>Just a question,how can you tell that spes is a third >declension noun ? I looked it up in the dictionary and spei as >the genetive. I thought "i" in the genitive defined the second >declension ?<br />Actually Stevenius, you are correct that "i" can signify the 2nd dec. genitive. However, it can also indicate the 5th declension, as here with spem (spes). The best way to determine which is which, is to look for the persistent long "e" which signifies a 5th decl, while all 2nd decl nouns/adjs lack. And of course, after the genitive, the 2nd and 5th declensions differ in the dative, acc and ablative case, as well as throughout the plural.<br /><br />I appreciate your advice, and I'm inclined to agree with you; tackling the language in regular books from the ancient authors is probably as close as we here, in the not quite living languages dept, can hope to get to immersion.

<br /><br />Thank you sir!<br />-Paul