13.05.27: Level 1; First Latin Lessons (18); 1st / 2nd declension adjectives [1]

[1] Review of earlier units

(1) An adjective can be [i] attributive or [ii] predicative

[i] attributive: a little girl; in English the attributive adjective usually comes immediately before the noun. In Latin the attributive adjective may come before or after the noun:

• parva puella | the / a little girl
• īnsula magna | the / a large island
• Britannia īnsula magna et pulchra est. | Britain is a large and beautiful island.

[ii] predicative: the cottage is beautiful; the adjective follows the verb ‘to be’:

• casa est pulchra | the cottage is beautiful
• casa est pulchra sed parva | the cottage is beautiful but small

Latin word order is flexible and so, very often, the verb is at the end of the sentence:

• casa nōn magna est | the cottage is not big

(2) adjectives agree; their endings will show:

[i] the gender, number (singular / plural) and case of the attributive adjective:

nominative

• parva puella epistulam habet | the little girl has a letter
• Patria tua nōn est America | your homeland is not America

accusative

• parvam puellam amō | I love the little girl
• patriam meam amō | I love my homeland

[ii] the gender and number after the verb ‘to be’; the case will be nominative

• Hibernia quoque est magna et pulchra | Ireland is also large and beautiful

[2] 1^st / 2^nd declension adjectives

There are two types of adjectives in Latin. You have seen the first type throughout all the units so far. At this stage, we will focus only on this type.

[i] 1^st / 2^nd  declension adjectives have the nominative singular endings -us, -a, -um and decline with the same endings as 1^st and 2^nd declension nouns.

The term ‘2-1-2’ is also used to describe them since:

the masculine adjective has the same endings as a 2^nd declension masculine noun: 2

the feminine adjective has the same endings as a 1^st declension feminine noun: 1

the neuter adjective has the same endings as a 2^nd declension neuter noun: 2

• Masculine: bonus; same ending as a 2^nd declension masculine noun [‘2’]
• Feminine: bona; same ending as a 1^st declension feminine noun [‘1’]
• Neuter: bonum; same ending as a 2^nd declension neuter noun [‘2’]

The adjectives are normally listed in vocabularies as: bonus, -a, -um

[ii] Only the masculine vocative singular is listed with a separate ending; in the plural and in all other adjective declensions the vocative singular is the same as the nominative singular, the vocative plural the same as the nominative plural.

[3] 1^st / 2^nd declension adjectives are not copying the endings of 1^st / 2^nd declension nouns. They just happen to have the same endings. There are other noun declensions in Latin, but the 1^st / 2^nd declension adjectives will retain their own endings, for example:

bonus vir: a good man

rēx [masculine] irātus: an angry king

urbs [feminine] magna: a large city

flūmen [neuter] altum: a deep river

[4] 1^st declension nouns are mainly feminine and, therefore, the adjective agrees in gender:

puella [feminine] pulchra: a beautiful girl

casa [feminine] parva: a small cottage

However, some are masculine and refer to occupations / activities traditionally associated with males, for example:

agricola, -ae [1/m]: farmer

nauta, -ae [1/m]: sailor

pīrāta, -ae [1/m]: pirate

poēta, -ae [1/m]: poet

When an adjective describes these nouns, the masculine form is used:

poēta [masculine] clārus: a famous poet

pīrāta [masculine] malus: an evil pirate

LINKS

https://adckl.blogspot.com/search/label/adjectives%3A%201st%20%2F%202nd%20declension