The Everything Learning Latin Book : Read and Write This Classical Language and Apply It to Modern English Grammar, Usage, and Vocabulary

437 Pages·2010·1.34 MB·English

by  Prior

THE
ESSENTIAL
LATIN BOOK
All you need to learn Latin in no time
Richard E. Prior, PhD
Avon, Massachusetts
Contents
Introduction
The Key to Understanding Latin
The Significance of Syntax
How Latin Syntax Works
Learning Endings
Learning Vocabulary
Parts of Speech
Helps and Hindrances
Derivatives
The Roman Alphabet
Vowels
Consonants
Accent
The Importance of Verbs
Studying Latin Verbs
The Anatomy of a Latin Verb
What Is Verbal Aspect?
The Continuous Aspect (AKA the Present System)
The Completed Aspect (AKA the Perfect System)
The Aorist Aspect
Parts and Labor
The Imperfect and Perfect Tenses
Dissecting a Latin Verb
The Imperfect Tense
The Perfect Tense
The Irregular Verb Sum
Knowing Nouns
The Anatomy of a Latin Noun
Latin’s Case System
The Declensions
Principal Parts for Nouns
Subjects and Objects
The Nominative Case
The Accusative Case
Using Adjectives
Adjective/Noun Agreement
The “Parts” of an Adjective
First/Second Declension Adjectives
Third Declension Adjectives
Substantives
Making Comparisons
Forming Comparisons with Adjectives
The Superlative Degree
Irregular Comparison
Forming Adverbs
Comparison of Adverbs
Prepositions and the Ablative Case
Prepositional Phrases
The Ablative Case
The Instrumental Ablative
Talking about Time
Talking about Places
Special Places
Genitive Case and Dative Case
What Is the Genitive?
Genitive Case Forms
Third Declension i-Stem Nouns
The Uses of the Genitive Case
The Dative Case
The Uses of the Dative Case
The Word “And”
Grammatical Mood
What Is Grammatical Mood?
The Imperfect Subjunctive
The Pluperfect Subjunctive
Showing Purpose
Showing a Result
Cum Clauses
Time and Tense
The Present Indicative
Using the Present Indicative
Forming the Future Indicative
Using the Future Indicative
The Pluperfect and Future Perfect Indicative
Using These Two Tenses
Vocabulary Building
The Essential Verb “to Be”
The Small but Useful Verb “Go”
The Verb “to Bring”
Willing or Not
Infinitives
Vocabulary Building
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstratives as Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns
Intensive Adjectives and Pronouns
Relative Pronouns
Special Declension Adjectives
Numbers
Grammatical Voice
What Is Grammatical Voice?
Understanding Passive Voice
Ablative of Agent
The Middle Voice
Participles
Introducing Participles
Using Participial Phrases
Gerunds
Gerundives
The Supine Form
Asking Questions
True or False?
What Are They Asking?
Indefinite Adjectives and Pronouns
The Present and Perfect Subjunctive
Conditions
Infinitives
The Form of Infinitives
The Subjective Infinitive
The Objective Infinitive
Indirect Discourse
Getting Attention and Giving Commands
Interjections
The Vocative Case
Giving Commands
The Hortatory and Jussive Subjunctives
Clauses after Verbs of Fearing
Wishing in the Subjunctive
The Potential Subjunctive
The Deliberative Subjunctive
Appendix A: Latin-English Vocabulary
Appendix B: Answer Key to Exercises
Copyright
Introduction
Latin has acquired a reputation for being a useless and lethal pursuit, a bitter
medicine cruelly administered by strict schoolmarms old enough to be native
speakers themselves. Perhaps you’ve heard this little schoolboy chant: “Latin is
a dead language, that is plain to see. First it killed the Romans, and now it’s
killing me.” In truth, Latin is more akin to the luscious grape cluster hanging just
out of the fox’s reach in Aesop’s fable. Rather than apply any effort to obtain the
prize, he skulked off muttering how sour they probably were. If only he had tried
hard enough to taste even a single grape!
As off the mark as that little ditty is, it does bring up some important points.
First, what does “dead” mean when applied to a language? Language is a living
thing. It grows and changes day by day, imperceptibly, just as an infant grows to
adulthood. There was never any calendar date marked when the folks in Rome
stopped speaking Latin and started speaking Italian! The confusion may lie in
the names we give languages. Ure Faeder the eart in heofenum is the beginning
of the Lord’s Prayer in English as English was spoken fifteen hundred years ago.
English isn’t a dead language, but it isn’t spoken like that anymore, so we call
that kind of English Old English. Likewise, the language of Caesar could be
called Old Italian. (Or Italian Modern Latin!) Studying Latin, then, is studying
the snapshot of a whiz kid who is now grown up.
The story of ancient Rome represents about 25 percent of all recorded history.
If ancient Rome and her language are dead, tenacious ghosts remain. Nearly a
billion people today speak Modern Latin (i.e., [id est—that is], French, Spanish,
Portuguese, et al. [et alia—and the others]). If you look out your window and
see bricks, concrete, or a paved road; if you turn on the news or pick up a