TEM: Lesson - Third Declension Noun Review

Third Declension Noun Review

We have been working with third declension nouns since we first met Decimus. Third declension nouns account for the largest group of Latin nouns. These nouns can be masculine, feminine or neuter in gender. They have a variety of nominative singular forms. Remember that a noun's declension is based on the genitive ending: 3rd declension has a genitive singular ending of -is.

Gender Overview - 3rd Declension

To help determine the gender of 3rd declension nouns consider these guidelines. Whenever you are unsure, check the gender in a Latin dictionary.

Third Declension Review
Masculine 3rd Declension Feminine 3rd Declension Neuter 3rd Declension
  • Show jobs or roles typically done by males in the ancient world
    • miles, consul, pater, rex
  • Are abstract nouns ending in -or
    • amor, dolor
  • It is best to memorize the gender when possible. The listed "rules" above are generally correct; however, there may be some irregularities. 
  • Masculine nouns also include ignis, mons, dens, panis,
  • Show jobs or roles typically done by women in the ancient world
    • mater, soror
  • Nouns ending in -tus, -tas, -tudo, -io, -ns, -rs or -x
    • celeritas, ars, mens, mors, pax 
  • It is best to memorize the gender when possible. The listed "rules" above are generally correct; however, there may be some irregularities.
  • Feminine nouns also include arbor, navis, urbs
  • There are no specific rules governing what nouns are neuter in the 3rd declension.
  • Some common examples are:
    • animal, mare, caput, corpus, flumen, iter, nomen, tempus, vulnus

Regular 3rd Declension Endings

Most 3rd declension nouns use the endings below. A special subset of 3rd declension nouns called 3rd declension i-stem will be discussed in the next lesson. Review the forms below.

    • -ius changes to -i (Claudi from Claudius)
Noun Endings - 3rd Declension
Case M/F Singular M/F Plural Neuter Singular Neuter Plural
Nominative varies* es varies* a
Genitive is um is um
Dative i ibus i ibus
Accusative em es Same as Nom a
Ablative e ibus e ibus
Vocative Same as Nom es Same as Nom a

Nota Bene:

  • *Varies is not an ending, but a note to remind you that 3rd declension has no set nominative singular ending. Instead, the nominative singular will be the first word listed in the dictionary entry. You will need to take special note of the nominative form when learning the vocabulary for a lesson.

Example Nouns

  • Masculine:
    • miles, militis, m. - soldier
    • Base: milit- (militis - is)
  • Neuter:
    • iter, itineris, n. - journey
    • Base: itiner- (itineris - is)
Example Nouns - 3rd Declension
Case miles - Singular miles - Plural iter - Singular iter - Plural
Nominative miles milites iter itinera
Genitive militis militum itineris itinerum
Dative militi militibus itineri itineribus
Accusative militem milites iter itinera
Ablative milite militibus itinere itineribus
Vocative miles milites iter itinera