DOM: Lesson - Noun Basics

Noun Basics

Roman soldiers often provided much needed protection by patrolling the roadways. What do the bolded words all have in common? They are all nouns. Let's help Decimus and his fellow soldiers in their patrol by learning more about nouns. 

A noun is traditionally defined as a person, place or thing; in Latin, a noun is a word that uses a set of case endings and has three characteristics: case, number and gender. Consider the Roman vehicle example (plaustrum) to illustrate the basic terms for Latin nouns. These basic noun terms will be discussed more in later lessons.

Latin Noun Example Explained

Noun Terminology	Definition	Example: "Plaustrum"
Declension	Declension is a family of nouns. There are five families of nouns or five declensions in Latin. Each noun belongs to only one declension. Nouns in the same declension share case endings.	Plaustrum belongs to the 2nd Declension.
Gender	Gender is a designation referring to a noun as masculine, feminine or neuter. Nouns of the First Declension are usually feminine. Nouns of the Second Declension nouns may be masculine or neuter. Nouns of the Third Declension nouns may be masculine, feminine or neuter.	Plaustrum is a neuter noun.
Number	Number refers to how many there are of the noun: singular (one) or plural (more than one).	Plaustrum is singular (the picture shows just one wagon).
Case	Case shows the function of the noun in the sentence. There are 6 common cases in Latin nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative and vocative.	Plaustrum is the subject of the sentence below. Plaustrum is in the nominative case.