First Declension (puella, puellae)
Learn the endings of first-declension nouns. Identify nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and vocative cases for feminine nouns.
A lesson of Latin A1 — Beginner, in Noun Declensions, about 10 minutes.
First Declension Nouns (puella, puellae)
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to decline any first-declension Latin noun and identify its case by its ending.
What Is a Declension?
Latin nouns are organized into declensions — groups that share the same set of endings. There are five declensions. The first is the easiest to learn and mostly contains feminine nouns.
The First-Declension Paradigm: PUELLA (girl)
| Case | Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | puella | puellae | the girl (subject) |
| Genitive | puellae | puellārum | of the girl |
| Dative | puellae | puellīs | to/for the girl |
| Accusative | puellam | puellās | the girl (object) |
| Ablative | puellā | puellīs | by/with/from the girl |
| Vocative | puella | puellae | O girl! (direct address) |
The stem is puell-. Strip the nominative ending (-a) and you have the stem. All other endings attach to the stem.
Key Observations
The genitive singular (-ae) is the most important form — it appears in your dictionary entry and tells you the declension.
Dictionary entry: puella, puellae f. (girl)
- First word = nominative singular
- Second word = genitive singular
- Letter = gender (f. = feminine)
The dative and ablative plural are identical (-īs). Context disambiguates them.
The nominative and ablative singular look similar (puella vs. puellā). The long ā in ablative is crucial — in Classical pronunciation, you'd hear the length.