Quick Latin - 1
Latin isn't like English. Obviously Latin vocabulary differs from the English, but less obviously Latin grammar is also different, meaning that the way a sentence is constructed is different in the two languages.
The first thing to consider is Latin word order.
Latin Word Order
In English, the usual order of a simple sentence is Subject, Verb, Object.
For example, in the sentence:-
The dog eats the bone,
Dog is the Subject, eats is the Verb and bone is the Object.
In a simple Latin sentence, the word order is Subject, Object, Verb. So we would have :-
Dog bone eats.
This is not always the case. Even with this simple sentence, the word order could be :-
Bone dog eats.
Latin can get away with this flexible word order because it is an inflected language.
Latin is an inflected language
An inflected language is one where the endings of a word change depending on its use and meaning within a sentence. The ending of a word is generally the last syllable.
So, a real example :-
puer puellam amat.
The boy (Subject) loves (Verb) the girl (Object).
puella puerum amat
The girl (Subject) loves (Verb) the boy (Object)
The endings of the nouns have changed according to whether girl or boy is the Subject or Object of the sentence. This allows Latin word order to be flexible as the meaning of a Latin noun is built into the word.
Latin nouns decline
So nouns change their endings and the correct term for this is decline. Listing the possible endings of a noun, is to decline it.
To learn more about Latin Declensions and declining of Latin nouns:-
first declension nouns,
second declension nouns,
third declension nouns
third declension nouns. Consonant stems