Latin 1 Review: Chapters 1 & 2



Latin 1 Review: Chapters 1 & 2

Latin is an inflected language that is, a language “in which the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs have variable endings by which the relationship of the words to each other in a sentence can be indicated.” (p xxviii)

In both Latin and English, verbs have five characteristics:

1. Person – Who is the subject of the sentence? The one who performs (or, in passive voice, receives) the action, from the POV of the speaker.

• 1st Person: I, we (i.e. the one speaking)

• 2nd Person: you, y’all (i.e. person(s) spoken to)

• 3rd Person: he, she, it, they (i.e. the person(s) spoken about, not directly to)

2. Number – how many subjects?

• Singular (one)

• Plural (more than one)

3. Tense – the time of the action

• Present

• Imperfect

• Future

• Perfect (or present perfect)

• Pluperfect

• Future Perfect

4. Mood – manner of indicating the action or state of being of the verb

• Indicative: indicates facts

• Imperative: commands and orders actions

• Subjunctive: describes hypothetical or potential actions

5. Voice – Does the subject perform the action, or does it receive it? This has to do with transitive verbs[1].

• Active voice: The subject performs the action.

• Passive voice: The subject receives the action.

Latin verbs are divided up into four groups called conjugations, each with a different thematic vowel:

• 1st: ā ex: amāre, laudāre, etc

• 2nd: ē ex: monēre, audēre, etc

• 3rd: e ex: agere, ducere, etc

• 4th: ī ex: audīre, venīre, etc

In Latin, the personal endings of the verbs tell us its five characteristics.

Personal Endings of the Active Voice:

| |Singular |English equiv. |Plural |English equiv. |

|1st person |-o or -m |I |-mus |We |

|2nd person |-s |You (sg) |-tis |You (pl)/Y’all |

|3rd person |-t |He/she/it |-nt |They |

Latin verbs have four principal parts. Let’s use as an example the 1st conjugation verb laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum. The first principal part is the 1st person singular active indicative. With this verb, it simply means “I praise.” The second principal part is the present active infinitive: “to praise.” In order to conjugate a verb, we take the stem and add on the personal endings from the chart above. To find the stem, you just take the infitive/2nd principal part and chop off the -re.

| |Singular |English equiv. |Plural |English equiv. |

|1st person |laudo |I praise |laudamus |We praise |

|2nd person |laudas |You (sg) priase |laudatis |You (pl) praise |

|3rd person |laudat |He/she/it praises |laudant |They praise |

We can do the same with the 2nd conjugation verb moneō:

| |Singular |English equiv. |Plural |English equiv. |

|1st person |moneo |I advise |monemus |We advise |

|2nd person |mones |You (sg) advise |monetis |You (pl) advise |

|3rd person |monet |He/she/it advises |monent |They advise |

It’s simple to form the present active imperative of the first two conjugations. The singular imperative is identical to the present stem and the plural imperative (used when addressing 2 or more people) is the pres. stem + -te.

|2nd person singular |Lauda |Praise! |Mone |Advise! |

|2nd person plural |Laudate |Praise! (pl) |Monete |Advise! (pl) |

Because it is inflected, Latin has a looser word order than English. In English, the meaning of the sentence is tied to the position/location of the words in the sentence. We must say “Sally sells seashells.” Rearranging the words into sentences like “Seashells sells Sally” or “Sells seashells Sally” doesn’t make much sense. But because Latin is inflected and the word endings tell us the functions of the words in the sentence, saying “Sally seashells sells,” in Latin, would make perfect sense.

In fact, Latin word order tends to be SOV, while English word order is SVO.

(S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb)

Latin nouns have three characteristics:

1. Gender

• Masculine

• Feminine

• Neuter

2. Number

• Singular

• Plural

3. Case – (This is a preliminary list of functions):

• Nominative – Used for the subject of the sentence.

• Genitive – Used to show possession; the noun doing the possessing is in this case.

• Dative – Used for indirect objects, that is, secondary objects of verbs. Usually translated with “to” or “for.”

• Accusative – Direct object of verbs; the person or object directly affected by the verb. Also, used with certain prepositions.

• Ablative – This is the adverbial case. This case encompasses many usages, including with certain prepositions, for manner, means, agent, and accompaniment.

• Vocative – Direct address.

Nouns are divided up into five groups called declensions.

It is very important to remember that declension does NOT equal gender! To decline a noun or adjective, we add endings to the word stem/base, found by removing the case ending from the genitive singular.

First declension endings:

| |Sg. |Pl. |

|Nom. |a |ae |

|Gen. |ae |arum |

|Dat. |ae |īs |

|Acc. |am |as |

|Abl. |ā |īs |

|Voc. |a |ae |

Ex:

| |Singular |English Equiv. |Plural |English Equiv. |

|Nom |vita |The life |vitae |The lives |

|Gen |vitae |Of the life |vitarum |Of the lives |

|Dat |vitae |To/for the life |vitīs |To/for the lives |

|Acc |vitam |The life (dir. obj.) |vitas |The lives (dir. obj.) |

|Abl |vitā |By/with/from the life |vitīs |By/with/from the lives |

|Voc |vita |O life! |vitae |O lives! |

NB that in Latin there is no word for “the.”

Practice: English to Latin

1. What does he see?

Quid videt?

2. They are giving nothing.

Nihil dant.

3. You ought not to praise me.

Me laudāre non debes/debetis.

4. If I err, he often warns me.

Si erro, saepe me monet.

5. If you love me, save me, please!

Si me amas, (con)serva me, amabo te!

2.1 The girls save the poet’s life.

Puellae vitam poetae (con)servant.

2.2 Without philosophy we often go astray and pay the penalty.

Sine philosophiā saepe erramus et poenas damus.

2.3 If your land is strong, nothing terrifies the sailors and you ought to praise your great fortune.

Si patria tua valet, nihil nautas terret et magnam fortunam laudāre debes/debetis.

2.4 We often see the penalty of anger.

Poenam irae saepe videmus.

2.5 The ancient gate is large.

Porta antiqua est magna.

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[1] Transitive ver耐耴职聾肖胎脊腄腶膸舂艌芒茒荲葀蓦蔶蕬薬藞藠賲賳賴ôôôôôìììììä휀Ò퀀ĀЀ摧Ì`ఀ萏ː萑ﴰ葞ː葠ﴰ摧Ì`܀搒Ũ[pic]摧㻈܀搒Ũbs can take a direct object (ex: to read. She reads the book. The book is the direct object), while intransitive verbs cannot. (ex: to go. You can’t go a book. You can’t go a car, or a cup, or a flower. It can’t take a direct object)

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