Would you please explain why the plural of “flamma” is “flammas” when it is the direct object, but “miles” becomes “milites” when it is the direct object and plural? I was reading page 11 in “Minimus Secundus” when I started wondering about this.
Nouns can be tricky! Luckily, there are five noun “families” called “declensions” and each family has its own characteristics-- this will help us immensely. Let’s talk about just the first three declensions today since those are the most frequently used ones in our books.
All three declensions have certain endings which indicate what role each word is playing in the sentence. Right now, you have been introduced to nouns used as the subject or the direct object. Please look at the charts below for the different spellings:
The 3 rd declension is the tricky one: there is no one ending for 3 rd Declension nouns in the singular subject form. They all share, nevertheless, the same endings for the other nouns uses. Here are some 3 rd Declensions nouns you have met with their singular subject and direct object forms: mater/matrem, pavo/pavonem,pons/pontem, canis/canem, and infans/infantem. Of course, there are a few more details concerning this grammar question, but we can address those in the future.
I understand that the six verb endings for the present tense are: o, s, t, mus, tis, nt. I am puzzled, however, why the vowel preceding these endings changes. Will you please explain the reason to me?
Turbidus from Tusculum
That is a great question! Do you have your “Minimus Secundus” book handy? Turn to page 22 and look at the explanation for infinitives. You’ll see that an infinitive ends in “re”, right? Well, look at the vowel that precedes the “re” in each infinitive. There are four choices:ā , ē, e, and ī. So, we have four verb “families” or “conjugations”. All the verbs in each family follow the same rules:
4 th Conjugation“ ī re” & 3 rd Conjugation “ ī o” verbs
dormio, dormire; facio, facere
canto
I sing
timeo
I fear
curro
I run
dormio
I sleep
cantas
you sing
times
you fear
curris
you run
dormis
you sleep
cantat
he or she sings
timet
he or she fears
currit
he or she runs
dormit
he or she sleeps
cantamus
we sing
timemus
we fear
currimus
we run
dormimus
we sleep
cantatis
you sing
timetis
you fear
curritis
you run
dormitis
you sleep
cantant
they sing
timent
they fear
currunt
they run
dormiunt
they sleep
So, Turbidus, you can see the pattern here for each conjugation. In the back of your “Minimus Secundus” book is a glossary. You’ll see there that each verb is listed with its first person, singular, active, present tense form and its infinitive. That information, added to what I explained above, will enable you to conjugate all the regular verbs. We’ll address those “irregular” verbs another day! bona fortuna!
