Kilo Lingo
Latin grammar Part of Chapter 4

CEFR A2-B1

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Test yourself (22 questions)

Latin Fourth and Fifth Declensions: manus, res, dies

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

The fourth and fifth declensions are small families with very common members: (thing), (day), (house) and (hand) are all in the top 140 words. The fourth has a genitive in -us, the fifth in -ei. Here they are side by side.

nominativeaccusativegenitivedativeablativeWhat do the colours mean?
FormFourth: manusFifth: res
Nom sg
Acc sg
Gen sg
sg
Abl sg
Nom/acc pl
Gen pl
/abl pl

Quick check

Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.

Pick the right one

0/3

At home, home, or from home? No preposition in any of them.

  1. sum. (I am at home.)

  2. eo. (I am going home.)

  3. venio. (I am coming from home.)

The fourth runs on -u-, the fifth on -e-. Both reuse one ending in several slots, so the sentence around the noun matters more than usual.

The fourth declension: manus

Spotted by a genitive in -us, and confirmed by a dative in -ui and an ablative in a bare -u. fills four slots with one form, and an adjective or the verb tells you which:

SlotLatinEnglish
Nom sg .A large band is coming.
Nom pl .Large bands are coming.
Acc pl .I see large bands.
Gen sg part of the band

The noun did not change; everything around it did.

What is in it

Most fourth-declension nouns are made from verbs: the noun for the act of doing it.

VerbNounEnglish
, use, experience
exerceo, a trained force, an army
, feeling, sense
, movement
, a fall, chance

Not every member fits: comes from , old man, since the senate was the council of elders.

Gender is masculine by default: , a great army. The exceptions worth the ink are and , both feminine ( ), and a few neuters in -u such as , horn, with the plural .

The fifth declension: res and dies

Spotted by a genitive in -ei. Nearly all feminine, with the main exception:

nominativeaccusativegenitivedativeablativeWhat do the colours mean?
CaseresdiesPlural of dies
Nom
Acc
Gen
Abl

Only and decline right through the plural. , hope, appears in the plural only as , and , faith, has no plural at all.

is gloriously vague: thing, matter, affair, situation, property. It is the noun a Roman reached for where English needs a whole phrase:

LatinLiterallyMeaning
the public thingthe state
things donedeeds, history
new thingsrevolution
the nature of thingsnature, the universe

Both halves of decline: , of the state; , about the state.

is masculine ( , this day), and always masculine in the plural. It turns feminine for an appointed day: , on the appointed day.

Domus, the one that will not pick a side

, house, home, is fourth declension with second-declension forms mixed in:

CaseSingularPlural
Nom
Acc,
Gen,
,
Abl

Then it keeps a locative, the old case for at a place, and uses three bare forms with no preposition at all:

Two panels. In the first, a man with a moustache walks along the grass towards a yellow house, a dashed arrow pointing at its door. In the second, the same house is cut away to show him inside, waving, beside a lamp.
  1. .
  2. .

Domum it: he is going home (the accusative, no preposition). Domi est: he is at home (the locative).

LatinEnglishForm
.I am at home.locative
.I am going home.accusative, no ad
.I am coming from home.ablative, no ex

Town names do the same (Romae, at Rome; Romam, to Rome), and so does , the country: , in the country. Learn these as vocabulary, not grammar.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
exercitoto the army: fourth declension, not second
diofifth-declension ablative is -e
is feminine
(by hand)the ablative is a bare -u

What to do next

  1. Learn , and as three words.
  2. Do the drill below: build the forms, then sort by genitive.
  3. Next on the path: the future and the pluperfect.

Practise: test yourself

Build the word

0/5

Build the form on the stem.

  1. manus: by hand (ablative singular)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  2. exercitus: to the army (dative singular)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  3. manus: of the hands (genitive plural)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  4. res: of things (genitive plural)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

  5. dies: on the day (ablative singular)

    Accents optional

    Your word is empty.

Sort into groups

0/8

Which declension? The genitive is your evidence.

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Pick the right one

0/4

At home, home, or from home? No preposition in any of them.

  1. sum. (I am at home.)

  2. eo. (I am going home.)

  3. venio. (I am coming from home.)

  4. Pater est. (Father is at home.)

Spot the mistake

0/2

Tap the mistake.

Translation drill

0/3

Translate.

  1. Exercitus in urbe est.

  2. natura rerum

  3. Domum eo.

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Frequently asked questions

How do you tell a fourth-declension noun from a second-declension one?
By the genitive singular, the only reliable test. , is second declension; , is fourth. Both nominatives end in -us. After that the forms part company: the dative is against , the accusative plural against . Learn the genitive with the word and the problem never arises.
What gender are fourth-declension nouns in Latin?
Masculine by default, and most of the common ones are: , , , , , , . The exceptions worth memorising are (hand, and also a band of men) and (house), both feminine. A few neuters end in -u: (horn, or the wing of an army) and (knee). Like every neuter they use one form for subject and object, and their plural ends in -ua: .
Why can be four different forms?
Because the fourth declension uses the same ending in four slots: nominative singular, genitive singular, nominative plural and accusative plural. Only the sentence settles which. A verb ending tells you singular or plural, and an adjective narrows it further: , a large band is coming; , I see large bands.
Is dies masculine or feminine in Latin?
Usually masculine, and always masculine in the plural: , this day; , for many days. It turns feminine for a fixed or appointed day, , on the appointed day, and often, especially in poetry, for a stretch of time: , a long time. Gender following meaning rather than form is rare enough in Latin to be worth the twenty seconds it takes to learn.
How do you say at home in Latin?
, with no preposition: , I am at home. It is the locative, an old case for at a place. Going home is , also with no preposition: , I am going home; and from home is : . Town names do the same: Romae, at Rome; Romam, to Rome; Roma, from Rome.