Type a noun or adjective and get the full Latin declension table instantly – all six cases in singular and plural, and for adjectives in masculine, feminine and neuter. Genitive, declension and gender come automatically from our vocabulary database; the endings are colour-highlighted, because they decide the meaning of the sentence. Below you will also find a complete declension chart for every class.

What is declension?

Declension means that a noun, adjective or pronoun changes its ending depending on the role it plays in the sentence. That role is the case; on top of it come number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). English mostly relies on word order and prepositions; in Latin the role sits in the ending itself – a single letter can turn the whole sentence around. That is exactly what makes Latin so precise: the form reveals the function.

The five declensions

Latin nouns belong to one of five declensions. The 3rd declension splits further into three groups: consonant stems (rex), mixed / i-stems (civis, urbs) and pure i-stems (mare, turris). You tell the class from the genitive singular – which is why you always learn vocabulary with its genitive. Full charts for every class are below.

How to recognise the declension

The key is the genitive singular: -ae → 1st declension (villa/villae), -i → 2nd declension (dominus/domini, bellum/belli), -is → 3rd declension (rex/regis), -us → 4th declension (manus/manus, where nominative and genitive are spelled alike and differ only in vowel length), -ei → 5th declension (res/rei).

Within the 3rd declension: mixed stems show equal syllable count in nominative and genitive (civis/civis) or two consonants before the genitive ending (urbs/urbis) – they take -e in the ablative singular but -ium in the genitive plural. Pure i-stems are recognised, for neuters, by the nominative endings -e, -al, -ar (mare, animal, exemplar; ablative singular -i, plural -ia), and for masculines/feminines by the small turris-group (turris, vis, sitis) with accusative -im and ablative -i.

The six cases and their function

• Nominative – the subject: “who or what?”
• Genitive – possession and belonging: “whose?”
• Dative – the indirect object: “to/for whom?”
• Accusative – the direct object: “whom or what?”
• Ablative – circumstances such as place, time and means: “by, with, from?”
• Vocative – direct address (usually the same as the nominative).

Common pitfalls

• Neuters: nominative and accusative are always identical. In the plural, 2nd-declension and consonant neuters end in -a (bella, corpora), but neuter i-stems end in -ia (maria, animalia).
• Many endings look alike: -ae can be genitive singular or nominative plural. Only context – and the genitive – decide.
• The three groups of the 3rd declension differ mainly in the genitive plural (-um vs. -ium), the ablative singular (-e vs. -i) and, for pure i-stems, the accusative singular (-em vs. -im).

Declining adjectives

Adjectives agree with their noun in case, number and gender (agreement). They follow either the a/o-declension (endings -us/-a/-um, like bonus) or the 3rd declension (like fortis). Third-declension adjectives almost all follow the i-declension: ablative singular in -i (forti), genitive plural in -ium (fortium), neuter plural in -ia (fortia). The tool always shows adjectives in all three genders.

Why colour the endings? Latin is systematic, not hard

Latin endings look confusingly alike – a, ae, am, arum. Similar things interfere with each other in memory. Separating them visibly from the stem eases the working memory. The point: Latin is not a “hard” language, but an unusually systematic one. This tool makes that system visible – stem plus ending, clearly separated.

Full declension chart

Every class with one model word, fully declined – for reference and printing:

Adjective patterns

Frequently asked questions

How do you decline a Latin noun?

Determine the declension and gender (from the genitive singular), form the stem and add the endings of that class – for all six cases in singular and plural. The tool above does this automatically.

How do I know which declension a word belongs to?

From the genitive singular: -ae (1st), -i (2nd), -is (3rd), -us (4th), -ei (5th). That is why vocabulary is always learned with the genitive.

Can I decline adjectives too?

Yes. Adjectives follow the a/o- or the 3rd declension and are shown in masculine, feminine and neuter.

You might also like our Latin conjugation tool, the Roman numeral converter and our printable cheat sheets.