Master Latin Noun Declensions: 101 Flashcards on 5 Declensions and 7 Cases

Latin nouns change their endings to show what they do in a sentence. The deck VZ6903 – Latin Noun Declensions & Cases (101 cards) gives you the full system: 5 declensions, 7 cases and around 25 model nouns. It is a clean, accurate deck. The one thing it lacks is practice: every card asks you to recall an ending, and no card asks you to read a form. This guide shows you how to fill that gap.

What the deck covers

• Cards 1–9: the cases. Nominative (subject), vocative (direct address), accusative (direct object), genitive (possession), dative (indirect object), ablative (means, manner, place, accompaniment), locative (at a city, town or small island).
• Cards 10–14: the genitive singular key. -ae, -ī, -is, -ūs, -eī tell you which declension a noun belongs to.
• Cards 15–95: declension by declension. Each set gives the endings, then example nouns: mēnsa, via, aqua, poēta, dominus, puer, ager, vir, bellum, castellum, dux, virtūs, nōmen, pāx, flūmen, nāvis, pars, animal, mare, portus, manus, genū, cornū, rēs, diēs.
• Cards 96–101: general rules. Neuter nominative = accusative, neuter plurals in -a, and the locative (Rōmae, domī).

Sample cards

How to study it

Learn the genitive singular first (cards 10–14). The dictionary entry (nōmen, nōminis) gives you the genitive, and the genitive tells you the declension and the stem. Once you know those five endings, the sets for each declension are much easier to remember.

Then go form → case, not just case → form. Every card in the deck asks "which ending does case X take?" A real text shows you an ending and asks which case it could be. Many endings stand for several cases. Write these extra cards:

• -ae → genitive sing., dative sing., nominative plural (1st decl.), and locative
• -ī → genitive sing. (2nd), nominative plural (2nd), dative sing. (3rd), locative
• -īs → dative and ablative plural (1st and 2nd)
• -ūs → genitive sing., nominative plural and accusative plural (4th)
• -ēs → nominative/accusative plural (3rd), and three slots of the 5th declension

If you drill these clusters, you can read Latin instead of only reciting tables.

Four fixes to add

• Card 51 is a bit too simple. Ablative -ī belongs mainly to neuters in -al, -ar, -e (animālī, marī). Parisyllabic nouns like nāvis usually take -e (nāve), and so does pars (parte).
• Card 84 says the 5th declension is feminine, but diēs (card 95) is usually masculine. Add a card for that.
• The vocative of -ius nouns is missing: fīlius → fīlī, Vergilius → Vergilī.
• Domus appears in card 101 (domī) but has no card of its own. It is a mixed 4th/2nd declension noun and comes up constantly.

Keep going

Do you need words to decline? Start with 500 Common Latin Words. Its nouns give you fresh examples for each declension.

Open Flip It and search for deck code VZ6903 ("Latin Noun Declensions & Cases").