First Declension I

18

The Nominative Singular, ends in -ă, except certain Greek nouns.  See § 267.

GENDER.—Feminine, except a few Nouns denoting male persons, as pŏêtă poet.

Ex. hastă spear, base hast-.

	singular	plural
Nom.	hastă	hastae
Voc.	hastă	hastae
Acc.	hastam	hastâs
Gen.	hastae	hastârum
Dat.	hastae	hastîs
Abl.	hastâ	hastîs

The Locative Singular, when used, ends in -ae, as Rômae, at Rome.

Dĕă goddess has Dative and Ablative Plural dĕâbŭs.  See also § 266.

First Declension II

19

The following is a Noun of the First Declension declined throughout, with the ordinary translations of the cases added.  Nouns of other Declensions may be declined after the same model.

	singular	plural
Nom.	mênsă, A table	mênsae, tables
Voc.	mênsă, table!	mênsae, tables!
Acc.	mênsam, a table	mênsâs, tables
Gen.	mênsae, of a table	mênsârum, of tables
Dat.	mênsae, to or for a table	mênsîs, to or for tables
Abl.	mênsâ, with or from a table	mênsîs, with or from tables

The student should observe that the translation of the Nominative is distinguished from the translation of the Accusative by a capital letter:  A table. Tables.  The reason of this is that the Nominative is the case of the Subject, which usually begins the sentence in English.

First Declension III

266

Genitive Singular.—An old form in -âî is sometimes found in poetry; as ăquă water, Genitive ăquai.  fămĭlîă household has an old Genitive fămĭli-âs, used only in composition with păter, mâter, fîlius.  See § 279.

Genitive Plural.—A form in -um instead of ârum is sometimes used in poetry from words of Greek origin, especially Patronymics, as Aenĕădae descendants of Aeneas, Genitive Aenĕădum, and words ending in -gĕnă, -cŏlă, as caelĭcŏlă, dweller in heaven, Genitive Plural, caelicolum.  drâchmum of drachmæ, amphŏrum of amphoræ occur in prose.

Dative and Ablative Plural in -ăbŭs.—Three words only in classical authors use this form:  dĕă goddess, fîliă daughter, lîbertă freed-woman.

First Declension IV

267

GREEK NOUNS.—Proper names ending in -ê (Feminine) and -âs (Masculine), and many in -ês (Masculine), especially Patronymics in -dês, belong to this declension.    They often retain the Greek inflexions, thus:

Nom.	Circê	Aenêâs	Alcîdês
Voc.	Circê	Aenêâ	Alcîdê*
Acc.	Circên	Aenêân or -âm	Alcîdên
Gen.	Circês or -ae	Aenêae	Alcîdae
Dat.	Circae	Aenêae	Alcîdae
Abl.	Circê (rarely -â)	Aenêâs	Alcîdê (rarely -â)

So a few common nouns, as sŏphistês sophist.  Many Greek names in -ê have two forms, one Greek and one Latin:  as Ătălantê,  -ês, or Ătălantă, -ae.

*  Other names in -ês often have the Vocative in -â or -ă.