Highlights from Thurs. 9/15

Chapter 4 introduces neuter nouns, the present tense of “to be” and some special things you can do with Latin adjectives.

You will know a noun is neuter when you come across it because the nominative ends in –um. The accusative also ends in –um, and the nomiative plural and accusative plural end in –a. All the other tags are the same as for masculine second declension nouns. The full set of forms is found on Wheelock p. 32.

Since it’s necessary to have neuter adjective endings to go with neuter nouns, the second declension neuter endings are used for this purpose.

The present tense of "to be" is irregular mainly because it uses two stems, su- and es-. The forms are found on p. 34 of Wheelock.

When the noun that goes with an adjective is left out, it is called a substantive adjective. Only three nouns will be left out: man, woman and thing. If "man" has been left out, the adjective will have masculine endings; if "woman" has been left out, the adjective will have feminine endings; if "thing" has been left out it will have neuter endings. You add the word "man", "woman" or "thing" back in when you do an English translation of the sentence.