INTRODUCTION

SALVETE
Welcome to the Latin course!

No Articles
There are no articles in Latin! The sentence "Ego vir sum." could mean "I
am a man." but also "I am the man." However, don't forget to use the correct
articles when translating into English!

Personal Pronouns
Personal subject pronouns are used for emphasis and can be left out.

Example: Ego vir sum. = Vir sum

Latin English

ego I

tu you (sg)
 Latin English

is, ea* he, she

nos we

vos you (pl)

ii, eae* they

 *Forms of the demonstrative pronoun is, ea, id

Word Order
Latin is very flexible. The most common structure is SOV (subject - object - verb),
especially in prose, but there are many other possibilities, depending on what
you want to emphasize.
Gender
Latin has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. In this first skill you will
only encounter masculine and feminine nouns.

First declension nouns are (generally) feminine nouns ending in -a in the

nominative case. Examples are femina and puella.

Second declension nouns are (generally) masculine nouns ending in -us and

(generally) neuter nouns ending in -um in the nominative case. Examples are the
names Stephanus and Marcus. Vir and puer are masculine nouns that follow the
second declension as well.

To Be
In this skill you will learn the singular forms of the verb to be (esse, sum).

Latin English

sum I am

es you are

est he, she, it is

Pronunciation
This course uses Classical Pronunciation. A few things worth noting:

 V sounds like the English W

 C always sounds like a K
 G is always hard and never J
 AE sounds like the English word "eye"

Cases
Latin uses grammatical cases: words change when they get a different function
in a sentence.

Nominative
The nominative case is the form of a noun you will find a dictionary. It is used for
the subject of a sentences and for predicates following a form of "to be".

You can find a subject by asking the question "Who/What + verb?"

Example:

 The man is sleeping. Who is sleeping? -> The man

 I love you. Who loves you? -> I

The predicate is the second part of a sentence following the "X is Y" pattern.

Example:

 I am a man. -> a man

 These women are engineers. -> engineers

Declension Ending

1st -a

2nd (masc.) -us

2nd (neut.) -um

Translation of Names
A little convention: we will not accept translations of names as alternatives in this
course. Marcus's name is Marcus, not Mark, and Stephanus is not Stephen or
Steven.

New Vocabulary
 Additional Info (Declension, gender,
Latin English
etc.)

femina woman 1st, fem.

vir man 2nd, masc.

puer boy 2nd, masc.

puella girl 1st, fem.

pater father 3rd, masc.

mater mother 3rd, fem.

soror sister 3rd, fem.

frater brother 3rd, masc.

 Additional Info (Declension, gender,
Latin English
etc.)

non not

et and

sed but

quis who?

dormit he, she sleeps

studet he, she studies

scribit he, she writes

in urbe in the city

 Additional Info (Declension, gender,
Latin English
etc.)

domi at home

GREETINGS
Salve(te)!
In Latin, we use salve to greet someone. When you want to say hello to more
than one person, you use salvete.

Ave and avete are more formal greetings.

Vocative
Let's have a look at the following sentence.

Salvete, Stephane et Marce!

Stephanus and Marcus are being addressed in this case; you are saying
"salvete" to Stephanus and Marcus. Most* masculine words ending in -us (2nd
declension) will get the ending -e in this situation. Names ending in -a don't
change. (Salve, Livia!)

This is the vocative case, used for people being addressed.

 *Words ending in -ius, however, change to -i (not -e)

When translating vocatives to English, we keep the nominative/normal form.

Nomen mihi est

This is the most common way to say "my name is". For now, we will not go too
deep into the grammar of this construction, but it is a useful phrase to know.
Remember that Latin has no strict word order.

Latin English

Nomen mihi est Marcus. My name is Marcus.

 Latin English

Tibi nomen est Livia. Your name is Livia.

Nomen ei Lucius est. His name is Lucius.

Nomen ei est Lesbia. Her name is Lesbia.

How are you?

You will learn two ways to ask how someone is doing in this skill.

1) Quid + ago? -> Quid agis?

Literally, this means "What are you doing?"

Subject Verb

ego ago
 Subject Verb

tu agis

is, ea agit

2) Quomodo + se + habeo? -> Quomodo te habes?

Literally, this means "How do you have yourself/How do you feel?"

Subject Verb

ego habeo

tu habes

is, ea habet

Se is the reflexive pronoun. (-self in English)

 Subject Pronoun Reflexive Pronoun English

ego me myself

tu te yourself

is, ea se himself/herself

Adverbs
Bene (well) and male (badly) are adverbs. Adverbs are words that give more
information about verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. In English these forms
usually get -ly added, while in Latin adverbs of 1st and 2nd declension adjectives
end in -e.

 Bene dormio. - I sleep well. (and not "I sleep good.")

-ne
You stick the suffix -ne to the first word of a sentence to indicate that it is a
yes/no question. The -ne is not mandatory and can be omitted.
 Latin English Potential answers

Estne Roma in Italia? Is Rome in Italy? (Yes, it is./No, it is not.)

Roma in Italia est? Is Rome in Italy? (Yes, it is./No, it is not.)

First conjugation (-are)

Habitare/habito (to live somewhere, to reside) is a verb that follows the first
conjugation. You can recognize these verbs by the -a- in the verb stem. (The -a-
merges with the -o for the first person singular.)

Subject Habitare Amare (to love) Stare (to stand)

ego habito amo sto

tu habitas amas stas

Subject Habitare Amare (to love) Stare (to stand)

is, ea habitat ama t stat

New Vocabulary

Latin English Additional Info

nomen name 3rd, neut.

Italia Italy 1st, fem.

Roma Rome 1st, fem.

Romae in Rome
Latin English Additional Info

habito I live, I reside (habitare, 1st conj.)

me habeo I feel, I am doing (well/poorly/...) (se habere, 2nd conj.)

ago I do, I act (agere, 3rd conj.)

salve(te) hello

quid what

quomodo how

ubi where

bene well
Latin English Additional Info

male badly, poorly

ita yes, so

minime no, not at all