Latin Distributives

These are difficult, and I’m not sure I grasp all of their aspects. If you’d like, feel free to expand or correct me in comments.

There are four central aspects to the Latin numeral:

• The cardinal: ūnus, duo, trēs, quattuor
• The ordinal: prīmus, secundus, tertius, quārtus
• The distributive: singulī, bīnī, ternī, quaternī
• The adverb: semel, bis, ter, quater

The distributive describes how many each or how many apiece. It’s a numeral of rate.

• The children received candy, one each: puerī mellīta accēpērunt, singula singulīs

Note a few things:

• The distributive numerals are plural adjectives, here matching mellīta (singula) and puerī (–> puerīs) (singulīs)
• They decline like the plural of bonus, -a, -um

The distributive are used to multiply, featured in the formula numeral adverb + distributive:

• 2 x 2 = bis bīna
• 3 x 7 = ter septēna

The poets also use distributives in place of cardinals, to express sets.

• He threw two shafts (in a set): bīna hastīlia torsit.

Distributives 1-10

• one each, singulī, -ae, -a
• two each, bīnī, -ae, -a
• three each, ternī, -ae, -a or trīnī, -ae, -a
• four each, quaternī, -ae, -a
• five each, quīnī, -ae, -a
• six each, sēnī, -ae, -a
• seven each, septēnī, -ae, -a
• eight each, octōnī, -ae, -a
• nine each, novēnī, -ae, -a
• ten each, dēnī, -ae, -a

Distributives 11-99

• eleven each, ūndēnī, -ae, -a
• twelve each, duodēnī, -ae, -a
• thirteen each, ternī dēnī, ternae dēnae, etc.
• eighteen each, octōnī dēnī or duodēvīcēnī, -ae, -a
• nineteen each, novēnī dēnī or ūndēvīcēni, -ae, -a
• twenty each, vīcēnī, -ae, -a
• twenty-one each, vīcēnī singulī, vīcēnae singulae, etc.
• thirty each, trīcēnī, -ae, -a
• fourty each, quadrāgēnī, -ae, -a
• fifty each, quīnquāgēnī, -ae, -a
• sixty each, sexāgēnī, -ae, -a
• seventy each, septuāgēnī, -ae, -a
• eighty each, octōgēnī, -ae, -a
• ninety each, nōnāgēnī, -ae, -a

Distributives 100+

• 100 each, centēnī, -ae, -a
• 200 each, ducēnī, -ae, -a
• 300 each, trecēnī, -ae, a
• 400 each, quadringēnī, -ae, -a
• 500 each, quīngēnī, -ae, -a
• 600 each, sescēnī, -ae, -a
• 700 each, septingēnī, -ae, -a
• 800 each, octingēnī, -ae, -a
• 900 each, nongēnī, -ae, -a
• 1,000 each, mīllēnī, -ae, -a
• 2,000 each bīna mīlia
• 100,000 each centēna mīlia

The Essential AG: 136