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Learning the basics of Latin can vastly improve your vocabulary and even provide keys to understanding legal, medical, and scientific terminology. This guide covers the most important basics of Latin, and will have you speaking like an ancient Roman in no time!
This book is designed to help beginning and intermediate students master the vocabulary necessary to read real Latin with fluency and comprehension. It also serves as a resource for instructors and tutors. The text presents 1,425 words that allow a student to comprehend about 95 percent of all the vocabulary they will ever see in an actual Latin text. The terms found in the present book have been culled from statistical analyses of the works of more than two hundred authors in order to identify the core vocabulary. Were students to start out by learning the 25 most common words on this list, an astonishing 29 percent of all the vocabulary ever needed would be at their command. If a student masters the 300 most frequent words in this list, well over half of all the vocabulary necessary for fluent reading will be theirs. The goal of the book is to provide the student with the most efficient way to learn vocabulary. Chapters 1 and 2, in particular, are designed for drill, review, and study. The first chapter draws together all words that share the same grammatical classification. For example, all third declension neuter nouns are brought together in one place, with their definitions. By listing the vocabulary in grammatical groups, all the words that share a set of endings are assembled for the student: vocabulary and endings thus reinforce each other. Furthermore, each list of terms is broken down into groups of five words for ease in drawing up vocabulary lists to work with. Within the grammatical lists, each part of speech is preceded by an account of how the terms within are distributed. A student thus quickly learns that while there are 413 verbs that need to be mastered, well over one-third of these (157) are found in the third conjugation, while only about one per-cent (21) will be found in the fourth conjugation. With such information, independent students or instructors can prioritize their study and assignments more appropriately. In the second chapter, large parts of the vocabulary, with their attendant definitions, are regrouped by topics. A student who wishes, therefore, to focus on nature, human emotions, or military issues, will find such vocabulary conveniently grouped together. Chapter three lists the vocabulary terms from the most frequently occurring words to the least frequent. Students or instructors who wish to lean more heavily on the most (or least!) frequently occurring terms within their drills and studies can thus consult this frequency list. After the frequency list, the fourth chapter presents an alphabetical index of the terms. Two final chapters close the text. The first is a list of endings and paradigms for nouns, adjectives and verbs. Complete paradigms and endings are given for review. The final chapter provides the student with an additional one hundred words that are uniquely common in the Latin of the Middle Ages. These one hundred words, if added to the mix, would give the student a Mediaeval vocabulary that would match the efficiency of the Classical vocabulary that is the main focus of the book. For the effort of learning an additional one hundred words, another 1,000 years of Latin texts open up before the student. As a whole, then, this book offers the vocabulary that forms the core of one thousand seven hundred years of Latin literature. If the goal is to learn to read Latin with joy and ease, then the vocabulary terms in this book are one of the major keys to success. By learning these terms, a student's vocabulary should be ready to tackle the Latin of any era from the Classical period to the Renaissance.
Provides teachers and students alike with a modern, inviting and structured way to sustain interest and excellence in Latin. Based on the reading of original texts, the course is structured around a narrative detailing the life of the poet Horace, which helps students to develop an understanding of the times of Cicero and Augustus.
Learn the Latin you need. Gain the language skills you want. Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Latin is a trusted companion to your Latin learning experience. In each of the forty-one bite-sized lessons, author Randall Childree explains one or two language concepts and supports them with many clear examples. These lessons are purposely short so you can complete them in twenty minutes or less, and you can go at a pace that works for you. A comprehensive glossary of words frequently found in Latin speeches, poems, histories, and plays is a special feature. With 164 exercises, you will get plenty of practice, practice, practice using your new skills. Whether you are learning on your own or taking a beginning Latin class, Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Latin will help you build your confidence. Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Latin will help you master: Basic grammar High-frequency vocabulary Declensions and conjugations Numbers Imperative and subjunctive moods Irregular verbs And more
Master the basics of a lyrical and useful language Even though most people don’t use Latin anymore, it used to be spoken by millions of people from across the ancient world. It later morphed into new languages we still use today! In Latin For Dummies, you’ll take a tour through the language of ancient Rome. Beginning with Latin you may already know, like “carpe diem” and “quid pro quo,” the book walks you through essential Latin grammar and everyday Latin phrases. It also explores how Latin shaped and molded modern languages, including English. In this book, you’ll find: Lessons to learn Latin grammar and vocabulary Practices for reading, translating, and composing Latin Tips to recognize commonly confused Latin words Latin For Dummies proves that learning Latin, while challenging, can be fun and exciting too! It’s perfect for first timers interested in the ancient language and anyone who wants to learn more about ancient Roman history and culture.
Latin Made Simple makes it easy to increase your understanding of the language and the many ways it has enriched our culture. The perfect primer for anyone who wants to be able to read classical Latin or learn the basics to enhance their vocabulary, this complete course presents Latin grammar clearly and plainly. Void of all nonessentials and refreshingly easy to understand, Latin Made Simple includes: Complete Latin grammar Extensive vocabulary Review quizzes Complete answer key Practice readings Examination of Latin words in the English language Timeline of Roman History and Literature A helpful verb chart English/Latin Dictionary Look for these Made Simple titles: Accounting Made Simple Arithmetic Made Simple Astronomy Made Simple Biology Made Simple Bookkeeping Made Simple Business Letters Made Simple Chemistry Made Simple Computer Science Made Simple Earth Science Made Simple English Made Simple French Made Simple German Made Simple Ingles Hecho Facil Investing Made Simple Italian Made Simple Keyboarding Made Simple Learning English Made Simple Mathematics Made Simple The Perfect Business Plan Made Simple Philosophy Made Simple Physics Made Simple Psychology Made Simple Sign Language Made Simple Spanish Made Simple Spelling Made Simple Statistics Made Simple Your Small Business Made Simple
The ideal introduction to the world of ancient Rome for students and armchair enthusiasts alike, this text presents a comprehensive survey of the language, life and customs of a culture that continues to influence our own.
From the Preface: Most Americans who have studied Latin, with our priests and seminarians included, have employed this method, which they thought was 'traditional'. But as something fully developed, this tradition scarcely goes farther back than 1880; and even in its beginnings it hardly antedates the seventeenth century. In contrast to this method of grammatical analysis, Father Most's textbooks reproduce much of the "natural method" by which children learn their native language. Hence, the significance of Father Most's books is manifestly great for the Latin classes in any Catholic high schools or colleges. So much of our Catholic doctrine and culture have been deposited in Latin that we want many of our educated Catholics to be able to use Latin with ease. But the special significance of Father Most's texts is for the Latin classes in our seminaries. Here the students still have much the same cogent motives to master the art of using Latin with ease as the pupils of the thirteenth or sixteenth century. They need it as an indispensable means of communicating thought in their higher studies, and afterwards throughout life. The objectives (knowledge about Latin and training of mind) and corresponding methods (grammatical analysis and translation) "traditional" since 1880 have taken over in our seminaries; and there too the students have been experiencing an ever growing inability to use Latin. Father Most's textbooks can contribute much towards revolutionizing the teaching of Latin by bringing back, as the chief objective, the art of reading, writing, and (when desired) speaking Latin with ease." Fr. Most's textbooks can be classed in categories of similar texts, such as Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina, as well as Ecce Romani which is a simplification of Ørberg or others which aim to teach Latin not even so much as a modern language, as to teach it by a method more natural to the philosophy of learning Languages. Fr. Most's text follows the view that Latin of the later period is actually more advanced in communicating ideas and is easier to learn than Latin of the classical period, and thus this Second Volume begins the transition with readings and vocabulary from the Vulgate, continuing with the more ancient collects of the 1962 Missale Romanum, St. Cyprian and culminating with a reading from the Roman Historian Sallust. This is an excellent text applying the "natural method" with English language instruction to help the student read and understand Latin natively, with numerous vehicles for simplifying the necessary memorization as well as aiding in truly understanding Latin without constant need to look in a dictionary for rudimentary sentences. This is reprinted from the 1960 edition, and follows the presentation of the text found in that edition.
Is this the right book for me? With over 20,000 translations, including everyday idioms and expressions, Essential Latin Dictionary is the perfect tool to support your Latin learning. This new edition is fully updated with a guide to usage and insights to help you learn and remember new words and phrases. Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design, in particular: Author insights Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. Want to learn more? Why not check out Teach Yourself Languages Online? Over 65 languages all available online from Teach Yourself.
