[21]. 1. EXCEPTIONS IN GENDER. Nouns denoting males are Masculine; as, nauta, sailor; agricola, farmer; also, Hadria, Adriatic Sea.
2. Rare Case-Endings,—
a) An old form of the Genitive Singular in -ās is preserved in the combination pater familiās, father of a family; also in māter familiās, fīlius familiās, fīlia familiās. But the regular form of the Genitive in -ae is also admissible in these expressions; as, pater familiae.
b) In poetry a Genitive in -āī also occurs; as, aulāī.
c) The Locative Singular ends in -ae; as, Rōmae, at Rome.
d) A Genitive Plural in -um instead of -ārum sometimes occurs; as, Dardanidum instead of Dardanidārum. This termination -um is not a contraction of -ārum, but represents an entirely different case-ending.
e) Instead of the regular ending -īs, we usually find -ābus in the Dative and Ablative Plural of dea, goddess, and fīlia, daughter, especially when it is important to distinguish these nouns from the corresponding forms of deus, god, and fīlius, son. A few other words sometimes have the same peculiarity; as, lībertābus (from līberta, freedwoman), equābus (mares), to avoid confusion with lībertīs (from lībertus, freedman) and equīs (from equus, horse).
Greek Nouns.
[22]. These end in -ē (Feminine); -ās and -ēs (Masculine). In the Plural they are declined like regular Latin nouns of the First Declension. In the Singular they are declined as follows:—
| Archiās, Archias. | Epitomē, epitome. | Comētēs, comet. | |
| Nom. | Archiās | epitomē | comētēs |
| Gen. | Archiae | epitomēs | comētae |
| Dat. | Archiae | epitomae | comētae |
| Acc. | Archiam (or -ān) | epitomēn | comētēn |
| Voc. | Archiā | epitomē | comētē (or -ă) |
| Abl. | Archiā | epitomē | comētē (or -ā) |
1. But most Greek nouns in -ē become regular Latin nouns in -a, and are declined like porta; as, grammatica, grammar; mūsica, music; rhētorica, rhetoric.
2. Some other peculiarities occur, especially in poetry.
SECOND DECLENSION.