29
votes
Accepted
Do *Mundi* and *Mundum* mean different things?
These are the exact same word, and yes both mean "world" but no you cannot substitute them for each other. Latin is a fully inflexional language, which means that the words have endings which change ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
28
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Meaning of "dies illa" from Dies Irae
This means "illa" definitely doesn't refer to "dies".
But it does!
The word dies can be feminine, and it is here.
The feminine gender is rarer but it is the typical choice for a special day like an ...
- 116k
19
votes
Why is suus in the accusative feminine singular in this sentence?
This is a really common stumbling block for those approaching Latin from the background of a language like English, so it merits a careful step-by-step explanation. I'll break my response into two ...
- 42.9k
19
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What is the significance of the different declensions and conjugations?
It's pretty much arbitrary.
There are some standard patterns: first-declension nouns tend to be feminine, second-declension masculine/neuter, third-declension abstract concepts, fourth-declension ...
- 69.3k
19
votes
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What are the relative frequencies of cases in Latin?
From the Perseus Database, the frequency of the cases is as follows:
Nouns (19630):
accusative 31.6%
ablative 25.8%
nominative 22.6%
genitive 13.6%
dative 4.6%
vocative 1.2%
locative 0.2%
unknown 0....
- 11k
19
votes
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Is "victurus" a future participle of "vivo" and "vinco"?
Sebastian Koppehel said the important bits but I want to provide some background for people who like that sort of thing (me). Don't let this confuse you if you don't find it helpful—it can be a lot ...
- 11.1k
19
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Why is "tyrannis" in "sic semper tyrannis" interpreted as "to tyrants"?
This is not tyrannĭs, a form of tyrannis "tyranny", but tyrannīs, a form of tyrannus "tyrant".
Without the macron, it could also be read as "thus always, o tyranny", but ...
- 69.3k
16
votes
What is the difference between Iesus and Jesu?
The phrase you quote has words in the vocative case.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe
The vocative case is used for address. That is,
O Lord, only begotten son, Jesus Christ
The particle O ...
- 12.1k
16
votes
What declension is the name, Aeneas?
It is of the first declension, but not of the most typical kind.
I would divide the first declension into four classes:
Case
(Feminine) A-type
Masculine A-type
Feminine E-type
Masculine E-type
...
- 116k
16
votes
Is "victurus" a future participle of "vivo" and "vinco"?
If you look up vivo and vinco in a dictionary, you will see that both have the same supine stem: victum. Thus they share not only the future participle, but also the two supines and the perfect ...
- 36.1k
15
votes
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Which Latin declension is most common?
According to this study, the distribution is as follows:
1st declension 21.6%
2nd declension 23.7%
3rd declension 52.6%
4th declension 1.4%
5th declension 0.7%
("Development of Gender ...
- 11k
14
votes
Accepted
Remnants of the dual number
The -ī of vīgintī "20" is originally a dual ending, the same one as in frēnī (PIE *-ih₁). This is why the ending of vīgintī is different from that of the other tens (trīgintā etc.)
- 31.5k
14
votes
Do *Mundi* and *Mundum* mean different things?
The Latin word used for "world" here is mundus.
This word has several forms (singular/plural):
nominative: mundus/mundi
accusative: mundum/mundos
genitive: mundi/mundorum
dative: mundo/mundis
...
- 116k
14
votes
Is "Io" accusative case in "Iuppiter, rex deorum, pulchram Io amabat"?
A number of Greek names ending in -ō have both Latin and Greek style declensions.
For example:
Greek
Latin
nom.
Dīdō
Dīdō
acc.
Dīdō
Dīdōnem
gen.
Dīdūs
Dīdōnis
dat.
Dīdō
Dīdōnī
abl.
Dīdō
Dīdōne
...
- 116k
14
votes
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Are the cases in Latin always six?
Generally, most nouns and adjectives have six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and vocative). However, this isn't always the case.
Some words are defective, where they appear ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
14
votes
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Is any word attested in both vocative and locative?
Corinthus
City names regularly have locative forms (identical to the genitive singular), and it is not too rare for them to be addressed with a vocative, which takes the regular ending -e if the name ...
- 30.1k
13
votes
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What gender would "this" or "that" be in if there is no subject to describe?
To complete your example, it would be,
Quid est hoc? What is this?
Because "what" is neuter, whereas "who" could be masculine or feminine.
The demonstratives (hic, ille, iste, ...
- 12.1k
13
votes
What is the difference between Iesus and Jesu?
Ancient Latin had no separate letter for the the vowel I and the consonant Y (J in German). They were both written as I. In Medieval Latin, though, a development took place that differentiated between ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
13
votes
Meaning of "dies illa" from Dies Irae
It is the feminine nominative and refers to dies. It means “that day.”
You do not say why you think you can definitely rule it out, but I guess you think dies is masculine, which is indeed the case. ...
- 36.1k
13
votes
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Why is *dōna* the plural acc. Instead of *donos* like the rest of the 2nd declensions?
Dōnum is neuter; amīcus, fīlius, and ager are masculine. Neuter nouns are always the same in both the nominative and accusative case, in both singular and plural. See this question for more about how ...
- 16.5k
13
votes
Accepted
Alternative methods of ordering declensions
It is not an ordering, but it is common in the context of historical linguistics or comparative Indo-European linguistics to categorize nouns by the ending element of the stem:
first declension is ā-...
- 30.1k
13
votes
Is "Io" accusative case in "Iuppiter, rex deorum, pulchram Io amabat"?
For unfamiliar words, it never hurts to check the dictionary. Here is what Lewis and Short have:
Īō, Iūs, and Īōn , Iōnis, f., = Ἰώ, I.a daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, beloved by Jupiter, and ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
13
votes
Why is "O felicem virum, beatum Ioseph" in the accusative case here?
The vocative is used when addressing someone. The fact that it isn't used in the first part of this prayer makes me think that that portion is not meant to be addressed to Joseph (unlike the "Ora ...
- 30.1k
12
votes
Accepted
New testament Romans 2:8 - Why is nominative used instead of accusative like the previous verse?
Regarding why the Latin text uses the accusative and then the nominative, this is simply because the Vulgate is closely following the Greek original:
6 ὃς ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ·
7 τοῖς ...
- 42.9k
12
votes
Do common nominative adjective endings also work with neuter nouns?
Maior and minor are what's called "two-termination" 3rd declension adjectives. This means that masculine and feminine take one form and neuter another. You'll be able to tell this by looking ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Exactly what is a declension?
Good question!
"Declension" (like "conjugation") is a word that means two different things.
In the abstract sense, "declension" is the abstract process of changing a noun or adjective's ending to ...
- 69.3k
11
votes
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Is the adjective in latin put after the noun or before?
The prosaic word order in Latin—that is, the ordinary, normal, unremarkable word order—goes like this:
noun modifier
The noun comes first, and the modifier comes right after. The modifier can be ...
- 16.5k
11
votes
Does an irregular word decline regularly if it is used as a proper name?
Latin proper names certainly can be declined in the third declension, like the common noun rēx, rēgis
First, a small note on terminology: the noun rēx "king" is not generally considered to ...
- 30.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Why is it "Discipulus pulcher est" and not "Discipulus pulchrus est"?
There is no word pulchrus. The word in the masculine, nominative, singular is pulcher, and it is one of the 2nd declension noun and adjectives that end in -er.
There are many adjectives of this type, ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Why is there no case agreement between "magni" and "poetae"?
There is agreement, in fact! Both of these words are masculine genitive singular.
The trick is that poēta is a masculine noun, despite being in the first declension. So the genitive singular is -ae, ...
- 69.3k
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