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Unit 5: 2 nd Declension Neuter Nouns. Notes 5.3. Learning Goals: By the end of the lesson students will be able to:. Recognize neuter nouns of the 2 nd declensions. Know the “neuter rule.” Decline neuter nouns of the 2 nd declensions.
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Unit 5: 2nd Declension Neuter Nouns Notes 5.3
Learning Goals: By the end of the lesson students will be able to: • Recognize neuter nouns of the 2nd declensions. • Know the “neuter rule.” • Decline neuter nouns of the 2nd declensions. • Be able to distinguish between nom. and acc. for a neuter noun.
Do you remember…? • A noun’s declension is discerned by its genitive singular: • -ae= 1st declension • -i = 2nd declension
Neuter nouns • So far this year we have talked about nouns that are either masculine or feminine in gender. • Neuter is the last of the 3 genders in Latin. • Neuter, -tra, -trum is a Latin word that means neither. • This means that they are neither masculine nor feminine. • Remember that grammatical gender is NOT the same as biological gender. The 2 don’t often mesh.
What’s special about neuter? • 2nd declension neuter nouns are recognized in a couple of ways: • The nom. singular ends in –(i)um • 2nd declension neuter nouns also have –iin the genitive singular, just like the masculine ones. • Other than the endings being slightly different, there is one other really important thing to know about neuter nouns. • It’s called the neuter rule.
The neuter rule The nominative and accusative endings are always the same! • The neuter rule applies to any neuter noun no matter what declension it is in.
2nd Declension Neuter: The Endings sg pl -um, -ium -a nom. gen. (-i) dat. acc. -um, -ium -a abl. -ō -is voc.
Let’s see it work: sg How it works step-by-step: pl Step 1: Label the cases signum signa nom. Step 2: Label the sg and pl Step 3: Write the nom. sg as it appears in the vocabulary listing. gen. (signi) (Step 4: Write the gen. sg in its expanded form. This step is important! The gen. sg is where we get the root.) dat. acc. signum signa Step 4: Take the root from the gen. sg and this is where you add all the other endings. abl. signō signis voc.
Have you spotted the potential problem? • The neuter plurals are the same in the nominative and the accusative as the 1st declension endings for nominative singular. • How can you tell the difference between puella (feminine singular) and templa(neuter plural)?
The solution is easy! • Just use the rest of the sentence to clear it up for you. • If it is feminine, it will be the singular subject. The verb needs to be 3rd person singular to agree with it. • Puellaamicamsalutat. • The girl greets (her) friend.
If the word is neuter plural you have two choices. 1) It could be the subject (nom. case). • If it’s the subject, the verb must be in 3rd plural to agree with it. 2) It could be the direct object (acc. case). • If it’s the direct object it must answer the question what or whom. • We must also use some common sense! Let’s see some examples. • Templa in silvissunt magna. • The temples in the woods are large. • Viritempla in silvissemperfaciunt. • Men often make temples in the woods. • Is it really logical to have temples making anything?!
The other ones that are tricky are the ones that have 2 neuter nouns and you have to figure out which one is the subject and which one is the object. Don’t underestimate the power of common sense! Templa in ianuissignahabent. Temples have signs in the doors. Would it make sense for the signs to have temples in the doors? It might very well be grammatically correct, but it makes no sense! Caution!! It can be tricky, though!
