# Introduction to Latin grammar/Chapter 1

Chapter one

## Lesson Plan

* Cases
* Case usage
* The 1st Declension
* Vocabulary 2
* Assignment

## Cases

As we learned in the intro there are five cases in the Latin language. Here are the cases again.
* Nominative
* Accusative
* Genitive
* Dative
* Ablative

## Case usage
### Nominative

The nominative case is the subject, predicate nominatives, and predicate adjectives.
The SUBJECT performs the action.
* Ex. The FARMER loves the girl.
The PREDICATE NOMINATIVE follows a linking verb( is, are, was, were, ect.) and renames the subject.
* Ex. The farmer was a POET.
The PREDICATE ADJECTIVE follows a linking verb( is, are, was, were, ect.)and renames the subject.
* Ex. The farmer is FAMOUS.

### Accusative

The accusative case is the direct object/ and object of certain prepositions.
The direct object receives the action as shown in the table below by the highlighted word.
| Latin | English |
| agricolae aquam portant | The farmers carry the water. |
| poeta puellas amat | The poet loves the girls. |
| agricolae viam aedificant | The farmers build a road. |
| Puellae poetam non amant | The girls do not love the poet. |

### Genitive

The genitive case shows possession and can be thought of as meaning "of the noun" for its other uses too which we will come to later

### Dative

The dative case is the indirect object.

### Ablative

The ablative case is object of certain prepositions, and other special uses

## The 1st Declension

There are five declensions in Latin. Every single noun has a declension. In Latin unlike English every noun has a gender, there are masculine, feminine, and neuter. Also every noun has a number, singular and plural.
So unto 1st declension. The following are the endings for the 1st declension.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | -a | -ae |
| Accusative | -am | -as |
| Genitive | -ae | -arum |
| Dative | -ae | -is |
| Ablative | -a | -is |
So you may ask what are the endings for? Well the endings are to be added to the noun stem. Also the genitive singular ending tells you what declension a noun belongs to.
To find the noun stem drop the genitive singular ending. Ex.
* Poetae - ae = poet
NOTE! Most nouns in the first declension are feminine. With some exceptions, such as agricola, nauta, and poeta. All 3 of those are masculine nouns.
Here is an example:
puella, -ae f. = girl
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | puella | puellae |
| Accusative | puellam | puellas |
| Genitive | puellae | puellarum |
| Dative | puellae | puellis |
| Ablative | puella | puellis |

## Vocabulary 1

* vita, vitae, f.
* casa, casae, f.
* fama, famae, f.
* familia, familiae, f.
* fortuna, fortunae, f.
* terra, terrae, f.
VERBS (you will learn about them in the next chapter.)
* amo, amare, amavi, amatus
* habito, habitare, habitavi, habitatus
* laboro, laborare, laboravi, laboratus
* paro, parare, paravi, paratus
* porto, portare, portavi, portatus
* specto, spectare, spectavi, spectatus

## Assignment

Your assignment is to find the meaning of all the words in the vocabulary section. Also to decline all the nouns. To decline them means to put them into a table such as the example of puella in the 1st declension section.
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