The Latin language “can be called truly catholic.

” It has been consecrated through

constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and
must be esteemed “a treasure … of incomparable worth.”. It is a general passport
to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents
of the Church’s teaching. It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of
today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity.

-Pope John XXIII (1962)

 Liturgical Latin Beginner Class
Week 0
In-class: Ave Maria: introduction to declensions and cases, good
pronunciation, fun stuff to end

Assigned work: learn first declension, practice with examples at the end,
decide whether to join the course for a month
 Ave maria…
AVE MARIA, GRATIA PLENA

VOC. VOC. VOC.

DOMINUS TECUM

NOM.

BENEDICTA TU [ES] IN MULIERIBUS

VOC. PREP + ABL.

 Ave maria…
BENEDICTA TU IN MULIERIBUS

VOC. PREP + ABL.

ET BENEDICTUS [EST]

NOM.

FRUCTUS VENTRIS TUI

NOM. GEN. GEN.

JESUS

NOM.
First Declension Singular
FIRST DECLENSION PLURAL
What are Cases?
In English, the role of a noun in a sentence is determined by word order. Consider:
- The girl throws the laptop into the lake
- The laptop throws the girl into the lake

Both sentences use the same words, but they mean different things when the
words are put in a different order.

However, Latin uses cases to indicate a noun’s role. A case is sort of like an
identifying tag stuck on to the end of a noun. Word order is very flexible in Latin, so
understanding cases is crucial to understanding Latin sentences. There are six
cases in Latin: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, and ablative.
Case – examples

The Old English language had a case system. Modern English has lost its old
case system, except in a few personal pronouns: she, he, and they. Consider the
sentences:

He pushed her off of the dock

She pushed him off of the dock

When a pronoun is the subject of a sentence, the forms “she”, “he”, or “they” are
used. When a pronoun is the direct or indirect object, the forms “her”, “him”, or
“them” are used.
Declensions
Declensions are the systems or patterns that nouns follow in making their case
endings. Latin has five declensions.

First Declension: nominative singular (nom. sg.) ends in -a

Second Declension: nom. sg. ends in -us, -um, or -er

Third Declension: sort of a catch-all declension, but the genitive singular of third-
declension nouns consistently ends in “-is”

Fourth Declension: nom. sg. ends in -us (but different from second declension)

Fifth Declension: nom. sg. ends in -es

Notes on nouns and declensions

Latin grammar has three genders:

- Masculine
- Feminine
- Neutral (literally Latin for “neither”)

Nouns (including verbal nouns) and adjectives have gender. Verbs do not.

First declension nouns are mostly feminine. The second declension has masculine
and neuter nouns.
Latin Cases
Nominative:
- Names the subject (the thing that does the verb)
- Latin words are referred to by their nominative singular form in dictionaries

Vocative:
- Nouns of direct address (saying the name of the person/thing you’re addressing)
- Always identical to the nominative case, except in the singular vocative of second declension
nouns ending in -us, where it usually changes to -e (Dominus > Domine)

Accusative:
- Names the direct object (the thing that the verb happens to)
- Some objects of prepositions
Latin Cases continued
Genitive:
- shows possession, origin, and source
- Can usually be translated “of [noun]”

Dative:
- Correlates to English grammar’s indirect object
- Think of it as the “giving case”; can usually be translated “to/for [noun]”

Ablative:
- Rather odd. Has many seemingly unrelated uses, but one of the more common uses can be
roughly translated “with/by means of [noun]”
- Some objects of prepositions
 Let’s make sure to pronounce that right
Vowels Vowel groups
A = ahh
ae = eh
E = eh
au = ow (as in cow)
I = eee
O = oh
eu = eh+ou

U = ooo oe = eh
Y = eee
 Let’s make sure to pronounce that right
CONSONANTS

HARD SOFT

CAritas peCCAtoribus CAElum

eCCE
GAUdium uniGEnitus
Exercitia faciamus !
Coquamus !

Let us cook !
Coquamus !

PRANDIUM, -I CASEUS, -I
FAMILIA, -AE PANIS, -IS
FILIA, -AE PANIS FARTUS
Please, review the
material and
practice the first
declension.

VALETE OMNES !