masculine, in -er, masculine, and -um, neuter, as Dominus, lord; Puer, boy; Magister, master; and signum, sign. NOTE 1.-The words Puer and Magister are abbreviated forms of Puerus and Magisterus. NOTE 2.-In the declension of Magister a letter is dropped, Magistri for Magisteri, and so on. Many names of Roman men belong to this declension, as Marcus, Clōdius, Pompeius; also some rivers, as Rhenus, the Rhine, and Rhodănus, the Rhone; and winds, as Eurus, Eastwind, and Notus, South-wind. Some towns are in the plural only, as Gabii, Tarquinii, Falerii, Delphi, Philippi. The following are Feminine Nouns of this declension : Names of some countries and islands in -us are feminine, as Ægyptus, Cyprus. humus, ground, is feminine, and only found in the singular. pělăgus, the open sea, and virus, poison, are neuter, and have no plural. Vulgus, common people, is masculine or neuter, and has no plural. Contracted Forms. The genitive singular of nouns in -ius and -ium is often contracted thus— Nom. Filius, son; The vocative singular of names as Fili, Mercuri, Pompei. Gen. Filii or Fili. Gen. ingenii or ingeni. in -ius is contracted into -i, The genitive plural is contracted in some words, as nummum for nummorum, especially in words denoting weights and measures. Liber, a name of Bacchus (only in the singular). and many Proper Names, as Alexander, Teucer, and Ister, the In the Singular only we find, aurum, gold, õleum, oil, sŏlum, soil. In the Plural only, arma, arms, exta, entrails. A few words in -us have their plurals in a; and a few in -um have plurals in i:— Iocus, jest, has in the Plural Ioci or ioca. The following have special meanings in the Plural :— ON THE CASES AS PARTS of the SIMPLE SENTENCE. NOMINATIVE. 32. With a Verb and a Noun we can form a complete sentence -the noun standing as the Subject in the nominative case, and the verb agreeing with the subject in Number and Person. The Latin equivalents of the nominative cases of the Personal Pronouns I, thou, we, ye, are Ego, Tu, Nos, Vos. Thus the following are complete sentences:— NOTE. The first and second persons of the tenses of many verbs standing by themselves form intelligible sentences, as Doceo and Discis, the pronouns being added only when emphasis is required. ACCUSATIVE. 33. Action implies (1.) an agent, (2.) a patient or effect. The word expressing the patient or effect of an action is called the Object of the verb expressing the action. In Latin, the object of a verb of action is usually put in the accusative case. Transitive verbs in Latin are those which are followed by an accusative of the object. Agricola arat terram. Puella aperit portam. Magister docet puerum, Somnus lenit curas. Next observe that the order of the words in each of the sentences just given may be changed without altering their meaning. This advantage we do not possess in English, because we have no termination for the Objective case of a noun by which we can distinguish it from the Nominative, and therefore we are generally bound to keep the order-Subject, Verb, Object. In some Pronouns we have a distinct form for the Objective case; as me, us, him, her. Hence we can write, Him God loved, instead of God loved him, if we wish to give emphasis to the word him, by putting it in an unusual position. The Latin equivalents of the Objective cases of our Pronouns me, thee, us, you, are Me, Te, Nos, Vos. B |