I’ve been trying to memorize the Latin noun chart for a while now, and I’ve been having some trouble.
Any Ideas?
Thanks,
-Jonathan.
Write 'em over and over and over again. That’s what I’m doing.
I once made some online tools that let you practice declining (and conjugating, etc). The process of writing the tools is probably more useful than the tools themselves, but you’re welcome to give them a try if you’d like:
look for similarities within and between the declensions. dative plural and ablative plural are always the same. genitive plural always ends in the letter -um. accusative plural always ends in -s for masc/fem and nom/acc plur always end in -a for neut. accusative sing always ends in -m for masc/fem and is the same as nom for neuter. in declensions 3-5, nom and acc plur are the same for nouns of all gender and dat sing ends in -i. most of these endings are preceded by the vowel associated with that declension (1st = A, 2nd = O, 3rd = E/I/consonant 4th = U, 5th = E). ablative is always just a vowel (the one associated with that declension), long except in 3rd. for 1st, 2nd, and 4th declensions, gen sing is the same as nom plur.
It may just be easier to learn them the old-fashioned way than to remember this. 
Forget the vocatives and locatives - the first is almost always exactly the same as the nominative, and the second is rarely used (and you can easily learn them separately later).
I also find it easier to learn in this order: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative - because it seems more of a declension that way (take the 3rd for example, where the “fall” is very clear: --, -em, -is, -i, -e). Okay, maybe I just convinced myself of that, but it works for me! 
I even learned the 5th declension by accident, for its similarity to the 1st.
I use most of benissimus’ tips, too.
I’d suggest a slightly different approach although I agree with much of what the other honourable posters have had to say on this topic
1 - Use little post it-notes or scraps of paper and put them where you see them often, like on the wall next to your bed or in the loo …
2 - Memorize them while doing some repetitive, “stupid” task: like in the gym exercizing or in the kitchen chopping vegetables, you go: ter-RA, ter-RAM…
3 - Have family members or friends or people whom you trust play little games with you: like, when you unsuspecting are having dinner, your brother asks you: what is the genitive plural of homo?
The list could go on, but what I mean to say is: invent a gamelike activity or incorporate it into your daily life in some way…
And, I’d add: use paradigm words. I myself used: terra, campus, templum and so on… It’s harder to memorize abstract patterns, I think. But of course you must be able to tell the stem from the ending.
I think the first, second and third declensions are the most important: the other two are not irrelevant but not as common as the first three.
Finally: keep going till you know them by heart. And brush up on them once in a while. And at some point in time you won’t even have to think about it: you’ll recognize the word forms instantly 
The very first thing I had to memorize was Pres. Subj. of sum. I recall that I made it sound like some profound proverb or quote: sum es est - sumus estis sunt!
You memorized the subjunctive first? 
I’m reminded of a story I heard a long time ago about a father who wanted to teach his kids morse code, but he had already promised them they could have the summer off from studying. He started writing random letters on the walls (a = dot dash, etc.). After a week or two he started leaving notes in the morning in morse code. They would say things like “there is a candy bar hidden in the tea pot” and things like that. Pretty soon the kids couldn’t wait to get up in the morning to find the note and rush to be the first one to read it (and find the hidden treasure of the day). They learned morse code pretty well, had a great time, and never had to “study.”
I’m reminded of a story I heard a long time ago about a father who wanted to teach his kids morse code, but he had already promised them they could have the summer off from studying. He started writing random letters on the walls (a = dot dash, etc.). After a week or two he started leaving notes in the morning in morse code. They would say things like “there is a candy bar hidden in the tea pot” and things like that. Pretty soon the kids couldn’t wait to get up in the morning to find the note and rush to be the first one to read it (and find the hidden treasure of the day). They learned morse code pretty well, had a great time, and never had to “study.”
That is a great story edonnelly!!!
I heard before but in the Spanish version, long time ago.
It is true; if you learn something in a way that is fun and creative at the same time and you just love it, learning will be a like eating a piece of cake…So, do that!!! Great advise amans, I will be certainly take one or two of your ideas into practice…
Of course, not. Freudian typo. Pres. Ind. Subjunctive is on my mind all the time
JLatin,
if i might add my ha’p’orth to all these excellent suggestions and observations … This is what works for me.
Break it down. You don’t have to do it all at once. Learning all declensions at once would be just silly. Learn one. Even that’s stretching it a bit - it’s said the human mind can’t handle more than three or five things at once (depending on who you talk to). Just learn, say, the singular of one declension. If that’s too confusing then break it down further - try the singular and plural of one case. That’s just two endings.
Just repeat the chunk you’ve chosen as you go about your daily business, in any slack moment, or whenever you get a cup of coffee, or over your lunch. Try to make it into a little ritual or a custom.
When you’ve got your chunk sorted out then add the next one. Recite it in isolation and appended to the previous chunk or chunks.
To get to the point where you can not only remember them but use them you need to know what the cases mean. Because of the way that D’Ooge presents material i never had to go through a separate step of learning how to apply each case, i learned it right along with the declension of each case.
i have an attrocious memory and almost no grammar. Which is why i chose D’Ooge to learn from. (i’ve been put off learning Latin for nearly three decades by books where the very first practical step is “learn this table of declensions”.) D’Ooge assumes almost no grammar and takes you through it step by step with the most important cases first. This is why i (and many others i suspect) memorise the order Nom, Acc, Gen, Dat, Abl, rather than the more conventional Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc, Abl.
i don’t think it matters what order you memorise the cases in. Just make sure you always use the same order. That way you learn a framework (of context) and then the content to hang on it. Each time you learn new content you don’t have to re-learn the context. (School language lessons usually made us learn a whole phrase, “the ablative of x is y”. Pointless mental litter imposed by fascistic wage slaves. Oops. Time for more chamomile tea.) Once i learned my framework and what it meant i had no difficulty adjusting for the alternative ordering when i met it.
Similarly, try to always use the same chunk structure - individual cases, or singular then plural. Do this even if you start to take on more than one chunk at a time.
Apply it. Don’t just learn your declensions, decline things. To help you check there’s an on-line regular noun decliner and a downloadable version for Windows (i’ve not tried it so i make no claims for efficacy or virus content). i’m sure you can find others.
Once you have one declension (or conjugation tense) under your belt your chunk approach can be augmented. The human mind works by comparing and contrasting, noting the differences and similarities between things. Adding a second declension you note the differences and similarities not only between the declensions, but within them. This is what Benissimus says about noting the similarities, but don’t forget the differences and exceptions can be just as noteworthy.
i hope this is of use. The very best of luck.
I just tried imagining my brother – whose neck is about as red as they come – saying this, and almost fell off my chair!