Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #243: Plural 2nd Declension, Masculine

The focus for today's lesson is more plurals. You had the plural of the 1st declension last week (like divitiae, "riches"), and this week, it will be the nominative plurals of 2nd-declension nouns, starting with the masculine nouns: the plural ending is -i.

So, if you have a -us masculine noun or adjective, you remove the -us and add the -i ending: bonus, "good," boni.

If you have a masculine noun or adjective ending -r, you just add the -i: liber, "free," becomes liberi.

Notice that in English, we do have a distinctive ending for plural nouns: a "book" becomes "books." But we do not have an ending for plural adjectives in English: a "good book" becomes "good books." In Latin, on the other hand, both nouns and adjectives have plural endings. (So far, you are just learning the nominative plural endings, and later you will have plural endings for all the cases: genitive, accusative, dative, and ablative.)

To begin, here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Tantali horti.
The gardens of Tantalus.
TAN-tali horti.

You know all the words in this saying! The word horti is the plural of hortus, while the word Tantali is the genitive of Tantalus.

Just like with the 1st declension, there are some ambiguous endings. It is only from context that you know Tantali is genitive singular and horti is nominative plural.

You have encountered the story of Tantalus before in the saying: In medio Tantalus amne sitit. For his outrageous crimes, Tantalus was punished in the afterlife by standing in water he could never drink, and also by standing in sight of fruit trees where the fruit was always out of reach. Hence, the Tantali horti are a curse, not a blessing: you will starve to death in those gardens.

2. Beati pacifici.
Blessed (are) the peacemakers.
Be-A-ti pa-CI-fici.

You also know all the words in this saying! The word beati is the plural of beatus, and pacifici is the plural of pacificus.

This saying comes from the Gospel of Matthew in the "Sermon on the Mount." It comes specifically from the "Beatitudes," which gets its name from the series of sayings that being with the word beati. You can find out more at Wikipedia.

3. Pauci sed boni.
Few (men), but good.
Pauci sed boni.

The word boni is the plural of bonus.

The word pauci is new: it is the plural of paucus. In the singular, paucus means "small, little," but it is very rarely used; the more common word for "small" is paulus. (Both words, in fact, come from the same root.) In the plural, however, pauci means "few, a few," and it is very commonly used! It is not technically a "plural-only" word like divitiae, but it is very nearly only in the plural.

You can see this root in English "paucity," and it also gives us Spanish poco.

Compare the English saying, "A few good men," which was first used for recruiting soldiers into the U.S. Marines in 1779, which was then revived by the Marines in the 1970s.

4. Montani semper liberi.
Mountain-men (are) always free.
Mon-TA-ni semper LI-beri.

The word liberi is the plural form of the adjective liber, "free" (as in "liberty"), and the word montani is the plural of montanus, an adjective meaning "mountain," so montani means "mountain (men)." You haven't seen this word before, but you do know mons already, the noun "mountain."

This phrase is the state motto of West Virginia.

5. Si radix sancta, et rami.
If the root is holy, the branches (are) too.
Si radix sancta, et rami.

The word rami is the plural of ramus, "branch." You can see this Latin word in English "ramifications."

Meanwhile, the word radix is singular; it means "root," and gives us both English "radical" and "radish." It is a feminine noun, so it takes a feminine adjective: sancta. You haven't seen this form before, but you have seen the masculine form: sanctus.

This Biblical saying comes from the Letter to the Romans.

Here's a recap: