01.04.26: Level 1 (review); presentation; adjectives [2]; types and agreement

28.02.24: introduction to adjectives

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/398762196068388/

07.03.24: more on 1st / 2nd declension adjectives

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/403090272302247/

[i] 1^st / 2^nd declension:

[a] almost all end in -us (masculine), -a (feminine), -um (neuter); the video and the list above presents them in full but normally they would be noted in vocabulary lists as, for example, albus, -a, -um (i.e. alb¦us, alb¦a, alb¦um)

[b] a small number of 1^st / 2^nd declension adjectives end in -er in the masculine: āter, niger, ruber. When endings are added the /e/ is lost: āter, ātra, ātrum, and the adjective has the same endings in all other forms. A few of these don’t lose /e/: līber, lībera, līberum (free); miser, misera, miserum (wretched)

[ii] 3^rd declension; there is only one in the list of colours: viridis (masculine / feminine), viride (neuter); 3^rd declension adjectives – like 3^rd declension nouns – are a lengthy topic, and I give the same advice as I did before: focus on 1^st / 2^nd declension adjectives first, become familiar with how they are formed before moving on (and up) to the 3^rd declension. Again, at this stage, simply be aware that this type of adjective exists.

[iii] Latin adjectives agree, not a term that may be familiar to English speakers (since English adjectives don’t agree), but is a standard feature of, for example, French and German and Russian i.e. the adjective takes an ending depending on the gender or the noun, whether it is singular or plural, and, for German and Russian, what case the noun is in.

Fr: un livre intéressant (an interesting book) / une conversation intéressante

Gmn: ein interessantes Buch (an interesting book)  / interessante Bücher (interesting books)

Russ: interesnaya kinga (an interesting book) / ya chitayu interesnuyu kingu (I’m reading an interesting book)

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) did have adjective agreement (not dissimilar to Modern German), but eventually – as with many other grammatical features – lost them. However, Latin never did!

As always, step-by-step: become familiar with simple descriptions of things

Quō colōre est? What colour is it?

[i] Quō colōre est equus? Equus est niger. │ What colour is the horse? The horse is black.

equus niger  │ a black horse

[ii] Quō colōre est toga? Toga candida est. │ What colour is the toga? The toga is shining white.

toga candida │ a shining white toga

Quō colōre est gemma? │ What colour is the gemstone?

Gemma est rubra et nigra. │ The gemstone is red and black.

gemma rubra nigraque est. │ The gemstone is red and black.

gemma rubra et nigra / rubra nigraque │ a red and black gemstone

In the example above, you can see that two ideas can be joined either by 'et' or with -que (and) attached to the second word.

[iii] Quō colōre est caelum? Caelum est caeruleum. │ What colour is the sky? The sky is blue.

caelum caeruleum │ a blue sky

[iv] As a rule of thumb, adjectives follow the noun; when learning Latin it is crucial to remember that the Roman authors can be very flexible with word order. However, at the early stages, it is best to become familiar with the format below:

equus magnus │ a large horse

puer parvus │ a small boy

puella pulchra │ a beautiful girl

via angusta │ a narrow road

templum antīquum │ an ancient temple

vīnum Rōmānum │ Roman wine

The image shows the Speyer wine bottle, containing the world's oldest known liquid wine, and dating from about AD325.