Latin For Dummies

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.

Clifford A. Hull MA in Classical Studies, MA in Classical Architecture, and MLS, teaches Latin, history, and social science at The Harker School in California.

Steven R. Perkins MA in Classics, is an award-winning teacher who has taught Latin and Classics for more than 30 years at secondary and undergraduate levels.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Latin 4

Part 2: Latin in Action 4

Part 3: Latin in the Modern World 4

Part 4: The Part of Tens 4

Part 5: Appendices 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Beyond the Book 5

Where to Go from Here 6

Part 1: Getting Started With Latin 7

Chapter 1: You Already Know a Little Latin 9

Latin: Not as Dead as You May Have Hoped 10

Familiarity Breeds Comfort: Latin You Already Know 10

English in a toga: Latin derivatives 11

In the debit column: Latin loanwords 13

From A to Z: The Latin Alphabet 15

Soundin’ Like a Roman: Pronunciation 15

Classical pronunciation 17

Ecclesiastical pronunciation 19

Don’t stress out: Accenting syllables 20

Chapter 2: The Nitty Gritty: Basic Latin Grammar 23

Bending the Rules: All about an Inflected Language 24

Latin Nouns (Or Why You Should Love Your English Teacher) 25

Talking about the birds and the bees: Gender 25

Casing a Latin noun 26

Declining a Latin noun 27

Lights! Camera! Action! Introducing Verbs 34

Joining the ranks of verb conjugation 34

Taking it personally — personal endings 36

Relax! It’s just the verbs that are tense 37

Making Connections through Conjunctions 43

Chapter 3: Salve! (Hello!): Greetings and Introductions 47

Hello, Goodbye: Roman Salutations and Farewells 48

The boys ’n the ’hood: Addressing males 49

Olivia, where are you?: Addressing females 50

Do It – Now!!!!! 50

Being There: Esse (To Be) 53

Saying Where You’re From 54

Identifying Yourself 55

Asking Questions 57

Using –ne 57

Common question words 58

The Preposition Proposition 59

Playing the Numbers 61

Counting it down: Cardinal numbers 62

Putting things in order: Ordinal numbers 63

The “I’s” have it: Roman numerals 64

Part 2: Latin In Action 67

Chapter 4: The Roman Family and Social Structure 69

Keeping It All in the Family 69

Familiarizing yourself with the familia 72

Gushy stuff: Love and marriage 75

Throwing on Meaning with Adjectives 75

Understanding 1st- and 2nd-declension adjectives 76

Using 3rd-declension adjectives 78

Perfecting the Past and the Future 81

Attaining perfection: Perfect tense 81

Going beyond perfect: Pluperfect tense 82

Finishing someday: Future perfect tense 84

Chapter 5: Food and Housing in Roman Life 87

Living to Eat and Eating to Live 88

Living by bread alone 88

Feeding veggies to an empire 89

Going whole hog with meat 89

Having your fruit and eating it, too! 90

Please pass the ketchup! 91

Potent potables 91

Dining Practices 93

Three squares a day 94

Minding your manners around the mensa 95

Weapons of attack, or fun with forks 96

To Be or To Eat: That’s the Real Question 97

Volo (to want) 98

Nolo (not to wish) 98

Malo (to prefer) 99

Fero (to bring or carry) 99

Eo (to go) 100

Welcome Home! 101

Living downtown 101

Venturing out to your villa 102

Chapter 6: The Roman Calendar 105

Planning Ahead with the Roman Calendar 106

Biding the hours and days 106

Naming months 106

Flying by with the years 107

Playing the dating game 109

Having a Roman holiday 110

Oh, That Able Ablative! 111

What time is it? 111

Quo vadis? (Where are you going?) 112

Everything but the kitchen sink 112

Expressing Subjunctive Moodiness 116

Understanding the present subjunctive 117

Understanding the perfect and not-so-perfect subjunctive tenses 119

Pleading Insanity: The Insanity Clause 120

Purpose clause 120

Result clause 121

Characteristic clause 121

Clauses for indirect questions 121

Introducing clauses with cum 122

He Seems Like a God! Roman Deities 123

The big twelve 123

Housecleaning with the gods 124

Knocking on wood: Superstitions 125

Chapter 7: The Roman Army 129

You’re in the Army Now 129

Exercising the right to fight 130

Saluting men of rank 132

The tools of the trade: Arma and tela 133

4th- and 5th-Declension Nouns 135

Understanding 4th-declension nouns 135

Understanding 5th-declension nouns 138

Proceeding with Pronouns 139

I, I, I! — using personal pronouns 139

This or that? Demonstrative pronouns 140

Who’s who? Relative pronouns 142

Chapter 8: Roman Entertainment and Sports 145

Let the Games Begin! 146

Sacred games 146

Not for the squeamish: Gladiatorial games 146

Round and round we go: Chariot racing 149

Good, Better, Best: Never Let It Rest! 152

Comparative-degree adjectives (–er) 152

Superlative-degree adjectives (–est) 153

Irregular comparisons 154

Standing Room Only: Roman Plays 155

A tragic story 156

Laughing ’til it hurts 157

Chapter 9: Roman Government 161

Ruling the World 161

King for a day: The kingdom 163

By the people, for the people: The Republic 165

Rendering unto Caesar: The Empire 167

Getting Out of the Verbal Trap 168

Presenting present participles 169

Looking back with perfect participles 171

Voicing concerns about participles 172

Running with gerunds 175

Passive (Aggressive) Voice 178

Present, imperfect, and future passive 178

Perfect, pluperfect, future perfect passive 179

Chapter 10: More Lasting Than Bronze: Latin Literature 185

The Written Word 186

Before the days of copyrights 186

Who’s who of Latin authors 187

Measuring Latin poetry 188

Getting Grammar into Proper Condition 189

Future, less vivid 190

Future, more vivid 190

Present, contrary to fact 191

Past, contrary to fact 191

Telling It Secondhand — Indirect Statements 191

Understanding Latin infinitives 192

Handling indirect statements 193

Writing for the Rest of Us 195

Letter writing 196

Etched in stone: Inscriptions 197

The writing on the wall: Graffiti 197

Part 3: Latin In The Modern World 201

Chapter 11: Keeping It Simple, Silly 203

Finding the Subject in the Case 204

Filling in the Details 206

Where Were You on the Night of the 15th? 207

Listening to Latin Litigation: Words Used in Roman Courts 208

Legal beagles: The cast and crew 209

Can you describe what you saw? 209

Latin legal lingo 211

Summation and Closing Arguments 213

Latin Words Used in English-Language Courts 214

Common courtroom Latin 215

Less common Latin phrases 218

Chapter 12: The Decline and Fall of Roman Declensions 223

A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose — But Not in Latin 224

Sending It Off to the Lab (or the Dictionary) 225

Getting a Second Opinion through Context 228

Completing Your Residency 229

Flexing those muscles 229

Interior design 230

Getting In Shape with Verbs 231

This Doesn’t Seem Right, Doc 233

Understanding Common Medical Terms 236

Using Latin at the Drugstore 238

Chapter 13: We All Live In a Yellow Subordinate Clause 243

Finding Your Purpose 244

Seeing the Results of All This 245

I’ll Help You on One Condition 247

The Early Church and Its Adopted Language 248

Help me, oh Lord! (and others, too) 249

Invoking the name of God 250

Keeping on God’s good side 252

Words for the universe 252

Reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Latin 257

A final list of (and a few stories behind) Latin expressions 259

Chapter 14: Latin in Zoology and Botany 265

Classifying Basics 266

You don’t have to be a genius to understand genus 267

Getting specific with species 268

Naming Fauna and Flora 271

Common plant genus and species names 271

A rose is a rose is a rose — or is it? 273

Chapter 15: Translating and Reading Latin 275

Word Order, or Where in the Heck Is the Subject? 276

Making Sense of a Translation 276

Who’s doing what? 277

Translating simple sentences 278

Translating longer sentences 279

Real live Latin: Messin’ with Martialis 282

Translating complex sentences 284

More live Latin: Catullus’s catch 285

Translating subjunctive mood 287

Once More unto the Breach 290

More Martial wit 291

Catullus hearts Lesbia 292

Caesar, you’re a real pain in the back! 294

Will the real Hannibal please stand up? 295

Chapter 16: Mottoes, Sayings, and Quotes: Cocktail Party Latin 299

The Quotable Roman 300

Romans on love 300

Romans on war 302

From the mouth of Julius Caesar 303

I’ll have another: Romans on drink 304

Latin quotes from other famous people 304

Advice in Latin: Words to Live By 307

Mottoes in Latin 309

Mottoes of famous organizations and institutions 310

Mottoes of cities and countries 310

Part 4: The Part of Tens 313

Chapter 17: More than Ten Loanwords from Latin 315

Forum 316

Spectator 316

Senator 316

Radio 316

Atrium 317

Via 317

Veto 317

Focus 317

Onus 318

Sinister 318

Circus 318

Umbrella 318

Referendum 319

Memorandum 319

Agenda 319

Chapter 18: Ten (or So) False Friends: Common Mistakes in Latin 321

Audere and Audire: Audaciously Audible! 322

Crimen: Guilty or Not Guilty? 322

Ad or Ab: To or Fro? 322

Invitus (by Force) 322

Saepe and Semper: Do You Come Here Often or Always? 323

Servare and Servire: Are You Being Served or Saved? 323

Tandem and Tamen: I’d Like to Go Cycling, But 323

Fugere and Fugare: Follow Me, I’m Right Behind You! 324

Dicere and Ducere: Do As I Say 324

Vir and Vires: Strength Isn’t Just For Men 324

Morior and Moror: Being Late to Your Own Funeral 325

Aestas and Aetas: When I Was Your Age in the Summer 325

Cado and Caedo: Be Careful, It’s the Fall that Will Kill You! 325

Os and Os: The Mouth Bone? 326

Quidam and Quidem: A Certain Man, Indeed 326

Consilium and Concilium: Do You Have Counsel for the Council? 326

Part 5: Appendices 327

Appendix A: Noun, Adjective, and Verb Tables 329

Appendix B: Latin-English Mini-Dictionary 353

Appendix C: Answer Key 381

Index 395

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