Palatalization.

The consonants preceding case ending is to be palatalised for nouns of second declension in singular genitive and all plural word forms as well as for nouns of 5th or 6th declension in plural genitive.

Consonant(s) before ending	Palatalised to	Declension
b	bj	2, 5
c	č	2, 5
d	ž	2, 5
l	ļ	2, 5, 6
m	mj	2, 5
n	ņ	2, 5, 6
p	pj	2, 5
s	š	2, 5, 6
t	š	2, 5, 6
v	vj	2, 5, 6
z	ž	2, 5, 6
sn	šņ	2, 5, 6
zn	žņ	2, 5
sl	šļ	2
zl	žļ	2
ln	ļņ	2
ll	ļļ	2, 5
nn	ņņ	5
kst	kš	5, 6

The consonant is not palatalised for

- proper names of second declension which ends with -ckis, -skis;

- proper noun with two syllables which ends with -tis, -dis;

- some exceptions.

INDECLINABLE NOUNS

Indeclinable nouns in Latvian are loaned from other languages. Most of them are recognized by their endings: -ā, -ē, -o, -u, -ū. But there are nouns (mostly proper nouns) which has endings of declinable noun and which are indeclinable.

Examples

Nouns with endings of indeclinable nouns

ampluā ateljē kino ragū gnu

Nouns with endings of declinable nouns

čačača kanoe asorti

FIRST DECLENSION

To the first declension belongs masculine nouns which ends with -s or -š in singular nominative. The case endings are given in following table:

	Nom.	Gen.	Dat.	Acc.	Loc.	Voc.
sing.	-s, -š	-a	-am	-u	-ā	-s
plur.	-i	-u	-iem	-us	-os	-i

The first declension nouns which ends with -tājs, -ājs, -ējs, -nieks or which are diminutives has no ending in singular vocative.

Example

Nominative	tēv-s	tēv-i
Genitive	tēv-a	tēv-u
Dative	tēv-am	tēv-iem
Accusative	tēv-u	tēv-us
Locative	tēv-ā	tēv-os
Vocative	tēv-s	tēv-i