Latin · Chapter 4 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Adjectives and agreement
Bonus, bona, bonum against fortis, forte: the two adjective families, and the rule that an adjective agrees with its noun in case, number and gender - not in declension.
The short version
Agreement is case, number and gender. Not declension.
Magna pars is correct even though the two words look nothing alike, because both are feminine nominative singular and that is all agreement asks for. Forti animo is correct too, a third-declension adjective sitting on a second-declension noun, both ablative singular masculine. Stop expecting adjectives to rhyme with their nouns. The endings that match grammatically are the rule; the endings that also match in sound are a coincidence of the first two declensions.
magna pars, forti animo
An adjective with no noun becomes one
Latin does not need a word for men or things to hang an adjective on. Boni means good men, bona means goods or good things, omnia means all things, multi means many people. The gender does the work: masculine plural for people, neuter plural for things. English has to supply the missing noun, which is why omnia vincit amor takes more words to translate than it does to say.
omnia, boni
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