The chapter of arithmetic. Two novelties carry all the rest: the passive finally receives its six persons, and the numerals stop being easy — Latin builds some of them by subtraction.
1. The passive in all six persons
Since capitulum VI you have been reading laudātur and laudantur. The table closes here:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | laudor I am praised | laudāmur we are praised |
| 2nd | laudāris you are praised | laudāminī you are praised |
| 3rd | laudātur he is praised | laudantur they are praised |
The six endings — -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur — are the same in all four conjugations. Only the vowel in front changes, and it is the active's:
- doce*or, docēris, docētur* — like doceō, docēs, docet
- audi*or, audīris, audītur* — like audiō, audīs, audit
Two traps hang on a single letter:
- laudāmus “we praise” against laudāmur “we are praised”;
- in the first person the passive does not end in -ō but in -r: laudō / laudor.
2. The one irregularity in the table
In the third conjugation the short -i- becomes -e- before the -r- of the second person singular:
- reprehendis → reprehenderis
- tollis → tolleris
Everywhere else the vowel stays put: reprehendimur, reprehendiminī.
3. Who does the acting?
When the subject receives the action, the one performing it is named with ā (or ab) plus the ablative — and only for persons:
Puer ā magistrō laudātur. — the boy is praised by the master.
4. Teaching two things at once
docēre takes two objects, the person and the thing, both with the same ending:
Magister discipulōs numerōs docet. — the master teaches the pupils numbers.
English can slip “to” in front of the person; Latin marks both alike.
5. The difficult numerals
From eleven to seventeen the ending is -decim:
*ūndecim, duodecim, trēdecim, quattuordecim, quīndecim, sēdecim, septendecim*
The first element wears down when it is long (quīnque → quīn-, sex → sē-) and stays whole when it is short (quattuor).
Eighteen and nineteen are made backwards. Latin does not say octōdecim: it takes away from the round number ahead.
- duo-dē-vīgintī — two from twenty (18)
- ūn-dē-vīgintī — one from twenty (19)
The device holds for every ten (duodētrīgintā, ūndētrīgintā) and up to the hundred (ūndēcentum, capitulum XIII).
The tens end in -gintā: trīgintā, quadrāgintā, quīnquāgintā, sexāgintā, septuāgintā, octōgintā, nōnāgintā. Only decem, vīgintī and centum escape it.
The hundreds have two endings:
- -centī after two, three and six: ducentī, trecentī, sescentī
- -gentī everywhere else: quadringentī, quīngentī, septingentī, octingentī, nōngentī
6. What declines and what does not
Latin numerals do not change shape, with three exceptions: ūnus, duo, trēs — and the hundreds, which are ordinary plural adjectives.
- quadrāgintā ovēs, quadrāgintā dēnāriōs — nothing moves
- quīngent*ae ovēs*, septingent*ōs dēnāriōs* — the numeral takes the counted word's ending
7. Ranks in -ēsimus
After the first twelve ranks of capitulum XIII, every ten and every hundred takes the suffix -ēsimus, -a, -um: vīcēsimus (20th), trīcēsimus (30th), centēsimus (100th), mīllēsimus (1000th). They are ordinary adjectives, and they agree.
8. The adverb in -ē
From an adjective in -us, Latin makes a word that says how the action is done, with a long final ē:
rēctus → rēctē · prāvus → prāvē · aequus → aequē
The adjective agrees with a noun; the adverb never changes.
9. quisque: each, and to each his own
quisque is made of two welded pieces, and only one of them declines:
| masculine | feminine | neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| subject | quisque | quaeque | quodque |
| object | quemque | quamque | quodque |
| to whom | cuique | cuique | cuique |
| of whom | cuiusque | cuiusque | cuiusque |
The final -que never moves: set it aside and the declension of quis (capitulum II) is there again. In the plural, quīque, quōsque, quōrumque, quibusque.
Two things to remember:
- the word stays singular even when it covers many — quisque discipulus respondet, “each pupil answers”;
- the form that says to whom is the same in all three genders, and it is the one that carries suum cuique, “to each his own”.
10. The adjective with a single ending
magnus (capitulum I) gives three dictionary forms, brevis (capitulum XII) gives two, one for masculine-feminine and one for neuter. A third pattern appears here:
absēns, absentis · prūdēns, prūdentis
In the nominative, one single form for all three genders — vir absēns, fēmina absēns, respōnsum absēns. And nothing in that form announces the stem: the -t- shows only at the next ending.
| subject | absēns |
| object | absentem |
| of whom | absentis |
| plural | absentēs, absentium |
That is why the dictionary gives a genitive as second form here, and not a feminine: it is the only place where the stem can be read.
11. The verb with no subject
oportet exists only in the third person singular, and it always calls for an infinitive behind it:
Prīmum cōgitāre oportet. — one must think first.
It is licet's neighbour (capitulum XV), with one weighty difference: licet permits, oportet obliges.
12. Two verbs with only a passive shape
partior, partī*ris, partītur* and largior, largī*ris, largītur*. The ending is the passive's, the meaning is plainly active: the one who shares is not being shared. These verbs have no active table at all — partit does not exist.
13. Two quantities to watch
- dare (capitulum VII) has a stem with a short a: da*mus, datis, datur, date* — but dā and dās, where the vowel is long.
- facilis and difficilis form their highest degree in -limus: facillimus, difficillimus, never -issimus.