Latin for Beginners · Lesson XVI · Part 3: Possessives, pronouns and the ablative

16. The nine irregular adjectives

Goal: Your child knows the nine adjectives with genitive -īus and dative -ī, and the idioms alter... alter and aliī... aliī.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 7 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook for Latin, and a pencil

What's in the book

Nine adjectives that decline like bonus except in the genitive and dative singular. Paradigms of nūllus and alius, three idioms, ten Latin sentences and seven English ones.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Review

    Which kind of ablative is "with a sword"? "with his friend"? "because of hunger"?

  2. The nine words

    Section 108 lists them. Learn them as a set:

    alius, alia, aliud, other, another

    alter, altera, alterum, the one, the other (of two)

    nūllus, -a, -um, none, no

    sōlus, -a, -um, alone

    tōtus, -a, -um, all, whole, entire

    uter, utra, utrum, which? (of two)

    neuter, neutra, neutrum, neither (of two)

    along with ūnus (one) and ūllus (any).

  3. What is different

    They end in -īus in the genitive singular and -ī in the dative singular, in all genders. Everything else is like bonus. Read the table of nūllus and alius in section 109. Note the neuter aliud.

  4. Idioms

    Section 110: alter... alter means "the one... the other"; alius... alius means "one... another"; aliī... aliī means "some... others". Example from the book:

    Aliī gladiōs, aliī scūta portant

    "some carry swords, others shields."

  5. Latin to English

    Exercise I. Two of them:

    Alter puer est nauta, alter agricola.

    Lesbia sōla cēnam parat.

  6. English to Latin

    Exercise II. Remind your child that these adjectives usually stand before their nouns.

  7. Wrap up

    Your child recites the nine words from memory. A little chant helps.

Answers to the book's problems

Exercise I: 1. In which cottage is Julia? Julia is in neither cottage. 2. The teacher gives a reward to no bad boy. 3. One boy is a sailor, the other a farmer. 4. Some men love the water, others the land. 5. Galba alone works with zeal. 6. Is there any cart in my field? 7. Lesbia is the maid of one master, Tullia of the other. 8. Lesbia alone prepares dinner. 9. The dinner of no other maid is good. 10. Lesbia gives dinner to no other man.

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

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