.For reference: all posts on the 3rd declension of nouns have now been compiled into two files: [i] all the posts that first dealt with it, and [ii] all the posts (including this one) which reviewed it and / or looked at certain aspects in a little more detail. There are a few additional posts in [ii] that are scheduled for FB but are not yet published here. The links to where they only appear at the moment are given in the files.
And you would be forgiven if, having looked at those two files, you thought that I had added two gospels: the Gospel according to the Third Declension and the Book of i-stems. Once a teacher, always a teacher (I guess): while the internet has revolutionised our world, I do feel that we can be a bit “brainwashed” into thinking that everything is quick and easy, and I also feel that it makes us rather more impatient: I, for one, will jump up and down, if I can’t book a flight on Expedia in thirty seconds, despite the fact there’s a travel agent less than a minute’s walk from my apartment: you’re not expecting me to walk there, are you?
Personally, I don’t think learning a language is quick, nor is it always easy: it needs time, patience, determination, repetition, review, reading, examples, practice, self-testing … and asking. Don’t get me wrong: I use the internet all the time to research / check what I post. But there are some aspects of Latin which, unless you wrote piano concertos at the age of four, can be overwhelming if – internet or no internet – all of it is presented at the same time. If you doubt that, get a hold of Moreland and Fleischer’s Latin: an intensive Course if you’re into being taught Latin by the Marines
Therefore, some topics were divided into many “bite-size” posts, dealing with them step-by-step. That’s why, if you take a bit of time to look through those two files, you’ll see that there is repetition, review, examples, reading in context, and practice. They’ve now all been put together with links to the original posts.
Yes, 3rd declension nouns have been done to death in the group because [i] the majority of Latin nouns belong to that declension and [ii] unlike other noun declensions, a very large number of them change the stem, for example:
Nominative singular: mīles (soldier)
Genitive singular: mīlit¦is
And it is from that genitive singular that the rest of the declension is formed, for example:
Nom: mīles
Gen: mīlit¦is i.e. the stem is mīlit-, and it is that stem which dictates the rest of the declension:
Dat: mīlit¦ī
Acc. mīlit¦em
Abl. mīlit¦e
The same applies to the plural e.g. Nom. pl: mīlit¦ēs
Therefore, not unlike the way a learner of French has to know whether a word is le or la, or a German learner memorises nouns with der, die or das, so too is it advisable not simply to focus on the nominative of a 3rd declension noun, but also its genitive singular: mīles, mīlitis [3/m]: soldier
Images: When you first begin to learn Latin, these stem changes seem haphazard. However, when I started, I gradually realised through reading: “Hang on, this isn’t as random as it first appears.” Therefore, the image gives common “patterns” of common 3rd declension words where the endings change. Not all 3rd declension nouns belong to patterns and not all will do what is listed there, but there are more than enough to get a “feel” of how many of these nouns either mostly or exclusively work.
But something to note, and not only pertaining to this topic.
There is a Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol, a contemporary of Dickens; I think Gogol’s work is tremendous and he was one of my majors when I was at university. Of Gogol’s work, one critic (rephrasing the original written by Nabokov) wrote: Imagine a trap-door that opens under your feet with absurd suddenness, you can fall through it” i.e. you’re moving through the text with some specific interpretation and then Gogol throws in a curve ball.
All languages – with the possible sole exception of the artificially created Esperanto – have “trapdoors”.
The plural of fox is foxes, the plural of box is boxes, the plural of tax is taxes, and the plural of ox is oxen (from OE: oxa; pl. oxan)
Every female in German is feminine, right?: die Frau (woman; wife), die Schwester (sister), die Tochter (daughter), unless you happen to be a girl, in which case you’re neuter: das Mädchen.
The Russian noun ending -a is feminine and, therefore, can refer to females, right?: devushka (girl), zhena (wife), babushka (grandmother), unless you’re a proud grandfather (dedushka) or a man (muzhchina); to be fair, Russian grammar does state that those two are masculine.
The point is that, whatever set of “rules” or “patterns” you read, there will be exceptions. Dictionaries, grammar books and long-winded online gurus will give accounts of why these endings and / or exceptions occur, or the Indo-European origins, or whether they are feminine abstract noun forming suffixes or whether the same ending is found in Hittite (oh yes, that’s mentioned in one entry). Wiktionary will tell you all of that, and it may well sound impressive at dinner parties, but it’s best to become familiar with the common changes in stems.
Twenty-one examples from the posts; it isn’t a world-class piece of writing but it does show the extent to which derivatives of 3rd declension nouns exist in English and that the stem cahnges are still very often evident …
You may feel a little (1) vulnerable when faced with the (2) magnitude of Latin stem changes, perhaps remembering the (3) corporal punishment you endured on the (4) occasion when your brain wasn’t (5) operating last lesson on a Friday. And your highly (6) vocal teacher said that you wouldn’t be (7) nominated for School prefect owing to your (8) criminal and (9) irrational lack of (10) passion for the language and (11) artificial attempts to display (12) fortitude when studying the subjunctive. And a (13) multitude of pupils (14) temporarily mocked you, but never mind: off you went to bed and during your (15) nocturnal (16) visions you dreamt of a (17) judicial enquiry and the (18) pulchritudinous moment when that (19) Lucifer of a Latin teacher was hauled away by (20) centurions to the distant (21) regions of Gaul.
Here are a random set of 3rd declension nouns. There are no “trapdoors”; what is [i] the genitive singular and [ii] the gender of each noun?
aurifex, __________ [3/_____]: goldsmith
centuriō, __________ [3/_____]: commander of a 100 men
crīmen, __________ [3/_____]: verdict; crime
dux, __________ [3/_____]: leader; commander
imperātrīx, __________ [3/_____]: empress
lūx, __________ [3/_____]: light
magnitūdō, __________ [3/_____]: vastness; greatness; extent
mercātor, __________ [3/_____]: merchant
nūmen, __________ [3/_____]: divine power
pānifex, __________ [3/_____]: bread-maker
passiō, __________ [3/_____]: suffering; enduring
mūnus, __________ [3/_____]: gift; is it -oris or -eris? You may get some form of remuneration if you get it right!
pectus, __________ [3/_____]: breast; is it -oris or -eris? Or perhaps you’ll give up, go to the gym and work on those pectoral muscles.
servitūs __________ (-ūs, not -us) [3/_____]: slavery
piscātor, __________ [3/_____]: fisherman
piscātrix, __________ [3/_____]: fisherwoman
potestās, __________ [3/_____]: power
tempestās, __________ [3/_____]: storm
testūdō, __________ [3/_____]: tortoise; turtle
vīsiō, __________ [3/_____]: sight
