1st Declension Forms PDF

FIRST DECLENSION NOUNS (-a) Formation: Nouns of the First Declension are declined thus: Singular Plural Nom. -a -ae Gen. -ae...

FIRST DECLENSION NOUNS (-a) Formation: Nouns of the First Declension are declined thus: Singular Plural Nom. -a -ae Gen. -ae -ārum Dat. -ae -īs Acc. -am -ās Abl. -ā -īs N.B.: The long -ā of the ablative singular distinguishes it from the nominative singular, which has a short -a. Example: Nom. silva (the forest) silvae (the forests) Gen. silvae (of the forest) silvārum (of the forests) Dat. silvae (to the forest) silvīs (to the forests) Acc. silvam (the forest) silvās (the forests) Abl. silvā (in or by the forest) silvīs (in or by the forests) N.B.: Because Latin has no article (the or an), silva may mean the forest, a forest, or simply forest. Gender: Nouns of the first declension are overwhelmingly feminine. A very few nouns in the first declension are masculine: 1) Some natural genders such as agricola (farmer), nauta (sailor), pīrāta (pirate), poēta (poet), scrība (scribe or clerk). 2) Some personal or family names: Catilīna, Mūrēna, Dolābella, Scaevola. 3) And Hadria (the Adriatic). Even fewer nouns are of common gender: incola (inhabitant) and advena (stranger). Adjectives, of course, will always agree with gender: pīrāta malus (evil pirate), poēta clārus (famous poet). Dea and Fīlia: For the dative and ablative plural of dea (goddess) and fīlia (daughter) the endings -ābus (deābus and fīliābus) are used to distinguish these nouns from the second declension nouns deus (god) and fīlius (son). Familiās: An old genitive in -ās is preserved in the word familiās (of the family), often with pater, mater, fīlius, or fīlia. Thus, pater familiās (father of the family = head of the household).