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Latin Declension

Hi,
I am fourteen-years old and have been studying Latin for the past year. My grammar is decent, but I am really struggling with declensions. I have a basic idea of the Nominative-Vocative-Accusative-Genitive-Dative-Ablative system (I remember it as Notable Vegans Ate Good, Delicious Aardvarks) and what each one means but still have difficulty declining nouns. For example, which of the five declensions would I use to decline the name ‘Phaedra’?

Would I be correct declining it in the first declension like this:
Sing.: Phaedra, Phaedra, Phaedram, Phaedrae, Phaedrae, Phaedra
Pl.: Phaedrae, Phaedrae, Phaedras, Phaedarum, Phaedris, Phaedris

Up until now I have been teaching myself Latin and have no idea if my grammar is correct. I will start a university course at the end of the month and want to brush-up beforehand. If anyone could help me a bit in this field, I would greatly appreciate it.:smile:
Reply 1
Original post by ElenaJuliette
Hi,
I am fourteen-years old and have been studying Latin for the past year. My grammar is decent, but I am really struggling with declensions. I have a basic idea of the Nominative-Vocative-Accusative-Genitive-Dative-Ablative system (I remember it as Notable Vegans Ate Good, Delicious Aardvarks) and what each one means but still have difficulty declining nouns. For example, which of the five declensions would I use to decline the name ‘Phaedra’?

Would I be correct declining it in the first declension like this:
Sing.: Phaedra, Phaedra, Phaedram, Phaedrae, Phaedrae, Phaedra
Pl.: Phaedrae, Phaedrae, Phaedras, Phaedarum, Phaedris, Phaedris

Up until now I have been teaching myself Latin and have no idea if my grammar is correct. I will start a university course at the end of the month and want to brush-up beforehand. If anyone could help me a bit in this field, I would greatly appreciate it.:smile:


I learn declensions in a different order, but what you wrote is all correct.

I'd definitely suggest getting GCSE Latin books if you want to advance your understanding. It's certainly not easy, but it gets better with practice.

You should learn declensions and then have a "prototype" noun. Eg, you should learn how Rosa (Phaedra works too of course) is declined, and then you can easily handle every first declension noun.

Then go on with the second (ie populus) and then the third, which requires much more practice as every noun may have different endings.

I am not really sure if you're looking for something specific, so if you do ask away and I'll do my best to help.

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Original post by *Stefan*
I learn declensions in a different order, but what you wrote is all correct.

I'd definitely suggest getting GCSE Latin books if you want to advance your understanding. It's certainly not easy, but it gets better with practice.

You should learn declensions and then have a "prototype" noun. Eg, you should learn how Rosa (Phaedra works too of course) is declined, and then you can easily handle every first declension noun.

Then go on with the second (ie populus) and then the third, which requires much more practice as every noun may have different endings.

I am not really sure if you're looking for something specific, so if you do ask away and I'll do my best to help.

Posted from TSR Mobile


Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your reply. As you said, the best way to learn the declinations is probably just to keep practicing. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right in the first place. Which order do you learn declensions as?
Reply 3
Original post by ElenaJuliette
Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your reply. As you said, the best way to learn the declinations is probably just to keep practicing. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right in the first place. Which order do you learn declensions as?


Hey,

You can always check the declension of any verb/noun on wiktionary, just by googling the word and Latin (ie capio latin). It has a lot of detail on possible meanings and then its derivatives, declension etc.

I am not from the UK and have been taught the "universal" -as they call it- order (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative). Since you're going to a UK university, you should definitely keep your order, since that's what English universities use.

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