Everyone can agree that the third declension is evil, right? (I like to joke with my teacher and blame it on her.) Well just how evil is it?
-s , -is, i, em, e ; es, um, ibus, es, ibus
that’s the consonant stems that I am on and personally I be finding the imperfect, future and present passive harder.
However, for nouns (relative to the 1st and 2nd decs) 3rd = very hard
Third declension? Subjuntice? You’re scaring me…
Keesa
I like the third declension… there was only one even remotely positive poll answer though >:(
Got to give a POSITIVE reply to 3rd Declension! I love the “x” ending words whose nominative or base has pure English carryover value:
styx, stygis ( river styx, stygian)
rex, regis (tyrannosaurus rex, regiment)
appendix, appendicis (appendix, appendices)
lux, lucis (lux- as in light power, lucid)
vox, vocis (vox populi- vociferous)
you can think of many more…just a taste
Got to love those words that come directly in that have a variety of nominatives…
omen, ominis (omen, ominous)
abdomen, abdominis (abdomen, abdominal)
opus, operis (magum opus, opera, operations)
onus, oneris (onus of responsibility, exonerated)
pons, pontis (pons - anatomical word, pontiff, pontoon)
semen, seminis (semen, seminarian, disseminate)
I could go on…ad gloriam…but this is one of the ways I teach the 3rd Declension…tremendous amount of word building material available in this declension…
Valete…
I think what I really like about the third declension is that any word that would fit nowhere else can always fit into its structure. Whenever you want to make up your own word, third declension is always very accommodating as well.
Bah! The Third declension is wicked and evil!
The rest of Latin is (mostly) regular; the third declension is just crazy!
My teacher hates it when, instead of asterikizing notes on the third declension or the subjunctive, I PENTAGRAM them.
What’s so crazy about it? The nominative is the only irregular thing, and it usually follows a pattern, but has just been slightly corrupted.
Well, to be more specific, most of my rage is directed to i-stems.
[quote author=Romulus753 link=board=3;threadid=523;start=0#4622 date=1061514721]
Got to give a POSITIVE reply to 3rd Declension! I love the “x” ending words whose nominative or base has pure English carryover value:
styx, stygis ( river styx, stygian)
rex, regis (tyrannosaurus rex, regiment)
appendix, appendicis (appendix, appendices)
lux, lucis (lux- as in light power, lucid)
vox, vocis (vox populi- vociferous)
you can think of many more…just a taste
Got to love those words that come directly in that have a variety of nominatives…
omen, ominis (omen, ominous)
abdomen, abdominis (abdomen, abdominal)
opus, operis (magum opus, opera, operations)
onus, oneris (onus of responsibility, exonerated)
pons, pontis (pons - anatomical word, pontiff, pontoon)
semen, seminis (semen, seminarian, disseminate)
I could go on…ad gloriam…but this is one of the ways I teach the 3rd Declension…tremendous amount of word building material available in this declension…
Valete…
[/quote]
You know, you’re right…Latin has a great potential as a base for other languages, and these stems have the most potential. I’ll definitely have to learn them well when I get to them.
Until then, I still say you’re scaring me. ;D
Keesa
And last night, Dr. B.L.D taught me that 3rd declension makes sense. At least about -s adding consonant stems
The Nominative singular with an “e” changes to “i” in stem/base.
And c+s, g+s = x.
So iúdics changes to iúdex yay!
Before I actually read about it, I made sense of wherefore “x” replaced cs, gs ;D
[quote author=benissimus link=board=3;threadid=523;start=0#4619 date=1061512607]
I like the third declension… there was only one even remotely positive poll answer though >:(
[/quote]
I take it that you chose the “well-balanced breakfast” too, hm?
I like 3rd declension nouns as well. I like them better all the time. Even the “i” stems!
Maybe we need another poll to rate the positive feelings… ;D
Kilmeny
My hierarchy for the declensions would have to be:
4>5>3>2>1 (Sorry, Episcopus, but pretty fourth declensions is :-X)
Conjugations:
4>3>1>2
Yeah, but cornu is the only one in frequent use.
[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=523;start=0#4703 date=1061589929]
Yeah, but cornu is the only one in frequent use.
[/quote]
Are you neglecting your fructus?
That’s not true at all. The word for “hand” is manus, a word for fear, metus. There are quite a few others, but they only make up less than 2 percent of all Latin words
Is the problem remembering the endings or just the fact that the nom & gen can be so different?
Endings are easy; just sing “Jingle Bells” (Start with “Dashing through the snow” & keep going through all the verses & chorus):
(blank) dash
-is -ing
-i through
-em the
-e snow
-es in a
-um one
-ibus horse
-es open
-ibus sleigh
ETC.
There are relatively few i-stems. If you’re aware that they exist, you can probably understand them in context.
As to the stems when reading, I agree with Benissimus (?) that the really weird ones are 3rd. However, the stems usually provide English derivitives which can give a clue to the basic meaning.
Magistra
3rd declension is for a noun declension very evil.
French is so nice, rarely are there any freak changes in plurals and there is no dative genitive etc for nouns really…ah french I loves it. And in speech a plural is pronounced the same as singular the change being the article les enfants l’enfant…
No wonder the french people evolved the language into a simpler flowing form. Latin relatively is very difficult.
[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=523;start=15#4769 date=1061644317]
No wonder the french people evolved the language into a simpler flowing form. Latin relatively is very difficult.
[/quote]
I have to admit to being very grateful that I didn’t have to learn English as a second language… I think Latin must be about a thousand times easier to deal with than English would be!
Kilmeny
That’s because of the damn pronunciation and spelling irregularities damn this language