Latin for Beginners · Lesson XL · Part 7: Possum, relatives and the third declension

40. The third declension: consonant stems (Class II)

Goal: Your child declines third-declension nouns that add nothing in the nominative, like cōnsul, legiō, ōrdō and pater.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

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

The second class of consonant stems, with four models: cōnsul, legiō, ōrdō and pater. Six Latin question-and-answer exercises about returning legions, and six English sentences.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Review

    Decline rēx and mīles.

  2. The new idea

    Some consonant stems add nothing in the nominative. After that, the endings are exactly the same as in Lesson XXXIX. Section 236:

    cōnsul, cōnsulis, cōnsulī, cōnsulem, cōnsule

    plural:

    cōnsulēs, cōnsulum, cōnsulibus, cōnsulēs, cōnsulibus

  3. Three patterns

    Stems in -in- and -ōn- drop the n and end in -ō: legiō (legiōnis), ōrdō (ōrdinis). Stems in -tr- end in -ter: pater (patris). The book says: always learn the genitive with the nominative.

  4. Vocabulary

    From the special vocabulary for Lesson XL:

    frāter, frātris, brother

    māter, mātris, mother

    soror, sorōris, sister

    homō, hominis, man, human being

    imperātor, imperātōris, commander in chief, general

    and cōnsul, legiō, ōrdō, pater, Caesar, captīvus and impedīmenta (baggage).

  5. Exercises

    Section 237, Exercise I. Two of them:

    Audīsne tubās, Mārce?

    Eae legiōnēs nūper ex Galliā vēnērunt.

    Then Exercise II, about your father, mother and sister.

  6. Wrap up

    Your child declines māter and frāter aloud. Point out the English cousins: maternal, fraternal.

Answers to the book's problems

Exercise I: 1. Do you hear the trumpets, Marcus? I not only hear the trumpets but I can also see the ranks of soldiers and the carts full of baggage. 2. What legions do we see? Those legions have lately come from Gaul. 3. What did they do there? Were they eager to fight, or were they without courage? 4. They fought many battles and won great victories and many captives. 5. Who is the general of those legions? Caesar, the greatest general of the Romans. 6. Who is the horseman who wears a beautiful crown? That horseman is my brother. The crown was given to him by the consul because he had fought with the greatest courage and had saved his country from the savages.

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

@teddyrookbook GitHub