Second Declension: Masculine and Neuter

Endings

Singular endings. Unlike the first declension, the second declension does not have different categories based on vowel patterns. What you do have to pay attention to in the second declension, is the masculine forms and the neuter forms. The genitive and dative forms are the same for both masculine and neuter, as is the accusative singular, but the nominative, accusative plural, and vocative forms are different.

Vocative. The masculine singular vocative ending is your first distinct vocative ending! (Almost all vocative endings are the same as the nominative.)

Neuter Nominative-Accusative. One of the most unusual features of neuter nouns is that in every Indo-European language (including Latin and Greek), the neuter nominative and the neuter accusative forms are always identical! To call you attention to this, they have been marked in yellow below

Make sure you practice the paradigms!

Stress Patterns

Because some second declension endings are short monosyllables and some are long monosyllables, you have to pay careful attention to the stress pattern for the different forms, just like in the first declension feminine nouns. Once again, it is the words with antepenultimate stress that will cause the most trouble, because a word cannot have antepenultimate stress when the final syllable is long. Croy does not give you all the information you need to follow the stress patterns, so two words have been added to help you see the different stress patterns:ἱερόν is an example of an neuter noun with ultimate stress, and πρόσωπον is a neuter noun with antepenultimate stress. Want some more words to practice with? Take a look at this chart of Second Declension Masculine and Neuter Nouns in Croy to see the vocabulary from the textbook arranged according to this scheme.

Stress shifts. Remember: the stress shifts because some of the endings are long vowels and some are short. If an ending changes from short to long, the word cannot have antepenultimate stress, so this means the stress will shift! That means you need to pay special attention to the nouns in the antepenultimate stress column, because their stress pattern shifts when a long ending is added to the word.

Nominative plural: short diphthong! The nominative plural ending for the second declension masculine nouns is regarded as short, even though it is a diphthong (just like the nominative plural ending of the first declension, which is also a diphthong, but regarded as short).

Genitive plural circumflex. Note that the second declension has the same ending as the first declension, but it is not stressed. The rule about the stressed genitive plural ending which you learned for the first declension does not apply to the second declension!

Traditional Order: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative - Singular, Plural

This is the traditional way to study noun paradigms - but check below for the transformation patterns, which are a much more effective way to learn the paradigms.

• Singular Nouns: nominative, genitive, accusative, vocative. Listen for the stress shift in the words with antepenultimate stress: θάνατος and πρόσωπον. Keep track of the difference between masculine and neuter endings in the nominative, accusative, and vocative.
• Plural Nouns: nominative, genitive, accusative. Listen for the stress shift in the words with antepenultimate stress: θάνατος and πρόσωπον. Keep track of the difference between masculine and neuter endings in the nominative and accusative.

Transformations. The best way to study a paradigm is in terms of pairs, so that you can see the forms of the Greek words in relation to the other forms. Use these recordings to listen until you can clearly hear the pattern. Then recite together with the recording, so that you can practice pronouncing the words. Then, see if you can fill in the chart provided for both the singular and plural forms.

Singular to Plural Transformations

• Nominative: singular to plural. Notice that there is no shift in stress for the antepenultimate nouns, because the nominative singular and plural endings are both short.
• Genitive: singular to plural. Notice that there is no shift in stress for the antepenultimate nouns, because the genitive singular and plural endings are both long.
• Dative: singular to plural. Notice that there is no shift in stress for the antepenultimate nouns, because the dative singular and plural endings are both long. Although the singular has omega and the plural has omicron, it sounds to us just like adding an "s" at the end of the word, like when we make plurals in English!
• Accusative: singular to plural. Notice that there is a shift in stress for the antepenultimate masculine nouns because the accusative plural ending is long, but not for the neuter nouns, because for the neuters the accusative singular and plural endings are both short.

Nominative-Accusative, Genitive-Dative

• Nominative to Accusative: singular. Notice that there is no shift in stress or vowel; it's like adding "n" to the end of the word.
• Nominative to Accusative: plural. Notice that there is a shift in stress for the antepenultimate masculine nouns because the accusative plural ending is long, but for neuter nouns the nominative and accusative endings are always identical.
• Genitive to Dative: singular. Notice that there is no shift in stress for the antepenultimate nouns, because the genitive singular and dative singular are both long.
• Genitive to Dative: plural. This is probably the least interesting of the transformations, but do notice that - unlike the first declension nouns - the second declension genitive plural nouns do not always have ultimate stress.