Editing Latin declension (section)

===Syncretism===
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[[Syncretism (linguistics)|Syncretism]], where one form in a paradigm shares the ending of another form in the paradigm, is common in Latin. The following are the most notable patterns of syncretism:

====Gender-specific====
* For neuter nouns, the nominative, vocative, and accusative cases are identical. The nominative, vocative, and accusative plural almost always ends in ''-a''. (Both of these features are inherited from [[Proto-Indo-European]], and so no actual syncretism is known to have happened in the historical sense, since these cases of these nouns are not known to have ever been different in the first place.)

====Case-specific====
* The vocative form is always the same as the nominative in the plural, and usually the same as the nominative in the singular except for second-declension nouns ending in ''-us'' and a few nouns of Greek origin. For example, the vocative of the first-declension {{wikt-lang|la|Aenēās}} is {{lang|la|Aenēā}}.
* The genitive singular is the same as the nominative plural in first-, second-, and fourth-declension non-neuter Latin nouns.
* The dative singular is the same as the genitive singular in first- and fifth-declension pure Latin nouns.
* The dative is always the same as the ablative in the singular in the second declension, the third-declension full ''i''-stems (i.e. neuter ''i''-stems, adjectives), and fourth-declension neuters.
* The dative, ablative, and locative are always identical in the plural.
* The locative singular is identical to the genitive in the 1st and 2nd declensions; to the dative or ablative in the 3rd declension; to the ablative in the 5th declension.
* The nominative and accusative plurals are identical for all nouns of the 4th declension (in ''-ūs'') and 5th declension (in ''-ēs''), and for many nouns of the 3rd declension (in ''-ēs''; but a distinct accusative plural in ''-īs'' can be used in Classical Latin for some i-stem nouns).