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what is a noun declension

by Willy Crona MD Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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Nouns are divided into groups called declensions. Nouns that end in '-a' belong to the first declension. They are mostly feminine. The first part of a noun stays the same, but endings are added to give different meanings: Singular.

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What does the term noun declension mean?

Declension is when the form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article (such as ''the'' and ''a'' in English) changes to indicate number, grammatical case, or gender. Of course, declension does not ...

What does declensionist mean?

declensionist (English)Origin & history declension + -ist Pronunciation (Brit. Eng.) IPA: /dɪˈklɛnʃənɪst/Noun declensionist (pl. declensionists). One offering a narrative of decline.; 2009, Devin Fergus, Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics, 1965-1980, page 338: "A second oppositional narrative to the dominant interpretation might be added, that of the declensionists.

What is another word for declension?

WORDS RELATED TO DECLENSION decadence nounperversion; deterioration of morality corruption debasement decay declension decline degeneracy degeneration degradation devolution dissipation dissolution downfall downgrade evil excess fall gluttony incontinence intemperance lasciviousness lechery lewdness licentiousness regression sensuality sybaritism

What is a sentence using the word declension?

Declension for number means it tells us whether the noun is plural or singular. Grammatical case tells us the position and function of the noun or pronoun in the sentence. For example, English has ...

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What is a declension noun in Latin?

Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined (verbs are conjugated), and a given pattern is called a declension.

What is a declension?

Declension refers to the changes that a noun (or pronoun or adjective) undergoes to indicate its role in a sentence. In many languages, declension involves changing the endings on the noun. These changeable endings are called case endings.

What are the 5 declensions?

What Are the Latin declensions?Nominative = subjects,Vocative = function for calling, questioning,Accusative = direct objects,Genitive = possessive nouns,Dative = indirect objects,Ablative = prepositional objects.

How do we choose noun declension?

1:184:22Basics of Declension - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipCase form gladium ends in an ohm. So this word must be second declension filium must be firstMoreCase form gladium ends in an ohm. So this word must be second declension filium must be first declension because of the arm. And leg aeonium must be third declension because of the M oh.

How many declensions does a noun have?

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives and participles are declined in six Cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and vocative and two Numbers (singular and plural).

What's the difference between a declension and a case?

A case tells the speaker or reader what the noun does or is doing, and the declension of the noun decides how the case will look. In Latin, there are five declensions, and seven cases to use. This lesson will (hopefully someday) show all of them.

What is the difference between 1st 2nd and 3rd declension?

This is true in terms of form and also in terms of gender. In terms of gender, remember that 2nd declension nouns are usually masculine or neuter and 1st declension nouns are usually feminine. But in the 3rd declension, no particular gender is dominant.

What is a fourth-declension noun?

Fourth declension nouns These are. usually masculine and end '-us' in the nominative singular. sometimes feminine and end '-us' in the nominative singular. occasionally neuter and end '-u' in the nominative singular. always ended with '-us' in the genitive singular.

How do you use declension in a sentence?

How to use Declension in a sentence. Aryan declension naturally disappeared with the loss of final syllables. Under the new covenant, sensual and carnal worship entering the gospel temple is often an evidence of spiritual declension.

What languages have noun declensions?

It is an important aspect of language families like Quechuan (i.e., languages native to the Andes), Indo-European (e.g. German, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slavic, Sanskrit, Latin, Ancient, Modern Greek and Kurdish), Bantu (e.g. Zulu, Kikuyu), Semitic (e.g. Modern Standard Arabic), Finno-Ugric (e.g. Hungarian, Finnish, ...

How do you know that a noun is second declension?

The 2nd declension is subdivided into two different forms of noun, one ending in -us (predominantly masculine in gender) and a second ending in -um (invariably neuter). In each type, the BASE can be found by removing that final -us or -um.

Which language has the most declensions?

SanskritDeclension paradigms Sanskrit has six declension classes, whereas Latin is traditionally considered to have five, and Ancient Greek three.

What is declension in history?

Declension came into English (via Middle French) in the first half of the 15th century, originating in the Latin verb declinare, meaning "to inflect" or "to turn aside." The word seems to have whiled away its time in the narrow field of grammar until Shakespeare put a new sense of the word in his play Richard III in ...

What is the 1st declension of Latin?

Latin words of the first declension have an invariable stem and are generally of feminine gender. The predominant letter in the ending forms of this declension is a. The nominative singular form consists of the stem and the suffix -a, and the genitive singular form is the stem plus -ae.

What is the difference between 1st 2nd and 3rd declension?

This is true in terms of form and also in terms of gender. In terms of gender, remember that 2nd declension nouns are usually masculine or neuter and 1st declension nouns are usually feminine. But in the 3rd declension, no particular gender is dominant.

What is the difference between inflection and declension?

Inflection refers to all and any morphological changes to words to suit a grammatical purpose. "Declension" is usually used in reference to nouns and how they "change" to fit the syntax of a sentence.

The Evolution of Declension

Declension came into English (via Middle French) in the first half of the 15th century, originating in the Latin verb declinare, meaning "to inflect" or "to turn aside." The word seems to have whiled away its time in the narrow field of grammar until Shakespeare put a new sense of the word in his play Richard III in 1593: "A beauty-waning and distressed widow / … Seduc'd the pitch and height of his degree / To base declension and loath'd bigamy." This "deterioration" sense led within a few decades to the newest sense of the word still in common use, "descent" or "slope." The 19th century saw still another new sense of the word—meaning "a courteous refusal"—but that sense has remained quite rare..

Examples of declension in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The same time span felt faster, like an explosion rather than like a declension. — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 7 June 2021 One time, when Joyce was memorizing Latin declension, Bill Bradley of the Knicks took notice. — Katherine Fitzgerald, The Arizona Republic, 18 July 2021

History and Etymology for declension

Middle English declenson, modification of Middle French declinaison, from Latin declination-, declinatio grammatical inflection, turning aside, from declinare to inflect, turn aside

What does declension mean in English?

In most languages, declension for number simply means indicating whether something is plural or singular. In English, for regular nouns, this means that an ''s'' or ''es'' is added to the end of a word to indicate plurality.

What is declension in language?

As we saw, declension is when the form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article changes to indicate number, grammatical case, or gender. Even though different languages use declension to different degrees, the actual process is evident cross-linguistically, or across languages.

What does declension mean in grammatical case?

Grammatical case tells us the position and function of the noun or pronoun in the sentence.

Why is declension present in every sentence?

Declension is present in every sentence because all sentences must have a noun or pronoun. At the very least, declension tells you if the noun or pronoun is plural or singular. Now let's look at some Spanish examples. Since nouns in Spanish are gendered, declension can be more obvious.

What is the process of declension?

Declension is the name for the process behind all of these changes. It's an extremely important grammatical concept because it tells us quite a bit about what's going on in the sentence and what's happening to the noun while providing information about the noun. Lesson Summary.

Is declension a pronoun?

For example, in a sentence saying that a ball belongs to a male person, with the ball in subject position, there is declension for case (possessive) and gender. The form of the pronoun, then, would be ''his'':

Is declension the same in every language?

Of course, declension does not appear the same way in every language. For example, English only has three grammatical cases, but German has four, and Russian has six. As a result, declension can seem somewhat more complex in Russian.

What is the declension of a noun?

Declension of Nouns : Substantives have inflections of case to indicate their grammatical relations to verbs, to prepositions or to other substantives. There are three cases…..the nominative, the possessive and the objective. The nominative and the objective case of a noun are always alike in form. In some pronouns, however, there is ...

What does it mean to decline a noun?

To decline a noun is to give its case-forms in order, first in the singular number and then in the plural. Thus…. The nominative case is used in the following constructions. The subject of a verb is in the nominative case.

What is a substantive exclamation?

A substantive used as an exclamation is called an exclamatory nominative (or nominative of exclamation ).

Is a vocative a nominative?

Note : A vocative word is sometimes said to be independent by direct address, because it stands by itself, unconnected with any verb. That a vocative is really in the nominative case may be seen in the use of the pronoun thou in this construction such as…..I will arrest thee, thou traitor.

Is "face" singular or plural?

Face is in the singular number. Men is in the plural. A substantive standing in the predicate, but describing or defining the subject, agrees with the subject in case and is called a predicate nominative . A predicate nominative is also called a subject complement or an attribute . Lobsters are crustaceans.

Is the objective case of a noun the same as the nominative case?

The nominative and the objective case of a noun are always alike in form. In some pronouns, however, there is a difference (I, me; he, him). The inflection of a substantive is called its declension. To decline a noun is to give its case-forms in order, first in the singular number and then in the plural. Thus….

What does it mean when you decline a noun?

When we decline a noun, that means that we give a list of its forms in all the different cases. We can call this list of forms a declension or a paradigm.

Why is it important to group nouns into categories?

Why? Well, because this way, instead of memorizing case endings for every single noun, you can simply memorize endings for one example noun per declension. Then, whenever you need to decline a noun, you can apply the standard endings of whatever declension it belongs to.

Do pronouns and adjectives work the same way?

NOTE: Pronouns and adjectives are also declined in many languages. Pronoun and adjective declensions work in the same way that noun declensions do, and in fact often have very similar case endings.

Do all languages have declensions?

Not all languages with cases divide their nouns up into declensions in this way, but all these languages will have some sort of noun categories. In Polish, for instance, there are three broad divisions into masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns, and then there are further subcategories in each gender. Nouns in the same subcategories are declined in the same way (that is, they have the same case endings).

What is the change of the form of a word called?

In linguistics, declension is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. The inflectional change of verbs is called conjugation .

What are the five cases of Latin nouns?

There are five important cases for Latin nouns: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative. Since the vocative case usually takes the same form as the nominative, it is seldom spelt out in grammar books. Yet another case, the locative, is limited to a small number of words.

What is an inflected language?

Inflected languages have a far more complicated set of declensions, where the suffixes (or prefixes or infixes) change depending on the gender of the noun, the quantity of the noun, and other possible factors. Many of these languages lack articles.

Is "british" a declension?

There can be other derivations from nouns that are not usually considered declensions. For example, the proper noun Britain has the associated descriptive adjective British and the dem onym Briton. Though these words are clearly related and are generally considered cognates, they are not specifically treated as forms of the same word and thus not declensions.

Do most people pronounce girl as possessive?

Most speakers pronounce all of the forms other than the singular plain form ( girl) exactly the same ( though the elided possessive-indicating s of the plural possessive may be realised as [z] in some speakers' pronunciations, being separated from the plural-indicating s normally by a central vowel such as [ɨ̞]).

Is declension a noun?

Further information: Old English grammar § Nouns. In Modern English, the system of declensions is so simple compared to some other languages that the term declension is rarely used. Most nouns in English have distinct singular and plural forms and have distinct plain and possessive forms.

Declension Meaning

The declension meaning has been around since the mid-15th century, entering English immediately from the French, declinaison from decliner meaning "to decline." The French word derived from Latin declination, declinatio meaning "grammatical inflection" or "turning aside," from declinare to inflect or turn aside.

Number

In English, nouns are either singular meaning one or plural meaning more than one. In English, declension is applied to nouns by adding -s or -es to the ending of regular nouns to indicate numbers. The following table shows some examples:

Grammatical Case

There are three grammatical cases in the English language: subjective, objective, and possessive. In other words, English nouns and pronouns can accept one of these cases in a sentence.

Capitalized Nouns

One important thing as we get started: All nouns are written with the first letter capitalized.

Genders

There are three genders in German: masculine (männlich), feminine (weiblich) and neuter (sächlich). Usually, the gender of a noun is determined by its ending.

Declension

A noun in English, "house" for example, does not change even if we change the role it plays in a phrase.

Exceptions

Some nouns that end with "-s" have another "-s" added in the declension.

Audiovisual Supplement

We'll finish this article with the ballad "Das Beste" from the German group "Silbermond." It's a very nice song.

What does declension mean in linguistics?

Based on Wikipedia article, in linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number (at least singular and plural), case (nominative or subjective, genitive or possessive, etc.), and gender.

What is the verb corresponding to declension?

The verb corresponding to declension is decline. However, your example of day - daily is not an example of declension. It is an example of word formation (with the adverbial suffix -ly). Declension adds/changes inflections, not suffixes.

What is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number?

Based on Wikipedia article, in linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number (at least singular and plural), case (nominative or subjecti...

What is English language stack exchange?

English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.

Is "declension" a verb?

Declension is a noun. What is a proper verb to say "I want to say different words that appeared from the word day - days, daily etc". How to say it in one word in English?

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An Overview of Declension

  • What is declension?
    Declensionrefers to the changes that a noun (or pronoun or adjective) undergoes to indicate its role in a sentence. In many languages, declension involves changing the endings on the noun. These changeable endings are called case endings. So, when we decline a noun, this means tha…
  • Case and Number
    What, you may ask, is the point of declension? Ultimately, it is to give us information about a noun so we know how it fits into a sentence. There are two main properties that declension clarifies: case and number. Every noun has both case and number. A noun’s case tells you what it is doin…
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What Is A Declension?

  • So far I have explained the general meaning of declension: a blanket term for variation in noun endings. But what is a declension? What does it mean to write out the declension of a noun or to find a noun’s declension? Here’s the thing. There are actually two more specific definitions of declension. And this is where most of the confusion arises for students. We will look at these tw…
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Final Thoughts on Declensions

  • I hope that you now understand declensions a bit better. To summarize: declension, broadly speaking, refers to any variation that a noun undergoes to clarify its meaning and role in a sentence. But remember that we also have two specific definitions of a declension: 1. a list of all the case forms of a noun (also called a paradigm) 2. a group or category of nouns This post foc…
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1.What Is Noun Declension? Let Me Explain - Yearlyglot

Url:https://yearlyglot.com/noun-declension-demystified/

11 hours ago Definition of declension. 1 a : noun, adjective, or pronoun inflection especially in some prescribed order of the forms. b : a class of nouns or adjectives having the same type of inflectional …

2.Declension Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Url:https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/declension

19 hours ago  · Declension is when the form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article (such as ''the'' and ''a'' in English) changes to indicate number, grammatical case, or gender. Of course, …

3.Videos of What Is A Noun Declension

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21 hours ago Declension of Nouns The inflection of a substantive is called its declension. To decline a noun is to give its case-forms in order, first in the singular number and then in the plural. To decline a …

4.Declension: Definition & Examples - Video & Lesson …

Url:https://study.com/academy/lesson/declension-definition-examples.html

8 hours ago In linguistics, declension is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, …

5.Declension of Nouns, English Grammar, Advanced …

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28 hours ago  · In English, nouns are either singular meaning one or plural meaning more than one. In English, declension is applied to nouns by adding -s or -es to the ending of regular nouns to …

6.What is a Declension?: Definitions, Examples, & More

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11 hours ago Definition: A "declension" is a variation of a word that depends on its case, gender, and number. In German, the article already does most of the work. Because of that, the nouns themselves …

7.Declension - Wikipedia

Url:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declension

18 hours ago Regular noun declension. As a general rule, an "-n" or an "-en" are added to all nouns in the dative plural. If the noun in the plural ends with "-n" or "-s," nothing will be added. Masculine or Neuter …

8.Declension Overview & Examples | What is Declension?

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7 hours ago  · Based on Wikipedia article, in linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number (at least singular and plural), case …

9.German noun declension - GermanVeryEasy.com

Url:https://www.germanveryeasy.com/noun-declension

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10.Declension is a noun. What is the verb? - English …

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