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