Latin
Latin First Declension: Endings, Chart and Exercises
How to recognise the Latin first declension, the full chart of endings, masculine nouns like nauta and the dative in -abus.
Recommended for: Grade 9 · Grade 10
The Latin first declension is the group of nouns with a nominative singular in -a and a genitive singular in -ae, like rosa, rosae. It is the first one students learn because its pattern is the most regular: take the stem (ros-) and add ten fixed endings, five singular and five plural.
How to recognise it
A nominative in -a is not enough on its own: the decisive test is the genitive singular in -ae, the second form your dictionary prints beside the noun. If you read silva, silvae or puella, puellae, you are in the first declension. Get the stem by dropping the -a of the nominative: silv-, puell-.
The chart of endings
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | rosa | rosae |
| Genitive | rosae | rosarum |
| Dative | rosae | rosis |
| Accusative | rosam | rosas |
| Vocative | rosa | rosae |
| Ablative | rosā | rosis |
Three forms repeat and must be identified from context: rosae covers genitive singular, dative singular and nominative (or vocative) plural; rosis covers dative and ablative plural. In the singular, nominative and ablative are spelled the same (rosa) and differ only in vowel length: short in the nominative, long in the ablative (rosā).
Masculine nouns
Gender depends on meaning, not on declension. Nouns naming male roles belong to the first declension but are masculine:
- nauta, nautae — sailor
- agricola, agricolae — farmer
- poeta, poetae — poet
- pirata, piratae — pirate
- scriba, scribae — scribe
They decline exactly like rosa, but the adjectives and participles that go with them must be masculine: nauta bonus, not nauta bona.
The dative and ablative plural in -abus
Two nouns break the usual -is pattern: dea (goddess) and filia (daughter) form the dative and ablative plural in -abus, that is deabus and filiabus. The reason is practical: the regular forms deis and filiis would coincide with those of deus and filius, which belong to the second declension, leaving the sentence ambiguous.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Always reading rosae as a plural: on its own the form is ambiguous, and the verb or the rest of the sentence decides.
- Using feminine adjectives with nauta, poeta, agricola.
- Mixing up the genitive plural -arum with the accusative plural -as.
The exercises below start from the basic endings and build up to analysing a full sentence and to the -abus forms. Every answer is checked against the chart above.
Solved exercises
1. Write the genitive singular and the accusative singular of 'puella, puellae'. base
Show solution
- The genitive singular in -ae shows that the noun belongs to the first declension.
- Find the stem by dropping the -a of the nominative: puell-.
- The genitive singular ending is -ae: puell- + -ae = puellae.
- The accusative singular ending is -am: puell- + -am = puellam.
Answer: puellae ; puellam
2. For 'rosa, rosae', write the nominative, genitive and accusative plural. base
Show solution
- The stem is ros-.
- The nominative plural ending is -ae: ros- + -ae = rosae.
- The genitive plural ending is -arum: ros- + -arum = rosarum.
- The accusative plural ending is -as: ros- + -as = rosas.
Answer: rosae ; rosarum ; rosas
3. In the sentence 'Puellae rosas portant', what case are 'puellae' and 'rosas'? Translate the sentence. intermedio
Show solution
- On its own the form 'puellae' is ambiguous: it can be genitive singular, dative singular or nominative plural.
- The verb 'portant' is third person plural, so the subject must be plural: 'puellae' is nominative plural.
- 'rosas' ends in -as, the accusative plural ending, so it is the direct object.
- The verb 'portant' means 'they carry'.
Answer: puellae = nominative plural (subject); rosas = accusative plural (direct object). Translation: 'The girls carry the roses.'
4. Why do we say 'nauta bonus' and not 'nauta bona'? What gender is 'nauta, nautae'? intermedio
Show solution
- The genitive 'nautae' in -ae shows the noun follows the first declension, just like rosa.
- Its meaning, however, is 'sailor': it refers to a male person, so the noun is masculine.
- An adjective agrees with the gender of the noun, not with the declension the noun belongs to.
- The masculine form of the adjective is 'bonus', so we write 'nauta bonus'.
Answer: 'nauta' is masculine, so the correct phrase is 'nauta bonus'. Adjectives agree with gender, not with declension.
5. Translate into Latin 'to the sailors and to the goddesses' (nauta, nautae; dea, deae) and explain the form used for 'dea'. avanzato
Show solution
- 'to the sailors' is an indirect object in the plural, so we need the dative plural.
- The first declension dative plural ends in -is: naut- + -is = nautis.
- For 'dea' the regular dative plural would be 'deis', which would clash with 'deis' from 'deus' (second declension).
- To avoid the ambiguity, 'dea' and 'filia' keep the archaic ending -abus: deabus.
- The conjunction 'and' is rendered by 'et'.
Answer: nautis et deabus
FAQ
How do you recognise a first declension noun?
By the genitive singular ending in -ae, the second form the dictionary prints next to the nominative (rosa, rosae). The nominative singular almost always ends in -a, but the genitive is what makes it certain.
Are all first declension nouns feminine?
No. Most are feminine, but nouns naming jobs or roles held by men are masculine: nauta (sailor), agricola (farmer), poeta (poet), pirata (pirate), scriba (scribe). They decline like rosa but take masculine adjectives.
Why are the dative and ablative plural identical?
Throughout the first declension both end in -is (rosis). You tell them apart from context and prepositions: 'cum rosis' is ablative, while a dative indirect object stands with no preposition. The exceptions are dea and filia, whose dative and ablative plural are deabus and filiabus.