Latin - Nominative Case

Please note: Latin Declension Rules

The Nominative Case is the subject case. There is nothing very tricky about it. When you look up a noun in a Latin-English dictionary, the form you see is the Nominative Singular. In English, some words are only used in the plural, but these are few and far between. The same is true in Latin. For the vast majority, the form you see in the dictionary is the Nominative Singular, followed by an ending for the genitive, and the gender of the noun.

Nominative Singular Example: Puella

Dictionary form: Puella, -ae, f. - girl

That shows you the nominative singular for the Latin for girl is "puella". As in English, "puella" can be used for the subject of a sentence.

Example: The girl is good - Puella bona est.

Nominative Plural and Paradigms

Like the other cases, the Nominative Case can also be used in the plural (for puella, that's puellae). Traditionally, paradigms put the Nominative Case at the top. In most, the singulars are in the left column and the plurals in the right, so the Nominative Plural is the top right word.

Nominative Case Abbreviation

Nominative is usually abbreviated Nom.. Since there is no other case beginning with an "n", it can be abbreviated N.

Nominative Forms of Adjectives

Just as the dictionary form of the noun is the Nominative Singular, so also for the adjectival form. Usually the adjectives have a Nominative Singular masculine followed by either feminine and neuter, or just neuter when the masculine is also the feminine form.

Bonus, -a, -um - good

This shows that the masculine singular of the Nominative Case is bonus. The feminine singular of the Nominative Case is bona as was shown in the example about the girl (puella bona est.) An example of a third declension adjective showing the masculine/feminine form and the neuter is:

Finalis, -e - final

Nominative With To Be Verbs

Had I selected the sentence "The girl is a pirate," both the words for girl and pirate would be nouns in the Nominative Singular. That sentence would be "puella pirata est." Pirate is a predicate nominative. The actual sentence was "puella bona est" where both the noun for girl, puella, and the adjective for good, bona, were in the Nominative Singular. "Good" is a predicate adjective.