Nouns and adjectives of the 2nd declension

• Nouns and adjectives of masculine that have endings US and ER in

nominative, and nouns and adjectives of neutral that have ending UM
are changed by the 2nd declension.
• Their genitive ends with: -I. In dictionaries we can find these nouns in
forms of nominative and genitive with their gender, like other Latin
nouns.
• e. g. musculus, i m – muscle; cancer, cancri m – cancer; dorsum, i n -
back
 Singularis Pluralis

Nom. musculus a muscle musculi muscles

Gen. musculi a muscle’s musculorum muscles’

Acc. musculum (I’m watching) a musculos (I’m watching)

muscle muscles

Abl. musculo by/with a muscle musculis by/with muscles

 Singularis Pluralis
Nom. cancer a cancer cancri cancers

Gen. cancri a cancer’s cancrorum cancers’

Acc. cancrum (I’m watching) a cancros cancers

cancer

Abl. cancro by/with a cancer cancris by/with cancers

 Singularis Pluralis

Nom. membrum an extremity membra extremities

Gen. membri an extremity’s membrorum extremities’

Acc. membrum (I’m watching) an membra (I’m watching)

extremity extremities

Abl. membro by/with an membris by/with extremities

extremity

Remember: The rule of neuter gender nouns: in every declension nouns of neuter gender have the same form in
Nominativus and in Accusativus Singularis and the same form in Nominativus and Accusativus Pluralis.
• Adjectives with endings -us (in masculine) and -um (in neutral) are changed by the 2nd declension, while
adjectives with endings – a (in feminine) are changed by the 1st declension.
• Forms of adjectives of the 1st and 2nd declensions:
durus, dura, durum – hard, solid
sinister, sinistra, sinistrum – left
• We can see that in English we haven’t got three forms for adjectives for genders, but only one. In Latin we have
three forms for adjectives and they have special change for every gender.
durus (form for masculine gender), dura (form for feminine gender), durum (form of neuter gender)

Singularis Pluralis
Nom. durus - hard dura - hard durum - hard duri durae dura

Gen. duri durae duri durorum durarum durorum

Acc. durum duram durum duros duras dura
Abl. duro dura duro duris duris duris
*Masculine form of adjectives can have suffix -er, for example: niger (m) – black, nigra (f) – black, nigrum (n) –
black. Niger has declension as noun cancer. See above.
**Between the noun and the adjective that describes this noun, there has to be compatibility with regard to the case,
number and especially gender.
Let’s see example:
Cellula, cellulae f – cell - We know that this is the noun of feminine gender, of the 1st declension.
Elasticus, elastica, elasticum – elastic We should choose the feminine form.
And we have: cellula elastica – and these words are declined in the same declension (1st)
But if we have an exception, we have different situation:
Methodus, methodi (exception to feminine in the 2nd declension) – method
Bonus, bona, bonum – good
good method – methodus bona
And these words are declined in different declension: methodus in 2nd, bona in 1st, so we have different
declensions but we keep compatibility for the case, number and gender.
Singularis Pluralis
Nom. methodus bona methodi bonae
Gen. methodi bonae methodorum bonarum
Acc. methodum bonam methodos bonas
Abl. methodo bona methodis bonis
In group of noun of the 2nd declension also declined nouns of feminine (f.) gender, which have suffix -us or -er in
Nominativus and suffix -i in Genitivus, for example:
diameter, diametri f – dimension, size
methodus, methodi f – method
periodus, periodi f – period
alvus, alvi f – abdomen, stool