Latin noun declension features seven cases:

• nominative (subject; also used with copulative verbs)
• genitive (possessive – of which)
• dative (indirect object – to or for which)
• accusative (direct object)
• ablative (expresses the means or tools by which one accomplishes something)
• vocative (used for addressing another person in direct speech; mostly identical to nominative)
• locative (marginal; used to show location in cities, towns, and small islands, and the nouns rus, domus, and humus; forms for the locative are the same as the genitive in the 1st and 2nd declension singular and the same as the ablative in the 3rd declension singular; towns with plural form (Athens) take their locative from the ablative plural in all declensions.)

Note: Syncretism, where one form in a paradigm shares the ending of another form in the paradigm, is common. The following are the most notable patterns of syncretism:

• The accusative is *always* identical to the nominative in the neuter (both singular and plural, across all declensions). In addition, the accusative is the same as the nominative in the plural of the third, fourth and fifth declensions (but note the alternative -īs accusative plural ending for i-stem nominals, different from nominative -ēs).
• The vocative is always identical to the nominative in the plural, and also in the singular except the second declension and a few Greek nouns of the third declsion.
• The dative is always the same as the ablative in the plural, and in the singular in the second declension, the third-declension full i-stems i.e. neuter i-stems, adjectives), and fourth-declension neuters.
• The genitive singular is the same as the nominative plural in first- and second-declension nouns.
• The dative singular is the same as the genitive singular in first- and

fifth-declension nouns.

• Plural neuter nominative/accusative always ends in -a (with a few exceptions: demonstrative hic and related istic and illic, relative/interrogative quī and friends; in all of them, the neuter plural takes the same form as feminine singular nominative).
• The accusative singular ends in short vowel plus -m, except for a few neuters with unusual base forms.
• The accusative plural ends in a long vowel plus -s; so does the nominative plural of the third, fourth and fifth declensions.

Noun declensions

There are five declensions of nouns in Latin.

1^st. a declension

    Nouns of this class usually end in -a and are usually of feminine grammatical gender.

        Example, words ending in -a (paradigma puella – girl)

2^nd. o declension

    Nouns of this class end in -us, um, or -r and are usually of masculine or neuter grammatical gender.

        Example I, words ending in -us (paradigma hortus – garden)

        Example II, words ending in -um(paradigma verbum – word)

        Example III, words ending in -r (paradigma ager – field)

Note that the e in the nominative singular form is just an insertion to ease pronunciation and is omitted in all other forms. There are however some words, where the e belongs to the stem proper and can't be omitted. These are: gener (son-in-law), socer (father-in-law), puer (boy), vesper (evening) and līberī (children - only occurs in plural forms).

3^rd. mixed declension

    Nouns of this class are can be masculine, feminine of neuter in grammatical gender. This class comprises nouns whose stem ends in a consonant.

        Example I, words with no particular ending for nominative singular (paradigma masculine rex – king)

        Example II, words with no particular ending for nominative singular (paradigma neuter nomen – name)

        Example III, i-stem nouns (paradigma masculine hostis – enemy)

4^th. u declension

    Nouns of this class end in -us or -u. The former ones usually are of masculine gender,the latter ones are always neuter.

        Example I, nouns ending in -us(paradigma lacus -lake)

        Example II, neuter nouns ending in -u (paradigma cornu – horn)

5^th. e declension

    Nouns of this class end in -es. Nearly all of them are of feminine grammatical gender, with the notable exception of dies, which is masculine.

        Example I (paradigma rēs – thing)

         Example II (paradigma diēs – day )

            This declension class is the last to develop in Latin; the only nouns that have the full declension are diēs and fidēs.

            From rēs, we get rēs pūblica, or republic: thing of the people.

Adjective declensions

Adjectives are divided into two declension classes. The first (called the "first and second declension") combines the a and o declensions of nouns, with the a endings added when the adjective is feminine, and the o forms for masculines. Neuter adjectives of this class follow the pattern for o class neuter nouns.

The other class for adjectives (called the "third declension") is similar to the third class for nouns, with the important difference that nearly all these adjectives form the ablative singular in -ī, not in -e. The nominative singular of these adjectives is also often marked for gender in various ways.

A small class of adjectives follows the "pronominal declension", described below.

Pronoun declensions

Relative and demonstrative pronouns are generally declined like first and second declension adjectives, with the following differences:

• the nominatives are often irregular
• the dative singular ends in -i: rather than -ae or -o:
• the genitive singular ends in -i:us rather than -ae or -i:.

These differences identify the "pronominal" declension, and a few adjectives also follow this pattern.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

See also

• Latin conjugation