MM: Lesson - Latin I Review - Adjectives

Latin I Review - Adjectives

It is vital that the grammar from Latin I be used as a foundation for new learning in Latin II. Please carefully review each of the Parts of Speech. Verbs, nouns and adjectives are considered Major Parts of Speech, while adverbs, pronouns and prepositions are Minor Parts of Speech.

Before we jump into the review, what do you remember? Complete this brief self-assessment to see how much you remember about Latin adjectives from Latin I!

Adjectives

Please download the Latin I Adjective Review Links to an external site. handout. This document contains notes about adjective bases, formation and agreement rules.

An adjective is a word that is used to describe a noun. It is a word in Latin which uses endings to indicate that it is describing another word.

When looking up an adjective in a dictionary or vocabulary handout, adjectives will be listed with the following information:

• Masculine form, nominative singular
• Feminine form, nominative singular
• Neuter form, nominative singular
• English meaning

Nota Bene

• These nominative forms will almost always be singular, but there are some adjectives that only have plural forms.
• Unlike nouns, the feminine form is used to obtain the adjective base, on which the other endings are added.
• Adjectives agree with nouns in case, number and gender and so actually borrow their endings from nouns.

Example adjective dictionary entry:

• malus, mala, malum - bad, evil
  • malus = nominative singular, masculine
  • mala = nominative singular, feminine
    
    • The base for this adjective is: mal- (mala - a)
  • malum = nominative singular, neuter