Dat. veteribus veteribus pluribus pluribus Acc. veteres vetera plures, -is plura Voc. veteres vetera ——­ ——­ Abl. veteribus veteribus pluribus pluribus

1.  It will be observed that vetus is declined as a pure Consonant-Stem; i.e.  Ablative Singular in -e, Genitive Plural in -um, Nominative Plural Neuter in -a, and Accusative Plural Masculine and Feminine in -es only.  In the same way are declined compos, controlling; dives, rich; particeps, sharing; pauper, poor; princeps, chief; sospes, safe; superstes, surviving.  Yet dives always has Neut.  Plu. ditia.

2.  Inops, needy, and memor, mindful, have Ablative Singular inopi, memori, but Genitive Plural inopum, memorum.

3.  Participles in -ans and -ens follow the declension of i-stems.  But they do not have -i the Ablative, except when employed as adjectives; when used as participles or as substantives, they have -e; as,—­

  a sapienti viro, by a wise man; but
  a sapiente, by a philosopher.
  Tarquinio regnante, under the reign of Tarquin.

4.  Plus, in the Singular, is always a noun.

5.  In the Ablative Singular, adjectives, when used as substantives,—­

  a) usually retain the adjective declension; as,—­

    aequalis, contemporary, Abl. aequali.
    consularis, ex-consul, Abl. consulari

  So names of Months; as, Aprili, April; Decembri, December.

  b) But adjectives used as proper names have -e in the Ablative Singular;
  as, Celere, Celer; Juvenale, Juvenal.

  c) Patrials in -as, -atis and -is, -itis, when designating places
  regularly have -i; as, in Arpinati, on the estate at Arpinum, yet -e,
  when used of persons; as, ab Arpinate, by an Arpinatian.

6.  A very few indeclinable adjectives occur, the chief of which are frugi, frugal; nequam, worthless.

7.  In poetry, adjectives and participles in -ns sometimes form the Gen. Plu. in -um instead of -ium; as, venientum, of those coming.

* * * * *

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES.

71. 1.  There are three degrees of Comparison,—­the Positive, the Comparative, and the Superlative.

2.  The Comparative is regularly formed by adding -ior (Neut. -ius), and the Superlative by adding -issimus (-a, -um), to the Stem of the Positive deprived of its final vowel; as,—­

  altus, high, altior, higher, altissimus, highest,
                                                  very high.
  fortis, brave, fortior, fortissimus.
  felix, fortunate, felicior, felicissimus.