FIRST PRINCIPLES (Continued)

[23.] Inflection. Words may change their forms to indicate some change in sense or use, as, is, are; was, were; who, whose, whom; farmer, farmer’s; woman, women. This is called inflection. The inflection of a noun, adjective, or pronoun is called its declension, that of a verb its conjugation.

[24.] Number. Latin, like English, has two numbers, singular and plural. In English we usually form the plural by adding -s or -es to the singular. So Latin changes the singular to the plural by changing the ending of the word. Compare

Naut-a pugnat
The sailor fights 		Naut-ae pugnant
The sailors fight

[25.] Rule. Nouns that end in -a in the singular end in -ae in the plural.

[26.] Learn the following nouns so that you can give the English for the Latin or the Latin for the English. Write the plural of each.

agri´cola, farmer (agriculture)1 aqua, water (aquarium) causa, cause, reason do´mina, lady of the house, mistress (dominate) filia, daughter (filial) fortū´na, fortune fuga, flight (fugitive) iniū´ria, wrong, injury lūna, moon (lunar) nauta, sailor (nautical) puel´la, girl silva, forest (silvan) terra, land (terrace)

1. The words in parentheses are English words related to the Latin. When the words are practically identical, as causa, cause, no comparison is needed.