Latvian declension
Latvian declension constitutes the inflectional paradigm for nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals in the Latvian language, an East Baltic tongue that preserves rich Indo-European morphological features through seven grammatical cases—nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative—and six primary declension classes differentiated by gender, stem type, and ending patterns.[1][2] Masculine nouns typically follow the first, second, or third declensions, characterized by consonant or vowel stems with varying endings such as -s, -is, or -us in the nominative, while feminine nouns align with the fourth, fifth, or sixth, often featuring -a, -e, or zero endings.[3][4] This system enables precise syntactic roles without rigid word order, as case markers signal functions like agency, possession, or location, though it introduces complexity from historical sound shifts and irregular forms inherited from Proto-Baltic. Key characteristics include the vocative's role in direct address, often identical to the nominative but diverging in certain classes, and the instrumental's partial merger with accusative or dative in oblique uses, reflecting diachronic simplification from older Baltic stages.[5] Adjectives concord in case, number, and gender with modified nouns, amplifying paradigmatic density, while pronouns exhibit suppletive stems across declensions.[6] Compared to its sister language Lithuanian, Latvian declension shows greater phonological conditioning and fewer archaic dual forms, prioritizing morphomic principles over strict phonology in class assignment, which underscores its evolution toward analytic tendencies amid retained synthetic vigor.[1]Fundamental Categories
Grammatical Cases
Latvian nouns inflect for seven grammatical cases, which encode syntactic roles such as subject, object, and adverbial modifiers, allowing flexible word order while indicating relationships within sentences.[4] These cases—nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative—primarily mark semantic and syntactic functions, with the nominative serving as the base form for subjects and predicates.[4] The nominative case identifies the subject or agent performing the action, as well as nominal predicates or topics in equative constructions; for example, in Meitene lasa grāmatu ("The girl reads a book"), meitene is nominative as the subject.[4] The genitive expresses possession, partitive meanings, absence, or negation of objects, often as attributes to nouns or in negated predicates; an instance appears in Meitenes grāmata ("The girl’s book"), where meitenes denotes ownership.[4] The dative marks indirect objects, recipients, experiencers, or possessors, functioning as verbal objects or ethical datives; in Es devu grāmatu meitenei ("I gave the book to the girl"), meitenei receives the action.[4] The accusative designates direct objects undergoing the action or directional adverbials for time and place; for instance, Es redzu meiteni ("I see the girl") uses meiteni as the direct object.[4] The instrumental conveys means, instruments, accompaniment, or manner, typically as adverbials with prepositions like ar ("with"); an example is Viņš raksta ar pildspalvu ("He writes with a pen"), indicating the tool.[4] The locative specifies static location, time, or manner, functioning adverbially; in Meitene ir skolā ("The girl is at school"), skolā denotes position.[4] The vocative serves for direct address or calling attention to persons or objects; usage includes Meitene, nāc šeit! ("Girl, come here!").[4] Case syncretism occurs in Latvian, where forms overlap based on context, noun class, or construction; notably, the accusative often merges with the genitive or nominative for inanimate or negated objects, as in Neteikšu neviena vārda (genitive) or nevienu vārdu (accusative equivalent), and the vocative may align with nominative or accusative forms like tēv! or tēvs! ("father!").[4] Such mergers reflect syntactic polyfunctionality without altering core roles.[4]Genders and Numbers
Latvian distinguishes two grammatical genders for nouns: masculine and feminine, a system resulting from the historical merger of the Proto-Indo-European neuter into the masculine category prior to attested records.[7] Masculine gender is morphologically marked by stems that typically end in a consonant in the nominative singular, often aligning with declension classes featuring endings such as -s or -is, while feminine stems commonly terminate in -a or -e in the nominative singular.[3] Gender assignment is largely lexical, with semantic influences for animates (e.g., male referents tending toward masculine) but formal criteria dominating for inanimates, ensuring consistent agreement across syntactic elements.[8] Nouns inflect for two numbers: singular, denoting a single referent, and plural, indicating multiple referents, with endings varying by gender but without a separate neuter plural paradigm due to the gender's obsolescence.[7] Plural formation generally involves suffixes like -i for masculine and -as or -es for feminine, reflecting the language's synthetic morphology.[3] Adjectives and other modifiers agree obligatorily with nouns in gender and number (as well as case), lacking inherent gender themselves and deriving it via concord rules; indefinite forms use base endings such as -s (masculine singular) or -a (feminine singular), shifting to -i (masculine plural) or -as (feminine plural).[3] Definiteness, absent dedicated articles, manifests through specialized adjective suffixes—e.g., -ais for masculine singular and -ā for feminine singular—creating distinct forms that signal specificity without altering noun morphology directly, thus intertwining gender-number agreement with discourse function.[3] This system maintains referential clarity in the absence of articles, prioritizing inflectional precision over analytic marking.Noun Declension
Masculine Patterns
Masculine nouns in Latvian primarily follow three declension classes, determined by their nominative singular endings: the first class for nouns ending in -s or -š, the second for those ending in -is, and the third for those ending in -us. These patterns are characterized by consistent case endings appended to the stem, with predictability arising from fixed morphological rules rather than arbitrary exceptions in regular forms.[6][4] The first declension encompasses the majority of masculine nouns, such as dēls ("son") or suns ("dog"), featuring a consonant stem with thematic vowel -a- in oblique cases. Singular endings include nominative -s/-š, genitive -a, dative -am, accusative -u, locative -ā, and vocative identical to nominative or -s. Plural forms shift to nominative -i, genitive -u, dative -iem, accusative -us, locative -os, and vocative -i.[6][4]| Case | Singular Ending | Example (dēls) | Plural Ending | Example (dēli) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -s | dēls | -i | dēli |
| Genitive | -a | dēla | -u | dēlu |
| Dative | -am | dēlam | -iem | dēliem |
| Accusative | -u | dēlu | -us | dēlus |
| Locative | -ā | dēlā | -os | dēlos |
| Vocative | -s | dēls | -i | dēli |
| Case | Singular Ending | Example (brālis) | Plural Ending | Example (brāļi) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -is | brālis | -i | brāļi |
| Genitive | -a | brāļa | -u | brāļu |
| Dative | -im | brālim | -iem | brāļiem |
| Accusative | -i | brāli | -us | brāļus |
| Locative | -ī | brālī | -os | brāļos |
| Vocative | -i | brāli | -i | brāļi |
| Case | Singular Ending | Example (medus) | Plural Ending | Example (medus) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -us | medus | -i | medus |
| Genitive | -us/-a | medus/meda | -u | medu |
| Dative | -um | medum | -iem | medi |
| Accusative | -u | medu | -us | medus |
| Locative | -ū | medū | -os | medos |
| Vocative | -us | medu | -i | medi |
Feminine Patterns
Feminine nouns in Latvian primarily inflect according to three declension classes characterized by thematic vowels a, e, or i, distinguishing them through consistent vowel stems and case endings that differ from consonant-heavy masculine patterns.[4] These classes include a-stems (Declension 4, nominative singular ending in -a), e-stems (Declension 5, ending in -e), and i-stems (Declension 6, ending in -s or -š), with the latter functioning as consonant stems but incorporating an i-thematic element.[3] Unlike masculine nouns, feminine patterns emphasize vowel retention and lengthening in certain plurals, such as genitive plural formations involving -u after palatalized consonants, without neuter-like singular forms.[4] A-stems, the most common feminine class, feature a thematic a-vowel, with singular dative in -ai and plural nominative in -as. For example, māsa ("sister") declines as follows:| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | māsa | māsas |
| Genitive | māsas | māsu |
| Dative | māsai | māsām |
| Accusative | māsu | māsas |
| Instrumental | māsu | māsām |
| Locative | māsā | māsās |
| Vocative | māsa | māsas |
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | māte | mātes |
| Genitive | mātes | māšu |
| Dative | mātei | mātēm |
| Accusative | māti | mātes |
| Instrumental | māti | mātēm |
| Locative | mātē | mātēs |
| Vocative | māte | mātes |
Indeclinable Nouns
Indeclinable nouns in Latvian constitute a minor class of nouns that do not inflect for the seven grammatical cases or for number, distinguishing them from the predominant declinable nouns organized into six declension patterns. These nouns are exclusively borrowed from foreign languages and typically retain their original form without assimilation to Latvian morphological rules, often featuring endings such as -ā, -ē, -o, -u, or -ū.[10][4] Examples include taksi (taxi), radio (radio), kino (cinema), eiro (euro), loto (lotto), and intervija (interview).[4] Certain foreign proper names also function as indeclinable nouns when not adapted to Latvian declension, such as Oslo, Katmandu, or Kokto, though many foreign names are phonetically transcribed and assigned declinable endings to align with Latvian gender and case requirements.[4] Gender assignment for indeclinable nouns follows semantic or conventional criteria—for instance, taksi is masculine and intervija is feminine—while number (singular or plural) is inferred from context rather than marked morphologically.[4] To convey case relations, indeclinable nouns rely on prepositions or syntactic position, as their invariant form precludes direct inflection; a construction like ar taksi employs the preposition ar ("with") to express the instrumental case meaning "with a taxi."[4] In contemporary Latvian, these nouns occur frequently in specialized registers influenced by global language contact, such as media, technology, and international trade, but represent a small proportion of the lexicon overall.[4] Occasionally, recent loanwords exhibit partial declension in informal or spoken varieties, as with eir-is derived from eiro, indicating gradual integration into productive declension classes.[4]Phonological Alternations
Phonological alternations in Latvian noun declension involve systematic stem modifications driven by the interaction of inflectional suffixes with underlying phonological structures, observable across all six declension classes. These changes encompass consonant palatalization, iotation-induced softening, vowel quality shifts akin to umlaut, and alternations of dorsal (velar) consonants, which adapt stems to suffixal requirements while preserving paradigmatic coherence. Rooted in Balto-Slavic phonological inheritance, such as Proto-Baltic consonant gradation and vowel reductions, these synchronic rules apply uniformly to masculine and feminine nouns, though their distribution varies by class and morphological context like genitive or plural forms.[4] For example, in declensions featuring genitive singular suffixes with front vowels, non-palatal consonants in the stem coda undergo assimilation, as seen in forms where /n/ shifts to /ņ/ or /k/ to /c/, preventing phonotactically illicit clusters.[4] Vowel alternations, less pervasive in nouns than in verbs, may involve metaphonic raising or fronting under suffix influence, impacting stem vowels in disyllabic bases.[4] Dorsal consonants exhibit particular sensitivity, often spirantizing or affricating in environments preceding /i/ or /e/, a pattern inherited from earlier stages where laryngeal effects and glide insertions conditioned velar softening.[4] These processes, while not universal across paradigms, ensure morphological transparency by linking stem variants to specific case-number combinations, with exceptions confined to loanwords or irregular survivals.[11]Iotation and Palatalization
In Latvian noun declension, iotation and palatalization primarily affect stem-final consonants preceding front vowel case endings, such as those in the genitive singular and plural forms of second-declension nouns, as well as plural forms across multiple declensions. These processes involve phonetic softening or affrication, triggered by vowels like /i/ or /e/, resulting in predictable alternations that maintain paradigm consistency despite layered historical developments from Balto-Slavic iotation. For instance, coronal and sibilant consonants undergo changes like /t/ or /d/ to [ʃ] (š), /s/ or /z/ to [ʃ] (š) or [ʒ] (ž), /ts/ (c) to [tʃ] (č), and /dz/ to [dʒ] (dž), as seen in nouns such as lācis (bear, nominative singular) yielding lāči (nominative plural).[12][6] Velar consonants /k/ and /g/ exhibit palatalization to palatal stops and [ɟ] before front vowels in inflectional contexts, particularly in plural or diminutive-derived forms integrated into declensional paradigms. This occurs systematically in standard Latvian, as in the dative plural of stems like būks (log or pole), surfacing as [buˈciːu], or in diminutives affecting noun stems, such as zirgs (horse) in zirgēlis (foal), pronounced [zir.ɟe.lis]. Orthographically, these may retain k or g but are realized phonetically as softened, with ģ denoting [ɟ] in some marked positions; the change enforces empirical regularity in case realizations, avoiding merger with unpalatalized forms.[13][14] These alternations demonstrate causal consistency driven by vowel-consonant adjacency, observable across native and borrowed stems, though exceptions arise in proper names (e.g., no palatalization in -ckis or -skis endings) or dialectal variations like enhanced affrication in Dagda speech ([pliˈtsi] for standard [pliˈki] in adjectival plurals influencing noun agreement).[6][13]Exceptions, Umlaut, and Dorsal Consonants
In certain Latvian noun declensions, umlaut manifests as vowel raising, particularly the shift from short a ([æ]) or long ā ([æː]) to e or ē in plural forms influenced by front-vowel suffixes or endings, as seen in dārzs (nominative singular, garden) yielding dārzi (nominative plural) or zars (branch) to zari.[4] This alternation arises from historical metaphony and vowel harmony, where a regressive assimilatory effect propagates across morpheme boundaries, though position relative to stress is no longer phonologically decisive in modern standard Latvian.[4] Exceptions to umlaut predominate in loanwords, which resist native vowel mutations due to retention of source-language phonology and incomplete integration into Latvian sound laws; examples include televizors (television set) pluralizing as televizori without raising, or radio remaining unchanged in plural forms.[4] Irregular native forms, such as vīrs (man) to vīri, further deviate by preserving stem vowels amid morphological interference, reflecting relictual historical phoneme changes rather than productive harmony.[4] Dorsal consonants (k, g) in noun stems typically exhibit stability during inflectional declension, resisting full palatalization or affrication in forms without front-vowel triggers, as in koks (tree, nominative singular) to kokam (dative singular) or vilks (wolf) plural vilki without velar shift.[4][14] Shifts occur selectively before front vowels in derivational contexts, yielding affricates (k → c or ts, g → dz) or palatals (ķ, ģ), exemplified by roga (horn, genitive singular) in diminutive roķele.[4] Causal factors include partial application of historical palatalization laws, where velars front only under stem-level morphological pressure, not routine case endings.[14] Loanwords provide key exceptions for dorsals, maintaining unshifted velars due to foreign stem resistance, as in banka (bank) to bankas (genitive plural) or kafija (coffee) to kafijas, bypassing native affrication.[4] This stability stems from orthographic fidelity and limited phonological adaptation, contrasting with native stems where gradation aligns with declension class compatibility.[4]Adjective Declension
Indefinite Forms
Indefinite adjectives in Latvian decline according to patterns that mirror those of nouns, specifically the first declension for masculine forms and the fourth for feminine forms, without the pronominal suffixes that mark definiteness.[4] These forms express attributes in indefinite contexts, such as generic or non-specific references, and must agree with the head noun in gender, number, and case across the six grammatical cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental (typically with preposition ar "with"), and locative.[4] [3] Stem variations occur based on hardness or softness, with soft stems often showing palatalization in the masculine singular nominative (e.g., jaunš "young" rather than -s).[4] Masculine indefinite adjectives typically end in -s in the nominative singular for hard stems (e.g., labs "good"), shifting to genitive -a (e.g., laba), dative -am (e.g., labam), accusative -u (e.g., labu), locative -ā (e.g., labā), and instrumental -u with ar (e.g., ar labu).[4] In the plural, nominative shifts to -i (e.g., labi), genitive to -u (e.g., labu), dative and instrumental to -iem (e.g., labiem), accusative to -us (e.g., labus), and locative to -os (e.g., labos).[4] [3] Feminine indefinite forms parallel this with nominative singular -a (e.g., laba), genitive -as (e.g., labas), dative -ai (e.g., labai), accusative -u (e.g., labu), locative -ā (e.g., labā), and instrumental -u with ar (e.g., ar labu).[4] Plural feminine endings include nominative -as (e.g., labas), genitive -u (e.g., labu), dative and instrumental -ām (e.g., labām), accusative -as (e.g., labas), and locative -ās (e.g., labās).[4] [3] The following table summarizes the standard indefinite endings for a hard-stem adjective like labs / laba:| Case | Masculine Singular | Feminine Singular | Masculine Plural | Feminine Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -s | -a | -i | -as |
| Genitive | -a | -as | -u | -u |
| Dative | -am | -ai | -iem | -ām |
| Accusative | -u | -u | -us | -as |
| Instrumental | -u (with ar) | -u (with ar) | -iem (with ar) | -ām (with ar) |
| Locative | -ā | -ā | -os | -ās |
Definite Forms
In Latvian, definite adjective forms are distinguished by specialized inflectional endings that mark specificity or definiteness, serving a syntactic function analogous to definite articles in other Indo-European languages but integrated directly into the adjective's morphology. These forms typically arise through the postposition of suffixes such as -ais in masculine singular nominative and -ā in feminine singular nominative, appended to the adjective stem to denote a particular or known referent without requiring separate articles.[4][15] This system reflects a historical development where adjectival definiteness emerged from pronominal influences, with the definite paradigm exhibiting greater uniformity across cases compared to indefinite forms.[4] The definite paradigm maintains gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) distinctions, with seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental (often syncretized with accusative in singular or dative in plural), locative, and vocative. Syncretism is evident, for instance, in the masculine singular where accusative and instrumental share the ending -o, and in the plural where dative and instrumental may align as -ajiem or -iem.[4][3] In compounds or fused constructions, these endings may undergo phonological adjustments, such as vowel shortening or glide epenthesis (e.g., /a/ → /aj/ before certain case markers), to ensure euphony.[3] Definite endings for standard adjectives are as follows: Masculine Singular:| Case | Ending |
|---|---|
| Nominative | -ais |
| Genitive | -ā |
| Dative | -ajam |
| Accusative | -o |
| Instrumental | -o |
| Locative | -ajā |
| Vocative | -ais |
| Case | Ending |
|---|---|
| Nominative | -ie |
| Genitive | -o |
| Dative | -ajiem |
| Accusative | -os |
| Instrumental | -ajiem |
| Locative | -ajos |
| Vocative | -ie |
| Case | Ending |
|---|---|
| Nominative | -ā |
| Genitive | -ās |
| Dative | -ajai |
| Accusative | -o |
| Instrumental | -o |
| Locative | -ajā |
| Vocative | -ā |
| Case | Ending |
|---|---|
| Nominative | -ās |
| Genitive | -o |
| Dative | -ajām |
| Accusative | -ās |
| Instrumental | -ajām |
| Locative | -ajās |
| Vocative | -ās |
Agreement Patterns and Examples
In Latvian, attributive adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case, ensuring concord across all seven cases. This agreement applies uniformly to both indefinite and definite adjective forms, with the latter incorporating suffixes such as -ais (masculine singular nominative) or -ā (feminine singular nominative) to denote specificity.[4] For instance, the indefinite adjective labs (good) pairs with the masculine noun vīrs (man) as labs vīrs in the nominative singular, while the definite form appears as labais vīrs.[4] The following paradigm illustrates indefinite agreement for labs vīrs across singular cases:| Case | Form |
|---|---|
| Nominative | labs vīrs |
| Genitive | laba vīra |
| Dative | labam vīram |
| Accusative | labu vīru |
| Instrumental | labu vīru |
| Locative | labā vīrā |
| Vocative | labs vīr!* |
| Case | Form |
|---|---|
| Nominative | labais vīrs |
| Genitive | labā vīra |
| Dative | labajam vīram |
| Accusative | labo vīru |
| Instrumental | labo vīru |
| Locative | labajā vīrā |
| Vocative | labais vīr!* |
Pronoun Declension
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns in Latvian denote the speaker (es, "I"), addressee (tu, singular informal "you"; jūs, plural or formal "you"), and third parties (viņš, masculine "he"; viņa, feminine "she"; viņi, masculine plural "they"; viņas, feminine plural "they").[4] These pronouns inflect for seven cases—nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental (typically preposition ar + accusative), locative, and vocative—while distinguishing singular and plural numbers.[16] Unlike nouns, first- and second-person pronouns exhibit suppletive stems in oblique cases (e.g., es yields man in dative), with genitive and dative forms showing partial merger or alternation (e.g., genitive mani or manis for es, dative man).[4] Third-person forms follow adjectival or nominal declension patterns, incorporating gender distinctions.[16] In nominative case, pronouns bear primary stress, but oblique forms (genitive, dative, accusative, locative) are typically enclitic in modern spoken Latvian, attaching unstressed to verbs or prepositions (e.g., dod man "give me," with stress on dod).[4] Vocative case lacks distinct forms, defaulting to nominative (e.g., tu! "you!").[4] Instrumental is expressed prepositionally as ar + accusative (e.g., ar mani "with me").[16] The following table presents singular first- and second-person forms across cases:| Case | es (1sg) | tu (2sg) |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | es | tu |
| Genitive | mani / manis | tevi / tevis |
| Dative | man | tev |
| Accusative | mani | tevi |
| Instrumental | ar mani | ar tevi |
| Locative | man / manī | tev / tevī |
| Vocative | es | tu |
| Case | mēs (1pl) | jūs (2pl) |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | mēs | jūs |
| Genitive | mums / mūsu | jums / jūsu |
| Dative | mums | jums |
| Accusative | mūs | jūs |
| Instrumental | ar mums | ar jums |
| Locative | mums / mūsos | jums / jūsos |
| Vocative | mēs | jūs |
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns in Latvian originate from genitive constructions associated with personal pronouns and serve an adjectival function to express ownership or relation, inflecting to agree in gender, number, and case with the modified noun. They follow the declension paradigms of indefinite adjectives, with masculine singular forms aligning with the first adjectival declension (stems in -s or consonants) and feminine singular with the fourth (stems in -a). This agreement ensures syntactic harmony, as in mans brālis ('my brother', masculine nominative singular) or mana māsa ('my sister', feminine nominative singular).[4] The indefinite base forms derive directly from personal pronoun stems: mans (1st person singular, 'my'), tavs (2nd person singular informal, 'your'), viņa (3rd person singular, 'his' or 'her'), mūsu (1st person plural, 'our'), jūsu (2nd person plural or formal, 'your'), and viņu (3rd person plural, 'their'). Definite variants incorporate postpositive article endings for emphasis or specificity, yielding forms like mansis (masculine) or manā (feminine), which then decline as definite adjectives with fused endings such as -ais/-ā in nominative singular. Forms like mūsu and jūsu exhibit minimal gender distinction in the nominative, using the same stem for both masculine and feminine, though full agreement applies in other cases.[4] Declension involves stem alternations, particularly palatalization before certain endings in indirect cases; for instance, the stem of mans shifts to maš- in the dative singular (mašam masculine, mašai feminine) and instrumental/locative (mašā shared). Similar changes affect tavs (tašam, tašai) and savs (reflexive 'one's own', which agrees with the subject noun rather than the logical possessor, as in viņš mazgā savu auto 'he washes his own car'). These pronouns lack a vocative form distinct from nominative and do not inflect for the dual number in modern usage.[4]| Person | Masculine Nominative Singular | Feminine Nominative Singular |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | mans | mana |
| 2nd singular | tavs | tava |
| 3rd singular | viņa | viņa |
| 1st plural | mūsu | mūsu |
| 2nd plural | jūsu | jūsu |
| 3rd plural | viņu | viņu |
| Reflexive | savs | sava |
Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Reflexive Pronouns
In Latvian, demonstrative pronouns primarily consist of šis ("this," indicating proximity) and tas ("that," indicating distance), which inflect for gender, number, and case but lack distinct vocative forms.[4] These pronouns follow patterns akin to indefinite adjectives, with masculine forms aligning to declension class 1 and feminine to class 4, though accusative plural feminine for šis shows variation between šās and šīs.[4] Instrumental cases typically incorporate the preposition ar ("with").[4] The following table illustrates the declension of šis and tas:| Case | Šis (m. sg.) | Šī (f. sg.) | Šie (m. pl.) | Šīs (f. pl.) | Tas (m. sg.) | Tā (f. sg.) | Tie (m. pl.) | Tās (f. pl.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | šis | šī | šie | šīs | tas | tā | tie | tās |
| Genitive | šī | šīs | šo | šo | tā | tās | to | to |
| Dative | šim | šai | šiem | šīm | tam | tai | tiem | tām |
| Accusative | šo | šo | šos | šās/šīs | to | to | tos | tās |
| Instrumental | ar šo | ar šo | ar šiem | ar šīm | ar to | ar to | ar tiem | ar tām |
| Locative | šajā | šajā | šajos | šajās | tajā | tajā | tajos | tajās |
| Case | Kurš (m. sg.) | Kura (f. sg.) | Kuri (m. pl.) | Kuras (f. pl.) | Kas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | kurš | kura | kuri | kuras | kas |
| Genitive | kura | kuras | kuru | kuru | kā/kura |
| Dative | kuram | kurai | kuriem | kurām | kam/kuram |
| Accusative | kuru | kuru | kurus | kuras | ko |
| Instrumental | ar kuru | ar kuru | ar kuriem | ar kurām | ar ko |
| Locative | kurā | kurā | kuros/kurajos | kurās/kurajās | kā/kurā |
- Genitive: sevis
- Dative: sev
- Accusative: sevi
- Instrumental: ar sevi
- Locative: sevī[4]
Numeral Declension
Cardinal Numerals
In Latvian, cardinal numerals express exact quantity and exhibit partial inflection, with numerals from one to four declining according to patterns akin to indefinite adjectives, while those from five onward are generally invariant.[4] The numeral viens ("one") inflects in the singular, distinguishing masculine (viens) and feminine (viena) forms in the nominative, and follows first-declension patterns for masculine and fourth-declension for feminine across cases such as genitive (viena for both genders), dative (vienam masculine, vienai feminine), and accusative (syncretic with nominative or genitive).[4] For divi ("two"), trīs ("three"), and četri ("four"), plural forms predominate, with gender agreement in the nominative (divi masculine, divas feminine; trīs invariant across genders; četri masculine, četras feminine) and further inflection in oblique cases, such as genitive plural divu, triju, četru.[4] Higher cardinal numerals, including pieci ("five") through deviņi ("nine"), tens (desmit "ten"), hundreds (simt "hundred"), and thousands (tūkstoš "thousand"), remain uninflected in form, requiring the modified noun to appear in the genitive plural for quantities of two or more (e.g., pieci vīri "five men" in nominative, but piecu suņu "of five dogs" in genitive).[4] Exceptions include archaic or stylistic declinable variants like desmits, simts, and tūkstotis, which inflect as masculine nouns of the first declension.[4] Compound numerals (e.g., divdesmit "twenty", *simt vienu" "one hundred one") preserve invariance in most components, with the final element potentially declining if it is one to four.[4] Beyond direct quantification, cardinal numerals appear in distributive constructions using the preposition pa followed by the dative form, as in pa vienam ("one by one" or "each"), pa divi ("two each"), or pa trim ("three each"), which convey distribution or iteration without full adjectival agreement.[4] These forms maintain the numeral's base inflection where applicable but emphasize per-unit application, as in pa pieciem ("five each").[4] The following table illustrates nominative and genitive forms for numerals one to five modifying masculine nouns:| Numeral | Nominative (e.g., with vīrs "man") | Genitive (e.g., with vīra "of man") |
|---|---|---|
| Viens ("one") | viens vīrs | viena vīra |
| Divi ("two") | divi vīri | divu vīru |
| Trīs ("three") | trīs vīri | triju vīru |
| Četri ("four") | četri vīri | četru vīru |
| Pieci ("five") | pieci vīri (invariant numeral) | piecu vīru (noun inflects) |
Ordinal Numerals
Ordinal numerals in Latvian denote sequence or order and inflect as definite adjectives, agreeing in gender, number, and case with the nouns they attribute.[4] They are derived from cardinal numeral stems by adding definite adjective suffixes, such as -ais in the masculine singular nominative (e.g., otrs from cardinal divi yields otrais for "second").[17] This definite inflection distinguishes them from most cardinal numerals, which follow indefinite adjective patterns or remain indeclinable.[4] The paradigm for ordinal numerals mirrors that of definite adjectives, with masculine forms typically following declension class 1 and feminine forms class 4.[4] For example, otrais ("second") declines as follows:| Case | Masculine Singular | Feminine Singular | Masculine Plural | Feminine Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | otrais | otrā | otrī | otrās |
| Genitive | otrā | otrās | otrō | otrō |
| Dative | otrajam | otrajai | otrajiem | otrajām |
| Accusative | otro | otrā | otrōs | otrās |
| Instrumental | otrajo | otrajo | otrajiem | otrajām |
| Locative | otrajā | otrā | otrō | otrās |