Latino
The Five Latin Declensions: Guide with Worked Exercises
The five Latin declensions explained simply: how to spot them from the genitive, the six cases and their endings, with 5 worked, verified exercises and 3 FAQs.
Recommended for: Grade 9 · Grade 10
Latin has five declensions: five groups of nouns that share the same set of endings. To tell which group a noun belongs to, look at the genitive singular ending, the one the dictionary writes next to the nominative: -ae (1st), -i (2nd), -is (3rd), -us (4th), -ei (5th).
What a declension is
To decline a noun is to change its ending to show its job in the sentence. Every declension has six cases — nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative — in the singular and the plural. It is the case, not the word order, that tells you whether a noun is the subject, the direct object, a possessive and so on.
The six cases at a glance
- Nominative: subject and predicate noun.
- Genitive: possession (whose? of what?).
- Dative: indirect object (to whom? for what?).
- Accusative: direct object.
- Ablative: means, manner, place, time, cause.
- Vocative: for calling or addressing someone.
How to recognise the declension
The nominative alone is not enough: different nouns can share a nominative yet belong to different declensions. The key is the genitive singular. That is why the dictionary always gives two forms, e.g. rosa, rosae: the first is the nominative, the second the genitive, and its ending reveals the declension at once.
- 1st declension — genitive in -ae, mostly feminine (e.g. rosa, rosae).
- 2nd declension — genitive in -i, masculine or neuter (e.g. lupus, lupi; templum, templi).
- 3rd declension — genitive in -is, all genders (e.g. consul, consulis).
- 4th declension — genitive in -us, mostly masculine (e.g. fructus, fructūs).
- 5th declension — genitive in -ei, almost always feminine (e.g. res, rei).
A note on neuters
Neuter nouns (found in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th declensions) follow two fixed rules: the nominative always equals the accusative, and in the plural these two cases end in -a (templum → templa). Keeping this in mind prevents many mistakes when you decline.
In the exercises below you move from simply recognising the declension to declining in individual cases, right up to the fourth and fifth. Every answer is checked against the table of endings.
Solved exercises
1. Which declension does 'rosa, rosae' belong to, and what is its usual gender? base
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- You identify the declension from the genitive singular ending, not from the nominative.
- The genitive 'rosae' ends in -ae.
- The ending -ae marks the first declension.
- First-declension nouns are overwhelmingly feminine.
Answer: First declension, feminine.
2. Classify 'servus, servi' and 'templum, templi': declension and gender. base
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- Both have a genitive singular in -i, the mark of the second declension.
- 'servus' has a nominative in -us: it is masculine.
- 'templum' has a nominative in -um: it is neuter.
Answer: Both second declension; servus masculine, templum neuter.
3. Given 'rosa, rosae' (1st declension), write the accusative singular and the ablative plural. intermedio
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- In the first declension the accusative singular ends in -am.
- Accusative singular: ros- + -am = rosam.
- The ablative plural ends in -is.
- Ablative plural: ros- + -is = rosis.
Answer: rosam ; rosis
4. Which declension is 'consul, consulis'? Write the dative singular and the genitive plural. intermedio
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- The genitive singular 'consulis' ends in -is: third declension.
- Find the stem by removing -is from the genitive: consul-.
- Dative singular ends in -i: consul- + -i = consuli.
- Genitive plural ends in -um: consul- + -um = consulum.
Answer: Third declension; dative sing. consuli, genitive plur. consulum.
5. Identify the declension of 'manus, manūs' and 'res, rei', then write the ablative singular of each. avanzato
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- 'manūs' has a genitive singular in -us: fourth declension (feminine).
- In the fourth declension the ablative singular ends in -u: manu.
- 'rei' has a genitive singular in -ei: fifth declension (feminine).
- In the fifth declension the ablative singular ends in -e: re.
Answer: manus = fourth declension, abl. sing. manu; res = fifth declension, abl. sing. re.
FAQ
How do you tell which declension a Latin noun belongs to?
By the genitive singular ending, which the dictionary always lists next to the nominative: -ae is first, -i second, -is third, -us fourth, -ei fifth declension.
Why does the dictionary list a noun with two forms, e.g. 'rosa, rosae'?
The first form is the nominative singular, the second is the genitive singular. Together they give the stem and the declension, which is everything you need to decline the noun in any case.
How many cases does each declension have?
Six: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative and vocative, in the singular and the plural. In neuter nouns the nominative equals the accusative, and in the plural they end in -a.