Latin Adjectives, part 2

Last time we looked at how declension doesn't matter to noun-adjective agreement in Latin. What matters for Latin adjectives is case, number and gender. The reason this problem pops up is that many textbooks—rightly, I should add—teach the two types of adjectives separately. Usually 1st/2nd declension adjectives first and 3rd declension adjectives second.

For whatever reason, some students want this to happen:

civis Romanis   or   civus Romanus

After all, both words end in -is, right? (Yet another reason students should learn macrons, then the -is of the 3rd declension and the -īs of the 1st/2nd declension look different. But I digress.) Here is what really happens:

civis Romanus

They are this way, because they need to agree in case (nominative), number (singular) and gender (masculine). So not this:

animalibus magnibus

But this:

animalibus magnis

Case, number, gender. Let the declension of the adjective follow the dictionary listing. I bring this up, because 3rd declension adjectives aren't just 3rd declension. They're also i-stem (which I should cover in a post some time). Why? All 3rd declension adjectives are i-stem. So we can't say:

cive forte

Because cive is ablative, singular, masculine and forte is nominative, singular and neuter. Talk about a mismatch. This is the right way:

cive forti

Even though it doesn't look quite right, it is. Remember that adjectives pick up the extra -i in the ablative singular.

Next time, the ugliness of the 3rd declension adjective.