Declension

Declension

The inflectional class of nouns is called a declension. For example, a group of nouns belonging to the same noun class and displaying similar inflectional patterns are said to be declined or belong to the same declension. Latin is the prototypical example of a language that uses declensions, as it has five different declensions categorized by case suffixes and gender. The following examples are taken from Latin and display two words belonging to First declension, which usually contains feminine nouns. Please note that the macrons are omitted in these examples:

insula "island"

Nominative	insula	insulae
Genitive	insulae	insularum
Dative	insulae	insulis
Accusative	insulam	insulas
Ablative	insula	insulis

filia "daughter"

Nominative	filia	filiae
Genitive	filiae	filiarum
Dative	filiae	filiabus
Accusative	filiam	filias
Ablative	filia	filiabus

Useful Links

• Declensions
• Latin Library