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Noun Declension Order

So I am just starting to learn Latin by myself and I have come across two different orders which seem to be common.

1. Nom, acc, gen, dat, abl

and

2. Nom, gen, dat, acc, abl.

Which one did you learn? I know it doesn't really matter as long as you learn them, but I'm interested to know.

Thanks :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

bump

the first

the second one is common in american textbooks

Reply 3

Tweak6

We learn it nom, gen, dat, acc, abl. in the US- which made things very confusing when I moved over here! Learn whichever order the textbook you use tends to, otherwise you end up having to rewrite all noun and adjective tables into the order you know :smile:

Reply 4

LuxVeritatis

Try not to memorise a particular order, because you then rely on it when it comes to identifying cases: it is far better simply to remember that the accusative singular of a second declension noun is "um", rather than remember it because it comes second in a list.

Reply 5

Darth_Newdar

I've always learnt my noun declensions in this order: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative. (UK) Once you've learnt the basic noun declensions, you only need learn the noun + genitive singular ending and gender - like equus, equi m. (horse) or flumen, fluminis n. (river) - this is what you will see in Latin dictionaries, etc.