ADJECTIVES

Chapter 5

What are adjectives?

In English, adjectives are used to describe.

goofygreen

happy eager

cute

funny

Latin Adjectives

In Latin, adjectives have all three genders.

Right now we are only learning two of them:masculine feminine laetus laeta

The stem of and Adjective

In order to find the stem of an adjective, take the feminine ending off the feminine form in the dictionary entry.

laetus, laeta The stem is laet .

Add the first and second declension endings to the stem.

Agreement

Adjectives agree in GNC!

Adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in:Gender (masculine, feminine)

Number (singular, plural)

Case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative)

IMPORTANT!!!

Adjectives must agree with nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

They do NOT have to be in the same declension.

This means that the endings don’t always match for the noun and adjectives.

Feminine Adjectives

Feminine adjectives use First Declension endings.

Singular Plural

Nominative laeta laetae

Genitive laetae laetarum

Dative laetae laetis

Accusative laetam laetas

Ablative laetā laetis

Masculine Adjectives

Masculine adjectives use Second Declension endings.

Singular Plural

Nominative laetus laeti

Genitive laeti laetorum

Dative laeto laetis

Accusative laetum laetos

Ablative laeto laetis

Examples

Puellam laetam “Puellam” is feminine, singular,

accusative, so “laetam” must also be feminine, singular, accusative.

Puer laetusPuer is masculine, singular, nominative, so “laetus” must agree. *Notice that they do not have to LOOK alike in order to agree.