CHAPTER 5: PREDICT TO WHICH DECLENSION THE NOUN BELONGS

 1.  As in most languages, Latin nouns are assigned to noun-classes based on crucial similarities.

2.  These noun-classes are called DECLENSIONS.

3.  Here is a table we can use to tell which declension nouns belong to.

	SCATTER SET ENDINGS
DECLENSIONS	FIRST ITEM	SECOND ITEM	REMAINING OBLIQUE FORMS
1st	a	ae	am, ā, ārum, īs, ās
2nd	us	ī	ō, um, a, ōrum, īs, ōs
2nd (n.)	um	ī	ō, um, a, ōrum, īs, ōs
3rd	?	is	ī, em, e, ēs, um, ibus
3rd (n.)	?	is	ī, ?, e, ēs, a, um, ibus
4th	us	ūs	uī, um, uum, ū, ibus, ubus
5th	ēs	ēī	ēī, em, e, ēs, ērum, ēbus

Example 1.  Virōs apparently belongs to the 2^nd declension, because the ending ōs is found only in the 2^nd declension rows.

Example 2.  Oppida apparently belongs to the 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd declension, because the ending a is found in those rows.

1.  poētīs

2.  Perseō

3.  Perseus

4.  fīlius

5.  Iovis

6.  deōrum

7.  avus

8.  Acrisius

9.  Perseum

10.  nepōtem

11.  ōrāculum

12.  puerum

13.  infantem

14.  mātre

15.  arcā

16.  arcam

17.  mare

18.  tempestās

19.  tempestātum

20.  sinū

21.  māter

22.  mātris