Addenda to the Second Declension and Adjectives

[AureliaeLacrimae]

Well, there's also a small group of nouns (masculine) in the second declension which are different from amicus, i, m. One of the typical nouns which belong here is puer, pueri, m, which means a boy (puella, ae, f is a girl, I'd forgotten to mention it before). Same is with vir, viri, m, which means a man.

So, puer, pueri, m            and      vir, viri, m

N  puer                  pueri                      vir              viri

G  pueri                  puerorum                viri            virorum

D  puero                pueris                    viro            viris

Ac  puerum              pueros                    virum        viros

V  puer                  pueri                      vir            viri

Ab puero                  pueris                    viro            viris

Some other nouns following the same pattern are:

vesper, vesperis, m - evening

socer, soceri, m - father-in-law

gener, generi, m - son-in-law

This is the long base, with long genitive: soceri, generi, pueri. However, only a handful of nouns have the long genitive, with ''extra'' e in their base. Most of them abbreviate the base, e.g.

liber, libri, m - book

(not liberi)

You will find so much more nouns of this type. The dictionary will always tell you whether the base has an extra e or not, so don't worry.

There are, naturally, some of adjectives which follow the same pattern like puer, i, m or liber, bri, m. This means that their masculine form changes to follow this pattern, but feminine and neuter remain the same. One of the best examples is an adjective miser, misera, miserum, ''poor'' which is as follows:

Sg poor boy              Pl

N  miser puer              miseri pueri

G  miseri pueri            miserorum puerorum

D  misero puero          miseris pueris

Ac  miserum puerum      miseros pueros

V  miser puer              miseri pueri

Ab  misero puero          miseris pueris

As I said, feminine form doesn't change, so it would be misera puella, miserae puellae.

Similar adjectives are:

liber, libera, liberum - free (note: liber, libri, m is book, liber, libera, liberorum is an adjective meaning free)

pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum - pretty

dexter, dextra, dextrum - right

sinister, sinistra, sinistrum - left