Demonstratives: hic, haec, hoc

Hic, haec, hoc means this; ille, illa, illud means that. Each is one word in three genders, and it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, all at once: hic deus, this god; haec terra, this land; hoc nomen, this name. English says this and that; Latin re-inflects the pointer every time.

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1. 1hoc
2. 2istud
3. 3illud
4. 4ego
5. 5tu

Hoc is the thing by me (ego), istud the thing by you (tu), illud the thing far off on the hill. The neuter is how Latin points at a thing with no noun: this thing, that thing.

The forms that matter

In real sentences the nominative and accusative do most of the pointing, so drill these first. Read each row as masculine, feminine, neuter:

In these four cases ille runs on the endings of bonus with two exceptions: the masculine nominative is ille, not illus, and the neuter singular ends in -d. So it is illud nomen, that name, never illum nomen.

Hic is craggier, with a -c welded onto most singular forms. Its accusative hunc looks like an -um ending plus -c, with the m turned to n before it.

Agreement, worked

Take deus, masculine. As a subject it is hic deus; as an object, hunc deum. The demonstrative changes because the noun's case changes:

The last two rows show the neuter rule: every neuter uses one form for nominative and accusative, so hoc nomen never changes between subject and object.

Plurals run the same race:

• Hi dies - these days
• Hae terrae - these lands
• Haec nomina - these names

Yes, haec is both feminine singular (haec terra, this land) and neuter plural (haec nomina, these names). The noun beside it settles which.