ral when it is based upon sex. Natural
gender is confined entirely to names of persons; and these are--

1. Masculine, if they denote males; as,--

nauta, _sailor_; agricola, _farmer_.

2. Feminine, if they denote females; as,--

mater, _mother_; regina, _queen_.

Grammatical Gender.

15. Grammatical gender is determined not by sex, but by the general
signification of the word, or the ending of its Nominative Singular. By
grammatical gender, nouns denoting things or qualities are often Masculine
or Feminine, simply by virtue of their signification or the ending of the
Nominative Singular. The following are the general principles for
determining grammatical gender:--

_A. Gender determined by Signification._

1. Names of _Rivers_, _Winds_, and _Months_ are Masculine; as,--

Sequana, _Seine_; Eurus, _east wind_; Aprilis, _April_.

2. Names of _Trees_, and such names of _Towns_ and _Islands_ as end in -us,
are Feminine; as,--

quercus, _oak_; Corinthus, _Corinth_; Rhodus, _Rhodes_.

Other names of towns and islands follow the gender of their endings (see
_B_, below); as,--

Delphi, n.; Leuctra, n.; Tibur, n.; Carthago, f.

3. Indeclinable nouns, also infinitives and phrases, are Neuter; as,--

nihil, _nothing_; nefas, _wrong_; amare, _to love_.

NOTE.--Exceptions to the above principles sometimes occur; as, Allia (the
river), f.

_B. Gender determined by Ending of Nominative Singular._

The gender of other nouns is determined by the ending of the Nominative
Singular.[11]

NOTE 1.--_Common Gender._ Certain nouns are sometimes Masculine, sometimes
Feminine. Thus, sacerdos may mean either _priest_ or _priestess_, and is
Masculine or Feminine accordingly. So also civis, _citizen_; parens,
_parent_; etc. The gender of such nouns is said to be _common_.

NOTE 2.--Names of animals usually have grammatical gender, according to the
ending of the Nominative Singular, but the one form may designate either
the male or female; as, anser, m., _goose_ or _gander_. So vulpes, f.,
_fox_; aquila, f., _eagle_.

NUMBER.

16. The Latin has two Numbers,--the Singular and Plural. The Singular
denotes one object, the Plural, more than one.

CASES.

17. There are six Cases in Latin:--

Nominative, Case of Subject;
Genitive, Objective with _of_, or Possessive;
Dative, Objective with _to_ or _for_;
Accusative, Case of Direct Object;
Vocative, Case of Address;
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