Latin for Beginners · Lesson XIII · Part 2: Nouns and adjectives of the first two declensions
13. Second declension: nouns in -er and -ir
Goal: Your child declines puer, ager and vir, and the adjectives līber and pulcher.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- The special vocabulary page for this lesson (near the back of the book; the lesson tells you the page)
- A notebook for Latin, and a pencil
- Index cards for new words (optional)
What's in the book
How puer (boy), ager (field) and vir (man) are declined, and adjectives in -er like līber and pulcher. Then a reading about Italy and a dialogue between Marcus and Cornelius about a son in the army.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Decline fīlius.
The new idea
Some second-declension nouns end in -er or -ir. Section 92 declines them.
puer, puerī, puerō, puerum, puerō
ager, agrī, agrō, agrum, agrō
puer keeps its e all the way through; ager drops it after the nominative. The genitive tells you which pattern a word follows.
Adjectives in -er
The adjectives work the same way:
līber, lībera, līberum
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum
līber keeps the e like puer; pulcher drops it like ager.
Vocabulary
From the special vocabulary for Lesson XIII:
ager, field
puer, boy
vir, man, hero
scūtum, shield
sed, but
Learn the rest of the list, too: it has armor words for the dialogue.
Read "Italia"
Read the passage about Italy in section 95. One sentence:
Pulchra est terra Italia.
The book asks you to notice the word order and the emphasis it gives.
The dialogue
Read "Marcus and Cornelius" in two voices, then translate.
Wrap up
Decline vir and pulcher puer aloud.
Afterwards
Two days: forms and vocabulary on day one, reading and dialogue on day two. The dialogue page has a picture labeled LEGIONARIUS (a legionary soldier); let your child match the armor words in the vocabulary to the picture.