A guide to the entire Latin course - my notes from an hour of tutoring
A student asked me go through complete Latin grammar in one lesson - so here are my notes from the lesson :))
Latin lexicology
Pronouns
- 1st and 2nd person personal pronouns
- singular – ego, tu (I, you)
- plural – nos, vos (we, you plural)
- you don’t see ‘ego’ very often for emphasis, already included in the verb great
- se – reflexive pronoun
- 3rd person personal pronouns
- aliquis, aliquid – someone, something
- relative pronoun – qui, quae, quod (who)
Adjectives / determiners
- possessive adjective
- ‘meus’, ‘tuus’, ‘noster’, ‘vester’
- demonstrative adjectives
- this – hic, haec, hoc
- that – ille, illa, illud
- emphatic adjective – ipse, ipsa, ipsum (himself, herself)
Irregular adjectives
- bonus, malus, parvus, magnus
- comparative -> melior, peior, minor, maior
- superlative -> optimus, pessimus, minimus, maximus
Pulcher (beautiful)
- comparative (more beautiful) -> pulchrior
- superlative (most beautiful, very beautiful) -> pulcherrimus
Numerals
- cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3) don’t decline
- 4, 5, 6 …. (never decline)
- ordinal numbers -> end in ‘us’ so always decline
Nouns declension
- 1st declension – usually feminine
- 2nd declension – masculine and neuter
- 3rd declension – masculine, feminine, neuter
- 4th declension – mostly masculine, some feminine, some neuter
- 5th declension – mostly feminine, except for ones relating to ‘day’ eg ‘dies’ masculine
Cases
- verbs take dative sometimes
- succurro (I help)
- sometimes they don’t take a direct object (intransitive)
- ablative + preposition
- a / ab – ablative to form an agent
- cum – ablative of accompaniment
- ablative of time (eg trebus diebus)
- in three days, within three days
- ablative as an instrument
- hasta -> with a spear
Prepositions • take either accusative • take the ablative o a/ab, cum, de e/ex, in, pro, sine, sub • you don’t need a preposition when are saying ‘to Rome’ o Romam, not ad Romam
Conjunctions
et, sed, nam, quod, ubi, nec, dum, si, et…et, deinde, enim, igitur, tanem, cum, tam, ergo, sic
Imperatives
irregular imperatives – dico -> dic, duco-> duc
Adverbs
- positive - laete
- comparative - laetius
- superlative – laetissime
- irregular
- bene (well), male (badly)
Irregular verbs
• sum
• possum
• eo
• volo
• nolo
• malo
• fero
Deponent verbs
Passive form, active meaning
conor, consolor, hortor, moror, admirer, vereor, videor, intueor, labor, proficiscor, loquor, complector, queror, sequor, utor, colloquor, fruor, morior, patior, egredior, ingredior, progredior, regredior, orior
Semi deponent verbs Semi deponent verbs are passive only for past tenses, active in meaning Only deponent in the past tense audeo -> I dare
Latin Constructions (syntax)
Indirect statement / accusative infinitives
main clause
- inside the indirect statement
- the subject goes in the accusative
- and the verb become an infinitive the six infinitives – porto
- present active – portare
- present passive – portari
- future active – portaturus esse
- future passive – portatum iri
- perfect active – portavisse
- perfect passive – portatus esse
Ablative absolute
- ablative noun + ablative form of a participle
- with the speech having been said
- oratione dicta
- changes according to GENDER and CASE and NUMBER
Know the different types of participles
Conditional clauses
- definite (indicative) - If he dies, I will be happy.
- indefinite (subjunctive) - If he dies, I might be happy.
si – if Purpose clauses - ut + subjunctive (or ne + subjunctive)
- relative pronoun + subjunctive
- only the present or imperfective subjunctive or used
Caesar venit ut cives salutaret. Indirect command
I begged him to be happy - ut + subjunctive
Indirect questions
- main clause + interrogative pronoun + subjunctive clause
- He told me + what + had happened
Consecutive clauses / result clause
- main clause + so + that + consecutive clause
- erat + tam fessus + ut + dormiret tres dies Verbs of fearing clauses
- verb + ne + subjunctive
- vereor – I fear Gerundives
- porto – I carry
- portandus – needing to be carried (indicates necessity)
- ad + noun + gerundive – in order to
Gerunds
verbal nouns, add ing
porto
- accusative – portandum
- genitive – portandi
- dative – portando
- ablative – portando
Uses
- ad portandum – for the purpose of carrying
- ars scribendi (of writing)
- scribendo (to writing)
- currendo – by running
Word order
- verb-final
- SO + auxiliary clauses / phrases + V
- (+ conjunction + another clause)