agreement of nouns/adjectives

[arslongus]

With nouns whose gender is not usual for their declension, do their modifying adjectives follow the gender, or the declensioal paradigm? I'm thinking specifically of certain first declension nouns that are masculine rather than feminine (nauta, agricola).

That is, to say 'of the great sailor', would it be

de magna nauta
or
de magno nauta

[Turpissimus]

They follow the gender, not the declension or ending.

de magno nauta

[benissimus]

This is in fact the only reason you need to know gender, and the only time when grammatical gender is apparent. If you have met the third declension, you probably know that the noun endings have no relationship with gender (with the exception of neuters).