Back to the Basics — The 4th and 5th Declensions

In Latin I last year, there were three declensions: First, Second, and Third. Although my Latin I teacher hinted at others, within my first days of Latin II two more mystical declensions arose: the 4th and 5th. The good news is, there are very few words in these declensions, so remembering and identifying them is very easy.

Let’s start with the 4th declension.

So in 1st declension endings, “a” is the star of the show (-a, -ae, -am, -a, etc.). In the 4th declension, “u” takes center stage.

There is a masculine and neuter set of endings, as seen below.

Not bad right? It gets even easier as we look at how few words we really need to use these for.

Common 4th Declension (mostly masculine with some feminine) Words

arcus – arch                   impetus – attack                   metus – fear

risus – smile                  manus – hand (fem.)           domus – home (fem.)

This is by no means a complete list, but it’s a good start. As you can see, 4th declension words look a lot like second declension, so it’s best to memorize them so you don’t confuse the two declensions later on!

Then there’s the 5th declension, which contains only two words that can be fully declined and “e” is the main vowel. These verbs are: Dies (day) and res (thing); many other 5th declension nouns lack plural forms.

Here is an example sentence demonstrating “res” in the accusative case.

Res meliores quaerit.

Translated: She is looking for better things

So that’s pretty much it for these two declensions; I’ve attached a Latin Tutorial video on the “basics of declension” if you still have any questions!