AGREEMENT: GENDER, NUMBER AND CASE
Every Latin noun is either singular (nox – night) or plural (noctes – nights). Every Latin noun also has a grammatical gender, of which there are three. Leo (lion) is masculine, rana (frog) is feminine, and animal (creature) is neuter.
As we have seen, a noun will also be in a particular case, depending on the job it’s doing in the sentence. These three things are important because, like in many languages, a noun has to agree with the words going with it. So if I want to say “I love the cowardly lion”, that’s amo leonem timidum. Leonem and timidum are both singular, accusative, and masculine. In any noun and adjective pairing, these three things must always agree. If the noun is feminine and singular, every adjective that describes it will also be feminine and singular. When there are several nouns and adjective in a sentence, this is very helpful in telling you what words go together.
Incidentally, Latin has no definite article, no word for “the”: amo leonem timidum could be I love a cowardly lion, or I love the cowardly lion. Sometimes the correct translation will be clear. Sometimes you get to choose.