Latin, like all other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflectional, and so has a very flexible word order. Thus Latin is archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In Latin there are five declensions of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. Latin does not have articles and does not differentiate, for example, a girl and the girl; the same word, puella, represents both. Latin syntax is generally Subject Object Verb, although variations on this syntax in poetry are common. Latin is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually places adjectives after their nouns. Latin is also pro-drop and verb-framed. For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... The word conjugation has several meanings: Grammatical conjugation is the modification of a verb from its basic form. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ... In linguistics, branching is the general tendency towards a given order of words within sentences and smaller grammatical units within sentences (such as subordinate propositions, prepositional phrases, etc. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjectives subject), giving more information about what the noun or pronoun refers to. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... A pro-drop language (from pronoun-dropping) is a language where pronouns can be deleted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable (the precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite intricate). ... In linguistics, verb framing is a term used to describe how verb phrases in different languages vary regarding whether the main verb tends to encode the manner of motion or the direction of motion. ...

Verbs

Detailed information and conjugation tables can be found at Latin conjugation. Conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from one basic form. ...

Verbs are one of the trickiest areas of Latin; each verb has numerous conjugated forms. Verbs have three moods (indicative, imperative, and subjunctive), two voices (active and passive), two numbers (singular and plural), three persons (first, second and third), and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated in six main tenses (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect), and have complements of moods for the present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect. Infinitives and participles occur in the present, perfect, and future tenses.

Conjugation is the process of inflecting verbs; a set of conjugated forms for a single word is called a conjugation. Latin verbs are divided into four different conjugations by their infinitives, distinguished by the endings -āre, -ēre, -ere, and -īre.

There are six tenses (Latin: tempus) in Latin. They are: Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ...

• Present (Latin: praesens): describes actions happening at the time of speaking:

  The slave carries (or is carrying) the wine jar home.

• Imperfect (Latin: imperfectum): describes actions continuing in the past:

  The slave used to carry (or was carrying) the wine jar home.

• Future (Latin: futurum simplex): describes actions taking place in the future:

  The slave will carry the wine jar home.

• Perfect (Latin: perfectum): describes actions completed by the present:

  The slave carried (or has carried) the wine jar home.

• Pluperfect (Latin: plusquamperfectum): describes actions occurring before another past action:

  The slave had carried the wine jar home.

• Future Perfect (Latin: futurum exactum): describes actions that will be completed some time in the future:

  By tomorrow, the slave will have carried the wine jar home.

There are three moods (Latin: modus): For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ... It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ... The perfect tenses are verb tenses showing actions completed at or before a specific time. ... The pluperfect tense (from Latin: plus quam perfectum more than perfect) is a perfective tense that exists in most Indo-European languages, used to refer to an event that has completed before another past action. ... The future perfect tense is used to describe an event that has not yet happened but is expected or planned to happen before another stated occurrence. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ...

• Indicative (Latin: indicativus), which states facts: That slave is carrying a wine jar.
• Subjunctive or Conjunctive (Latin: coniunctivus), which is used for possibilities, intentions, necessities, statements contrary to fact: Let the slave carry the jar. The subjunctive is also used with the formation of subordinate clauses. We hoped the slave would carry the jar. If the slave were carrying the jar.
• Imperative (Latin: imperativus): used for commands: "Hurry and carry this wine jar home!"

There are two voices (Latin: genus): In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

• Active (Latin: activum), where the verb is done by the subject: The slave carried the wine jar home.
• Passive (Latin: passivum), where the verb is done to the subject: The wine jar was carried home by the slave.

Voice, in grammar, is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

Nouns

Detailed information and declension tables can be found at Latin declension. Latin is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. ...

Nouns (including proper nouns and pronouns) have six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and vocative (special nouns have a seventh "locative" case); three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, which serve a grammatical function, not to distinguish the sex of the object; and two numbers: singular and plural. Declining is the process of inflecting nouns; a set of declined forms of the same word is called a declension. Most adjectives, pronouns, and participles indicate the gender of the noun they reference or modify.

Most nouns in the 1st declension are feminine; most in the 2nd are masculine and neuter; nouns in the 3rd can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter; nouns in the 4th are either masculine or neuter; and in the 5th they are usually feminine, with a few masculine. It is necessary to learn the gender of each noun because it is often impossible to discern the gender from the word itself. One must also memorize to which declension each noun belongs in order to be able to decline it. Therefore Latin nouns are often memorized with their genitive (rex, regis) as this gives a good indication for the declension to use and reveals the stem of the word (reg, not rex).

• The nominative case, which is used to express the subject of a statement.
• The genitive case, which expresses possession, measurement, or source. In English, the preposition of is used to denote this case.
• The dative case, which expresses the recipient of an action, the indirect object of a verb. It also is used to represent agency in a construction with a passive periphrastic. In English, the prepositions to and for most commonly denote this case.
• The accusative case, which expresses the direct object of a verb or direction or extent of motion.
• The ablative case, which expresses separation, indirection, or the means by which an action is performed. In English, the prepositions by, with, and from most commonly denote this case.
• The vocative case, which is used to address someone or something in direct speech.
• The locative case, which is used to express the place in or on which, or the time at which, an action is performed. The locative case is extremely marginal in Latin, applying only to the names of cities and small islands and to a few other isolated words, and is identical to the genitive case in the singular of the first and second declension, and the ablative case otherwise.

The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... In linguistics, the ablative case is a noun case found in several languages, including Latin, Sanskrit and in the Finno_Ugric languages. ... The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed, found in Latin among other languages. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ...

Determiners and personal pronouns

Detailed information and declension tables can be found at Latin declension. Latin is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. ...

In Latin there is no indefinite article or definite article, though there are demonstratives, such as hic, haec, hoc (masculine, feminine and neuter for this) and ille, illa, illud (for that). As in English, these can act as pronouns as well. There are also possessive adjectives and pronouns, cardinal and ordinal numbers, quantifiers, interrogatives, etc. An article is a word that is put next to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made to the noun. ... Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ... // Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. ... Headline text hjvhwhatsgm,Possessive adjectives modify nouns. ... A possessive pronoun is a word that attributes ownership to someone or something without using a noun. ... Aleph-0, the smallest infinite cardinal In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalized kind of number used to denote the size of a set, known as its cardinality. ... In set theory, ordinal, ordinal number, and transfinite ordinal number refer to a type of number introduced by Georg Cantor in 1897, to accommodate infinite sequences and to classify sets with certain kinds of order structures on them. ... In language and logic, quantification is a construct that specifies the extent of validity of a predicate, that is the extent to which a predicate holds over a range of things. ... Interrogative redirects here. ...

Personal pronouns also exist, for each one of the three possible persons, in both singular and plural. As in most Romance languages and English, only third-person pronouns show gender differentiation (check is, ea, id: he, she, it).

Adjectives

Detailed information and declension tables can be found at Latin declension. Latin is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. ...

In Latin, adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in case and number and gender. Because of this, Latin adjectives must also be declined. First and second declension adjectives are declined identically to nouns of the first and second declension. Unless the word in question is in poetry, adjectives are generally placed behind the nouns they modify. Adjectives exist, like in English, with positive, comparative and superlative forms. Positive and superlative adjectives are declined according to the first and second declension noun paradigm, but comparative adjectives are declined according to the third declension noun paradigm. When used in sentences, the comparative adjective (better, faster, brighter) may be put in the ablative or with the addition of 'quam' (Latin: than).

• Cornelia est fortis puella: Cornelia is a strong girl.
• Cornelia est fortior puella quam Flavia: Cornelia is a stronger girl than Flavia. (Here quam is used.)
• Cornelia est fortior puella Flaviā: Cornelia is a stronger girl than Flavia. (Here Flavia is in the ablative.)
• Cornelia est fortissima puella omnium: Cornelia is the strongest girl of all.

regular adjectives

Adverbs

Detailed information and declension tables can be found at Latin declension. Latin is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. ...

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs by indicating time, place, or manner. Latin adverbs are indeclinable. They can be formed by modifying the ending of an adjective. Like adjectives, adverbs have positive, comparative, and superlative forms.

The positive form of an adverb is formed from the first and second declension adjectives, in which a long -e replaces the ending. Instead of the adjective clarus, -a, -um, which mean bright, the adverb is clare, which means brightly.

The comparative form of an adverb, formed from third declension adjectives, is extremely simple. It is exactly the same as the neuter nominative singular form of a comparative adjective and it almost always ends in -ius. Instead of the adjective clarior, which mean brighter, the adverb is clarius, which means more brightly.

The superlative form as well is extremely simple. It has exactly the same stem as the superlative adjective and it always ends in a long -e. Instead of the adjective clarissimus, which mean brightest, the adverb is clarissime, which means most brightly.

Word order

Latin allows for a very flexible word order because of its inflectional syntax. Ordinary prose tended to follow the pattern of Subject, Indirect Object, Direct Object, Adverbial Words or Phrases, Verb (SIDAV). Any extra, though subordinate verbs, are placed before the main verb, for example infinitives. Adjectives and participles usually directly followed nouns, unless they were adjectives of beauty, size, quantity, goodness, or truth, in which case they preceded the noun being modified. Relative clauses were commonly placed after the antecedent which the relative pronoun describes. While these patterns for word order were the most frequent in Classical Latin prose, they are frequently varied; and it is important to recall that there is virtually no evidence surviving that suggests the word order of colloquial Latin (see Vulgar Latin). Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffito at Pompeii, was the speech of ordinary people of the Roman Empire — different from the classical Latin used by the Roman elite. ...

In poetry, however, word order was often changed for the sake of the meter, for which vowel quantity (short vowels vs. long vowels and diphthongs) and consonant clusters, not rhyme and word stress, governed the patterns. It is, however, important to bear in mind that poets in the Roman world wrote primarily for the ear, not for the eye; many premiered their work in recitation for an audience. Hence variations in word order served a rhetorical, as well as a metrical purpose; they certainly did not prevent understanding. In Virgil's Eclogues, for example, he writes, Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori!: Love conquers all, let us yield to love!. The words omnia (all), amor (love) and amori (to love) are thrown into relief by their unusual position in their respective phrases. The meter here is dactylic hexameter, in which Virgil composed The Aeneid, Rome's national epic. This article is about the art form. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ... Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Vergil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ...

The ending of the common Roman name Marcus is different in each of the following examples due to its grammatical usage in that sentence. The ordering in the following sentences would be perfectly correct in Latin and no doubt understood with clarity, despite the fact that in English they're awkward at best and senseless at worst:

• Marcus ferit Corneliam: Marcus hits Cornelia. (Subject-Verb-Object)
• Marcus Corneliam ferit: Marcus Cornelia hits. (Subject-Object-Verb)

• Cornelia dedit Marco donum: Cornelia has given Marcus a gift. (Subject, Verb, Indirect Object, Direct Object)
• Cornelia Marco donum dedit: Cornelia Marcus a gift has given. (Subject, Indirect Object, Direct Object, Verb)

Ablative absolute

In Latin grammar, the ablative absolute (Latin: ablativus absolutus) is a noun phrase cast in the ablative case. More specifically it consists of a noun or pronoun and some participle (in the case of sum ["to be"] a zero morpheme often has to be used as the past and present participle do not exist, only the future participle), all in the ablative absolute. It indicates the time, condition, or attending circumstances of an action being described in the main sentence. It takes the place of, and translates, many phrases that would require a subordinate clause in English. The unfamiliarity of this construction makes it sometimes difficult for Latin students to grasp; however, mastery of this construction is needed to write Latin well, and its availability makes Latin prose quite concise. The closest English equivalent is the nominative absolute. For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... For the rules of English grammar, see English grammar and Disputes in English grammar. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... Look up phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, ablative case (also called the sixth case) (abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common thread is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a null morpheme is a morpheme that is realized by a phonologically null affix (an empty string of phonological segments). ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A nominative absolute is a free-standing (absolute) part of a sentence that describes or modifies the main subject and verb. ...

The closest translation to the Latin follows the paradigm, with the NOUN PARTICIPLE. This construction however can often sound awkward in English. Therefore, it is often finessed into some other, more English-like, construction. In the following examples, the first line is the direct translation from Latin, while the second has been construed to sound more at home in English. The usage of present, passive or future participles will determine the verbal idea in the ablative absolute.

Urbe capta, Aeneas fugit

• The city having been captured, Aeneas flees. (literal)
• With the city having been captured, Aeneas flees.
• When the city was captured, Aeneas flees.

Ovidio exule, Musae planguntur. Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598. ...

• Ovid having been exiled, the Muses weep. (literal)
• With Ovid having been exiled, the Muses weep.
• The Muses weep because Ovid has been exiled.

The ablative absolute indicates the time when things happened, or the circumstances when they occurred. For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ...

vivo Caesare...

• with Caesar having been alive...
• when Caesar was alive...

It also indicates the causes of things, as in:

Ira calefacta, sapientia dormit.

• With anger having been kindled, wisdom sleeps.
• Wisdom sleeps because anger is kindled.

Domino absente, fur fenestram penetravit.

• With the master being absent, a thief entered the window.
• Since the master was absent, a thief entered the window.

It can be used to add descriptions:

Passis palmis, pacem petiverunt.

• With hands outstretched, they sued for peace.
• Hands outstretched, they sued for peace.

Sometimes an infinitive or clause occurs in the ablative absolute construction, especially in Livy and later authors: In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ...

audito eum fugisse...

• with it having been heard that he had fled...
• having heard that he had fled...
• when they heard he had fled...

The ablative absolute construction is sometimes imitated in English in a construction called the nominative absolute: "The Americans, (with) their independence secured, formed a government." But the construction is rarer and less natural in English than it is in Latin. It was introduced by early modern authors heavily influenced by Latin, for example, John Milton whose Paradise Lost is an example of the construction. A nominative absolute is a free-standing (absolute) part of a sentence that describes or modifies the main subject and verb. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Paradise Lost (disambiguation). ...

See also

• Latin mnemonics
• William Whitaker's Words

To remember the present active indicative verb tense endings: Actual: Singular 1st person: -m/o 2nd person: -s 3rd person: -t Plural 1st person: -mus 2nd person: -tis 3rd person: -nt mnemonic phrase: Most Must Isnt (-M/O-S-T-MUS-TIS-NT) To remember the conjugating vowels of... William Whitakers Words is a computer program that parses the inflection or conjugation of a Latin word, and also translates the root into English. ...

References

• Bennett, Charles E., Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, 1895).
• Wheelock, Frederic, Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0-06-078423-7

Cover for a 1994 edition of Bennetts New Latin Grammar Charles Edwin Bennett (April 6, 1858-1921) was an American classical scholar and the Goldwin Smith Professor of Latin at Cornell University. ...

External links

• Ablative Absolute from Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar
• Ablative Absolute by William Harris
• Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid from Notre Dame. Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid (Notre Dame).