Mnemonic Madness!

These silly sentences will help you remember the endings for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension Latin
nouns.
Youll notice that the word endings highlighted correspond to the endings in the 5 primary Latin
Cases. They occur in the order in which we decline them on tests and in the grammatical context
appropriate to the case. For instance, take the sentence for the 1st declension singular:
subject

possession

Maria,
nom: -a,

queen of reggae,
gen: -ae,

indirect obj.

gave Fannie Mae

dat: -ae,

direct obj.

some jam
acc: -am,

obj. of preposition

for her banan.

abl: -

So, here are the sentences:

1st declension:
Singular: Maria, queen of reggae, gave Fannie Mae some jam for her banan.
Plural:

Fannie Mae, fond of rum, gave the Israels some banans from the dels.

2nd declension:
Singular: Gus and Peter, friends of Luig, gave Mari some gum for his burrit.
Plural:

He and , kings of the qurum, gave the Israels some burrits from the dels.

3rd declension:
Singular: The Black Hole Gang*, friends of Beavis, gave Bamb a gem from Chile.
* (The 3rd decl. nom. sg. is the "black hole of endings")

Plural:

The Apachs, masters of the drum, gave the minibus some tamals from the omnibus.

1st declension:
sg.
pl.
N -a
-ae
G -ae
-rum
D -ae
-s
Ac -am
-s
Ab -
-s

Noun Endings Summary

2nd declension:
sg.
pl.
N -us
-
G -
-rum
D -
-s
Ac -um
-s
Ab -
-s

3rd declension:
sg.
pl.
N
-s
G -is
-um
D -
-ibus
Ac -em
-s
Ab -e
-ibus

Designed by Drew Lasater

Sentences by Ann Martin