Best case scenario

The last two sub-categories of Nouns clearly reflect the Latin origins of English.

I’m posting this a little early so that you are able to take a break over your 4th of July holiday weekend. In this post, we will complete our overview of nouns with two final sub-classifications, and then we will review some vocabulary from Latin roots.

F. Case

“Case” is a term which may be unfamiliar to most students, yet we use cases very often in English. Case is the way in which we change a noun in order to make clear what purpose or function that noun fulfills in a sentence. Case comes from the Latin word casus which literally means falling, but also means occasion or contingency. Case shows how words are changed for certain occasions or contingencies.

All nouns begin in what we call the Subject or (in Latin) Nominative Case. Do you recognize Nominative? It’s from the Latin nomen which means name. So each noun begins with it’s basic name and this is what is also used when the noun is the subject of the sentence. We will discuss that further when we get to sentence structure, but for now, it’s just important to know that our starting point for nouns is always the Nominative Case.

So when do we change to other cases in English? The most common example of case change occurs when we want to show possession or ownership. Typically, we change the noun by adding an apostrophe + “s.”

Example: The gloves belonging to that girl are on the table -becomes- That girl’s gloves are on the table.

We would call this the Possessive Case for the noun girl, or, in Latin, the Genitive Case. We have changed the noun girl to girl’s. If we were referring to more than one girl—The gloves belonging to those girls—we would change girls to girls’. Each case has a singular and plural form.

A second way that we use case is only used with personal pronouns, which we will discuss in the next post. We change the case of certain personal pronouns (I, he, she, we, they) when they are objects, either direct, indirect, or objects of a preposition, in a sentence. We would refer to this case as the Objective Case (also known as the Accusative Case in Latin).

We saw him at the store. (direct object)

Grandma bought him some ice cream. (indirect object)

Dad gave a dollar to him. (object of the preposition)

More on this later, but I want you to know that you already make case changes without even realizing it!

To better understand how case came to be used in English, let’s look at how case operates in Latin.

In Latin, the structure of all noun (and adjectives as well) is governed by a process called Declension. The nouns “decline” or change based upon their usage in a sentence. Within declension, there are five primary cases: Nominative (name—the starting point), Genitive (possession or part of a whole), Accusative (when the noun is used as an object), Dative (when the noun is used as an indirect object or when a person is a recipient of something), and Ablative (when the noun is an object of a preposition, although a few prepositions use the Accusative). When you include singular and plural, there are then 10 ways in which a noun can appear in a Latin sentence! (There is also the Vocative case which is used when you want to give a shout out to someone, but it’s not used as often.) While that seems very difficult to learn, it actually is a very efficient and concise way to write. Because the noun’s case makes perfectly clear what purpose the noun serves in the sentence, there is no confusion about who is the actor, who is receiving the action, which adjectives modify which nouns, and what is generally going on.

Again, we will examine this more carefully when we get to sentence structure, but just know that case is are very useful tool to have and understand, and we have Latin to thank for it!

G. Substantives

Substantives are words or groups of words which are NOT nouns but are USED AS nouns in sentences. The word comes from the Latin substantia which means essence. Even though they aren’t nouns in normal usage, they act essentially as nouns.

1. Pronouns: We are going to spend more time on these separately next week because there is just so much to discuss about pronouns, but for now, let us be thankful for them, because pronouns save us from saying someone’s name over and over again! Thank you, pronouns, for taking the place of nouns!

2. Substantive Adjective: If you sing the National Anthem of the United States, you use substantive adjectives. “….the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Free and brave are adjectives, but when “the” is placed in front of them, they are used as nouns. Can you think of some other substantive adjectives that you use?

3. Verbals: There are three ways in which verbs can be used as nouns.

   a. Gerund: When you add -ing to a verb, you can use it as a noun, and you actually use these very frequently. Walking is great exercise. The priest gave us a blessing.

   b. Infinitives: The starting point for verbs (as we shall see) is the Infinitive: to walk, to run, to bake, to be, etc. They are called Infinitives (literally meaning “without end” in Latin) because they can be changed and modified in an infinite number of ways, and there is no limit placed upon their meaning at this point. (We will delve more deeply when we cover verbs.) Infinitives can are used commonly as nouns in sentences. To walk daily is a healthy habit. My grandma loves to bake.

   c. Participles: Participis means partner or sharing in Latin. Both present and past participles are well-known partners of verbs. A gerund is actually a present participle (-ing verbs), and past participles are those that end either in -ed (baked) or -en (broken). There are other irregular past participles (we will go over a big list when we get to verbs) that are completely new words. Bought, taught, and swum are some examples. Although not as commonly used as gerunds or infinitives, past participles can also be used as noun equivalents. I prefer the baked over the fried. The heartbroken will find peace in the end. He is one of the learned.

Now that we have covered the basic element of Nouns, let’s use your sketchbook for some practice work. (By the way, just a reminder that you are free to copy and paste all of the notes I give you in this Substack, or just write them down. The decision is yours and so are all of these posts.)

Here is a list of a few Latin nouns (and their meanings) which have multiple English derivatives. Write them down, add you own derivatives, and then I will give you some questions to answer. I bet you will do a great job!

Populi (people) population, popular

discipulus (student) disciple

dominus (lord, master) dominate

femina (woman) female, feminine

filia, filius (daughter, son, family member) filial

frater (brother) fraternity

infans (baby) infant, infantile

juvens (youth) juvenile

mater (mother) maternity

miles (soldier) military, militia

nauta (sailor) nautical

pater (father) paternal

vir (gentleman, manhood) virile, virtue

Corpus (body) corpse, corpulent

mentis (mind) mental

cor (heart) coronary, courageous, accord

genu (knee) genuflect

pedes (foot) pedestal, pedal, pedestrian

oculus (eye) ocular, binoculars

anima (soul) animation

vita (life) vitality, vital:

Who is the matriarch in your family and why? What is a pedicab and how would it work? (Can you sketch a picture of one?) What does it mean to rejuvenate something? Can you give an example of an inanimate object? If it was necessary to depopulate a place, what does that mean? What would it mean to be in an affiliation with someone?

Can you think of more derivates for the nouns listed above?

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May the peace of our Lord be with you always.