Latin · Chapter 7 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
The fourth and fifth declensions
Manus and res: the two small declensions everyone meets last and forgets first. Short paradigms, a handful of essential nouns, and the dies/res family that runs the calendar.
The short version
exercitus looks like dominus until you check the genitive
The fourth declension has a genitive singular in -us and shows itself in the dative -ui and the ablative -u: manus, manui, manu. It holds mostly masculine nouns built off verbs, such as usus, exercitus, senatus, adventus and impetus, plus feminine manus and domus. Its nominative is indistinguishable from a second-declension one, so once again the genitive is the form that settles it. And manus on its own is four different forms.
exercitus, exercitus
The fifth declension is small, feminine and mostly res
Genitive singular in -ei, and nearly everything in it is feminine: res, rem, rei, rei, re, with plural res, res, rerum, rebus. Only res and dies decline right through the plural, fides has no plural at all, and dies is masculine except when it means an appointed day, at which point it turns feminine. Domus is the other oddity worth knowing: half fourth declension, half second, and keeping a locative domi on top.
res, rei, rerum
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