Page:Latin for beginners (1911).djvu/34

14 LESSON II FIRST PRINCIPLES (Continued) 23. Inflection. Words may change their forms to indicate some change in sense or use, as, is, are; was, were; who, whose, whom; farmer, farmer's; woman, women. This is called inflection. The inflection of a noun, adjective, or pronoun is called its declension, that of a verb its conjugation.

24. Number. Latin, like English, has two numbers, singular and plural. In English we usually form the plural by adding -s or -es to the singular. So Latin changes the singular to the plural by changing the ending of the word. Compare

25. . Nouns that end in -a in the singular end in -ae in the plural.

26. Learn the following nouns so that you can give the English for the Latin or the Latin for the English. Write the plural of each.


 * agri’cola, farmer (agriculture)
 * aqua, water (aquarium)
 * causa, cause, reason
 * do’mina, lady of the house, mistress (dominate)
 * fīlia, daughter (filial)
 * fortū’na, fortune
 * fuga, flight (fugitive)
 * iniū’ria, wrong, injury
 * lūna, moon (lunar)
 * nauta, sailor (nautical)
 * puel’la, girl
 * silva, forest (silvan)
 * terra, land (terrace)

27. Compare again the sentences

In the first sentence the verb pugna-t is in the third person singular, in the second sentence pugna-nt is in the third person plural.