Latin grammar
Agreement
An adjective, a pronoun or a participle agrees with its noun: it takes the same case, number and gender. That is how you know which noun it belongs to, wherever it stands.
What agrees with what
- An adjective with its noun: in arca lignea, “in a wooden chest”. Lignea is ablative, singular, feminine, like arca.
- Same agreement, different ending: tempestas ... magna. The noun is 3rd declension and the adjective 1st and 2nd, but both are nominative, singular, feminine.
- A verb with its subject, in person and number: oppida cingunt, plural; fiat lux, singular.
- A relative pronoun takes its gender and number from the noun it refers to, and its case from its own clause.
In the reader, the arc from an adjective lands on its noun, and the two share a colour.
In the texts
Real lines from the graded passages, as the reader shows them, with an arc from the word to the one it agrees with.
Comprehendit igitur Perseum adhuc infantem, et cum matre in arca lignea inclusit.
Therefore, he seized Perseus while still an infant, and shut him up with his mother in a wooden chest.
Lignea agrees with arca: ablative, singular, feminine.
Haec omnia oppida urbem cingunt.
All these towns encircle the city.
Haec and omnia agree with oppida: nominative, plural, neuter.
tempestas enim magna mare turbabat.
For a great storm was disturbing the sea.
Magna agrees with tempestas although the endings differ: both are nominative, singular, feminine.
Adjectives to watch
Adjectives from the library’s analysed texts: each page shows the nouns they were read with.