Latin grammar
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Introduction
The Latin language
The Latin sentence
The four conjugations
The five declensions
Nominative - Accusative - Genitive - Dative - Ablative
Latin phrasebook
Latin for e-mail
Latin jokes
Reading list
Online resources
Latin, a member of the "Italic" branch of the Indo-European language family, is an inflected language, that is, grammatical morphemes ("endings") are attached to nouns, adjectives and verbs to indicate grammatical relationships. "Subject - object - verb" word order predominates, but this is variable. Because of the detailed inflection of verbs, Latin is a "null subject" language, that is, the grammatical subject need not be expressed.
Nouns possess one of three grammatical genders ("masculine", "feminine" and "neuter"). There are two numbers, "singular" and "plural" and articles are lacking. Inflection of nouns is expressed in five grammatical cases. There are five broad classes ("declensions") of nouns, each with a distinct morphology. Adjectives are linked to nouns through concord in gender, number and case. Nouns generally precede adjectives. Verbal morphology includes inflection indicating one of three "persons", each in either singular or plural number. There are active and passive voices as well as indicative and subjunctive moods, infinitive, participle and imperative forms. There are five broad classes ("conjugations") of verbs, each with a distinct morphology.
References
Bennett, C. (1895), New Latin Grammar. Allyn and Bacon.
Crystal, D. (1987), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
Gildersleeve, B and G. Lodge (1895), Latin Grammar (3rd edition) Macmillan Education.
