they are given the same grammatical name.

puer, -ī [2/m]: boy; second declension masculine noun that doesn’t end in -us, but if you use a 1st / 2nd declension adjective with it, the adjective still retains its own ending.

• puer parvus: a small boy

poeta, -ae [1/m]: first declension noun, but it’s masculine

• poēta Rōmānus: a Roman poet

[5] Adjectives most often follow the noun although word order is flexible and so they can also before it:

• puer [noun] parvus [adjective]

[6] Adjectives agree with nouns i.e. whatever the [i] gender, [ii] number and [iii] case of the noun is, the adjective will use its own ending to agree with it.

For French and Spanish speakers, for example, [i] and [ii] are still there:

• Fr: un petit [masculine singular] garçon: a small boy │ une petite [feminine singular] fille: a small girl
• Sp: mi hermano [masculine singular]; my brother │ mis hermanos [masculine plural]: my brothers

German and Russian speakers have all three: gender, number and case

• Gm: mein kleiner [(i) masculine; (ii) singular; (iii) nominative] Bruder: my little brother │ Ich habe einen kleinen [masculine; singular; accusative] Bruder
• Russ: Gde tvoya [feminine; singular; nominative] kniga? Where is your book? │ Dai mnye tvoyu knigu [feminine; singular; accusative]: give me your book

GENDER – NUMBER – CASE: these three concepts need to be firmly in the mind when dealing with, among others, adjectives and nouns. They are the building bricks of Latin. Without knowledge of the endings and the cases, then nouns, adjectives and other word types are like a random heap of words on a page reliant on guess-work.

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had all three, but the problem with the Britons, occupied by Germanic tribes, is that we eventually threw out all the adjective endings! But we did have them [image #2].

[7] All the Latin adjectives have case endings:

[image #3]: singular case endings of the 1st / 2nd declension adjectives

[image #4]: plural case endings of the 1st / 2nd declension adjectives

Those are the key points about 1st / 2nd declension adjectives. In the next couple of posts I’ll use some simple texts to show them in operation.