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Latin grammar Part of Chapter 2

CEFR A1-A2

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Latin Declensions: Chart of All Five and How to Spot Them

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 11 October 2026

Every Latin noun belongs to one of five families, the declensions, and each family has its own set of case endings. You find the family from the dictionary's second form, the genitive singular, which also gives you the stem. That is why every noun is cited twice: , , king.

nominativeaccusativegenitivedativeablativeWhat do the colours mean?
DeclensionGenitiveExampleEnglish
First-ae, land
Second-i, master
Third-, king
Fourth-us, hand
Fifth-, day

The tables below leave out the vocative, because it matches the nominative everywhere except second-declension -us nouns (, O master). What each case is FOR is on the Latin cases page.

The genitive gives you the stem

Strip the genitive ending and what is left is the stem, the base every other form is built on. In the third declension the nominative hides it completely:

NominativeGenitiveStemEnglish
reg-king
corpor-body
nomin-name
itiner-journey
homin-person
-head

You could not have guessed one of those stems from the nominative, and every other case is built on the stem:

  • . - I see the king. (not rexem)
  • . - They say the names.

A noun learned without its genitive is a noun you can recognise and cannot use.

The first two declensions

These are the friendly ones. The first has genitive -ae and is overwhelmingly feminine: . - The land is large.

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

The second has genitive -i. Its nouns in -us are mostly masculine, as in . - The master is good. Those in -um are neuter, as in , word, and , war.

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

The neuter rule

Every neuter noun in Latin, in every declension, uses one form for nominative and accusative, and in the plural that form ends in -:

  • . - War is bad.
  • . - I see war.
  • . - Wars are bad.

That saves memorising, and it costs you the ending as a clue to subject or object: on a neuter, the verb and the other nouns have to settle it.

The third declension

Genitive -. It is the largest family and holds a striking share of the most frequent nouns: , , and among them. All its difficulty is in the nominative singular. Once you have the stem, the endings are regular:

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

A neuter such as , takes the same endings with the neuter rule applied:

CaseSingularPlural
Nom/Acc
Gen
Abl

The one real complication is the i-stems, which take -ium in the genitive plural and -ia in the neuter plural: , of cities; , seas. They are on the third declension page.

The fourth and fifth

Small families, but a few very common words live in them. The fourth has genitive -us, with a -u- running through it:

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

The fifth has genitive -. It is tiny, but (thing) and (day) are among the commonest nouns in Latin:

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

runs the same way: . - I see the thing. Two exceptions earn a mention: is usually masculine, and (house) borrows second-declension forms, as in , at home, and , from home. Both are on the fourth and fifth declension page.

Adjectives do not have to match the family

An adjective agrees with its noun in case, number and gender, not in declension. uses second-declension endings and third-declension ones, and they agree perfectly, because the case is the same:

LatinEnglish
a great king (subject)
a great king (object)
of a great king

Same colour, different letters: that is agreement. The full rules are on adjectives and agreement.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
rexembuild on the genitive's , reg-
corpum (object)a neuter's accusative is its nominative
the adjective agrees in case
learning alone, the genitive gives family and

What to do next

  1. Say every new noun with its genitive: , ; , .
  2. Run the drill below: sort by genitive, then build forms on the stem.
  3. Then see what Latin does with all these endings in Latin word order.

Practise: test yourself

Sort into groups

0/8

Sort each noun into its declension. Read the genitive, the second form.

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Build the word

0/5

Build the form on the stem the genitive gives you.

  1. rex, regis: accusative singular

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  2. homo, hominis: accusative singular

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  3. caput, capitis: genitive singular

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  4. corpus, corporis: plural subject

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  5. terra, terrae: accusative singular

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

Matching

0/5

Match each noun to its genitive, and so to its stem.

Translation drill

0/3

Translate, reading the case endings.

  1. verbum regis

  2. filius domini

  3. pars corporis

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Practice worksheets and infographics

Practice worksheets with answer keys built in, plus infographic and listicle formats. Open any one to view, print or save.

Infographics

  1. Key points infographic
  2. Table 1
  3. The genitive gives you the stem
  4. The first two declensions
  5. The first two declensions
  6. The third declension
  7. The third declension
  8. The fourth and fifth
  9. The fourth and fifth
  10. Adjectives do not have to match the family
  11. Mistakes English speakers make

Other formats

  1. Listicle

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Frequently asked questions

Why do Latin dictionaries list nouns twice, like , ?
The second form is the genitive singular, and it does two jobs at once. Its ending tells you which of the five declensions the noun belongs to, and therefore which set of endings it will take. Its stem tells you what the rest of the forms are built on, which the nominative frequently hides: , reveals the stem reg-, so the accusative is , as in , I see the king.
How many declensions does Latin have?
Five. The first (genitive -ae, , ) and second (genitive -i, , ) cover a large share of common nouns and are highly regular. The third (genitive -is) is the largest and the most varied, and holds many of the highest-frequency nouns: , , , , , . The fourth (-us) and fifth (-ei) are small; , , and dies are the ones you will actually meet.
What is the hardest Latin declension?
The third, and it is not close. Its nominative singular gives you almost no information about the stem ( becomes reg-, becomes corpor-, becomes nomin-, becomes itiner-), so you cannot decline a third-declension noun from the nominative alone. This is precisely why learning the genitive alongside the noun is not optional. Once you have the stem, the third declension's endings are quite regular.
Do Latin adjectives have to match the declension of their noun?
They have to match in case, number and gender, but not in declension. is a first-and-second-declension adjective, so with a third-declension noun it still uses its own endings: , . The two words look nothing alike and are still agreeing correctly. What matters is that they share case, number and gender, not that they rhyme.
Why are Latin neuter nouns the same in the nominative and accusative?
Because that is the rule for every neuter in the language, in every declension: one form serves as subject and object, and in the plural both end in -a. is war as subject and as object, and is wars either way. Context, usually the verb and the other nouns, tells you which job it is doing.