Second Declension

created by Phinslit
(idea) by ignorans (5.7 d) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sat Aug 11 2001 at 11:35:42
I have used Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (B.L. Gildersleeve and G. Lodge, 1997: Bolchazy-Carducci) to aid my memory. I also used http://www.perseus.tufts.edu for verification.
One of the major, perhaps artificial divisions in declension in the Latin language.

Famed for notable regularity as opposed to third declension, the 2nd consists of mostly masculine and neuter words.

famulus, -i (masculine) slave, servant

This fairly common us, -i form is declined as follows:

Singular
nominative ----- famulus
genitive ------- famuli
dative---------- famulo
accusative ----- famulum
ablative ------- famulo

Plural
N. --------------- famuli
G. --------------- famulorum
D. --------------- famulis
Ac. -------------- famulos
Abl. ------------- famulis

Vocatives
S. --------------- famulum, rare e in other nouns (Gildersleeve)
P. --------------- famuli 


The second most common subcategory is the er, -i nouns.

puer, -i (masculine) usually "boy", infant through adolescent male

er, -i nouns differ only in their nominative singular -er ending puer and vocative singular -er (same).

Neuters are formed in a very regular manner as well.

templum, -i generic temple, sacred space (needn't be a building per se)

Same as standard us, -i except nominative and accusative singular are same. Plural nominative, accusative, and vocative end in -a, ie templa.

While city names generally cross declensional rules, according to Gildersleeve some Greek loanwords in the feminine are considered 2nd:

methodus, -i method

In my opinion as a (perhaps feeble) student of Latin the second declension is the second easiest to master (after the first declension.) The true test of declensional knowledge comes with familiarity with the third declension. There irregularity appears with much greater frequency, in a time when high school students already have enough stress.
(thing) by eien_meru (5 s) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Fri Jun 10 2005 at 4:39:31

Often, I feel that scholars have listed the α-stems first as a sort of test to weed out the unindustrious student. While the first declension has numerous forms, the second declension has only two. Really, once you've learned the second declension and the easiest of the first declension paradigms, you'll be ready to take on the simpler Greek adjectives. In turn, you'll be able to write more interesting sentences, which in turn will improve your fluency.

Lacking a renaissance for Classic Greek, I doubt any browsers in the near future will natively support diacriticals. Poor Aristophanes (not the playright), all his work in vain.

  • Words like σκελος, (skelos, leg), most of them masculine, that are -ου in the genitive case.
  • Words like τοξον, (tokson, bow), all of them neuter, that take -ου in the genitive as well. Know them by the ending -ν, which would have been a -m in Latin.

The Paradigms:

Nominative: 'ο σκελος  'οι σκελοι
Genitive:   του σκελου των σκελων
Accusative: τον σκελον τους σκελους
Dative:     τωι σκελωι τοις σκελοις
Nominative: το τοξον  τα τοξα
Genitive:   του τοξου των τοξων
Accusative: το τοξον  τα τοξα
Dative:     τωι τοξωι τοις τοξοις

One of the things that makes life decidely easier for neuter nouns: the accusative of a neuter (singular or plural) is the same as the nominative (respectively).

The ending ιs on the dative singular form should be a subscript on the previous vowel. If your browser is awesome, they look like this: ῃ


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