Latin 101

Chapter 15

mïlle, mïlia

Mïlle, mïlia is the last cardinal (counting) number that declines that you will have to learn. It's a bit tricker than duo or trës, but not really hard. If you want to use it in the singular, mïlle is an indeclinable adjective: e.g.:

Note, the noun you are modifying is always plural (a thousand is more than one), however, because we think of certain large numbers (a hundred, a thousand, a million) as representing a collective unit, when you translate the phrase into English you will use a singular, indefinite article ("a" thousand),

When you use mïlle, mïlia in the plural, you're actually using it as a neuter plural 3rd declension i-stem noun (cf. "a cast of thousands" in English). In this case, the noun declines just the way mare, maris, n. would in the plural. The one last thing you need to know is that when you use mïlia this way, the thing that your saying "thousands of" is always in the genitive.

Chapter 15 index / Drill 3