Noun Review: Third Declension Neuter Nouns Magister Henderson Latin II

Third Declension Neuter Noun In addition to the masculine and feminine nouns, there are also neuter nouns in the third declension. Though the masculine feminine and neuter nouns share the same ending, neuter nouns have their own slightly different endings. As in the second declension, neuter nouns will always match in the nominative and accusative cases.

Third Declension Neuter Endings Singular Plural Nominative n/a -a Genitive -is -um Dative -ī -ibus Accusative Ablative -e As with other third declension nouns, there is no standard nominative singular ending for neuter third declension nouns. The accusative, which by rule must match the nominative, will also have no standard ending.

tempus, temporis n. = “time” Singular Plural Nominative tempus tempora Genitive temporis temporum Dative temporī temporibus Accusative Ablative tempore The noun tempus, temporis is a typical third declension neuter noun. Notice how the genitive singular base tempor- (rather than the nominative singular tempus) is used to form the remaining forms.

Third Declension i-stem Nouns The i-stem nouns are a subgroup of the third declension. For neuter i-stems, the genitive plural changes to –ium and the nominative and accusative plurals changes to -ia. The ablative singular of neuter i-stems will always change to –ī, matching the dativie singular form..

mare, maris, marium n. = “sea” Singular Plural Nominative mare maria Genitive maris marium Dative marī maribus Accusative Ablative The noun mare, maris is a third declension i-stem noun that may be either masculine or feminine. Notice how the genitive singular base mar- is identical to the nominative singular base. Also notice plurals in –ia and –ium rather than –a and –um.

Third Declension Neuter Nouns animal, animalis, animalium = animal caput, capitis = head corpus, orporis = body flūmen, flūminis = river iūs, iūris = right, law iter, itineris = journey onus, oneris = burden opus, operis = work