Third or Mixed Declension - Consonant Base

[AureliaeLacrimae]

This is a large compilation of nouns and therefore, it is only natural that they don't have one ending. They do follow one pattern, though.

We can distinguish two major groups according to their base:

1) consonant base

2) vowel base i-

Consonant base nouns have one syllable more in genitive, and that's why we call them imparisyllaba, ''of unequal syllables''. Vowel base i- nouns have the same amount of syllables and therefore we call them parisyllaba (''of equal syllables'').

Nomintive singular of these nouns can either be formed by adding -s on their base or  without it. Wherever -s is added in following examples I marked it:

Consonant endings can be:

1) explosives:

                labials p, b (princep-s first man; trab-s beam of wood)

                dentals d, t (that's right, d and t are dentals in Latin: virtus - virtue, from virtut-s; lapis - stone, from lapid-s)

                gutturals c, g (vox - voice, from voc-s; rex - king, from reg-s)

2) liquids l, r (sol - sun, victor - winner)

3) nasals m, n (hiem-s - winter, nomen - name)

4)  spirant s (mos - habit, mores; ius - law; genus - kind, race)

These are the general endings for consonant base nouns:

          Sg                  Pl

N      -s/-0                -es

G      -is                  -um

D      -i                    -ibus

Acc    -em                -es

V          =N            -es

Ab    -e                    -ibus

Best examples are victor, is, m - winner and lex,gis, f - law

                      Sg                                  Pl

N        victor-0        lex (leg-s)        victor-es    leg-es

G        victor-is      leg-is              victor-um    leg-um

D        victor-i        leg-i                victor-ibus    leg-ibus

Acc      victor-em    leg-em            victor-es      leg-es

V (=N)  victor          lex                  victor-es      leg-es

Ab        victor-e      leg-e                victor-ibus  leg-ibus

This declension is complicated because nominative base isn't the same as genitive: lex compared to legis. However, once you learn that you must take the base from genitive form, which is always written down in dictionaries, you don't have to worry!