Learning latin in school

[Tiro]

No, you must keep unus singular, but it declines according to gender and case. So it would be viginti unus canes if nominative and viginti unum canes if accusative. (Unless they're all bitches, in which case you'd use the feminine forms una and unam, respectively.)

The plural ūnī, ūnae, ūnă, can only be used, a) when joined with substantives that are pluralĭa tantum, i. e. used in the plural only; as ūnae scōpae, one broom; ūnae litterae, one letter; ūnă castra, one camp; in ūnīs aedibus, in one house; b) when it assumes the sense of "only," "alone," "one and the same," "like," &c.; as tres uni passus, only three steps; unis moribus, with one and the same kind of manners, &c.

Thank you, you taught me so much . Btw guys do you know a site where I can learn good latin vocabulary? I know that I can find many words in my book, but I want to know wich are the most common and most important to know.

 

[Quasus]

thx for help, btw guys do you know a site where I can learn good latin vocabulary?
I know that I can find many words in my book, but I want to know wich are the most common and most important to know.

Do you mean you want just to memorize words without context? Generally speaking, it's a wrong strategy. I can't make a link directly to the post where once I explained my opinion, so I'll quote it:

Yet perhaps there's a list somewhere of vocabulary words that comprise a working knowledge of the language. I've read (and I believe) that part of learning a language is simply buckling down and memorizing thousands of words. It sounds daunting, but I suppose it's really not, if one paces oneself. The challenge seems to be finding such a list and settling on an effective system for memorization.

Any recommendations?

I used to think so some time ago. But essentially it's nonsense. There is no point in memorizing any reference book. If you just learn by heart a thousand words it doesn't mean you can easily use them in speaking or writing or at least understand in reading. By the nature of the language words do not exist as isolated items, but as elements of speach. Memorizing a list of words is quite unnatural and you can't achieve automatism this way. Words that you have never met in a text or in speach are dead for you. In order to increase vocabulary one should read more. Any teacher of foreign languages will confirm my words.

What's more, you don't need to care about remembering every single word you once memorized. Oblivion is also a most natural thing. But if you use a language, you come across the same words over and again, and gradually they stick fast in your memory.

I don't want to say that rote-learning should be avoided. I mean only that it's role is auxiliary, and you shouldn't attach to it an exagerrated importance.

The same is true about grammar. If you manage to memorize a whole grammar reference book, it doesn't imply that you can at least recognize the forms when you read. Memorizing a sample of declension you do the first slight step towards mastering declension (and this step can be avoided under some approaches). Only training and practice result in real knowledge.

So you should care only about getting good textbooks and readers. By the way, what sort of Latin are you interested in?

 

[Tiro]

So you should care only about getting good textbooks and readers. By the way, what sort of Latin are you interested in?

I'll keep that in mind. Should I extract words from texts and then learn them by heart?
I am interested in anything thats got to do with classical Latin Caesar,Cicero even Ovid.

 

[Chamaeleo]

I'll keep that in mind. Should I extract words from texts and then learn them by heart?
I am interested in anything thats got to do with classical Latin Caesar,Cicero even Ovid.

Just read the text again and again, and you will absorb vocabulary from it.

If the text or specific vocabulary is particularly important to you, then translate it into another language, and then back into Latin, and then compare your translated translation with the original. Note what mistakes you have made, and ascertain why you made them. Repeat until you make no mistakes. You will end up memorising the text and its vocabulary without specifically trying to. Later, use the language in conversation. I have learnt Latin, Italian and several other languages mainly with this technique.

 

[Quasus]

Tiro, you may find the following site interesting:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/6 ... exspr.html

 

[metrodorus]

Hello Guys, and hello Tiro.
Pleased to see all the discussion of Adler - it is hard to imagine that such a wonderful textbook almost vanished forever....thank goodness for Google Books, eh?

The discussion of numbers interests me as well - textbooks do not really deal with it very well, in the sense of giving lots of exercises and examples.

If you're just starting to activate your Latin, a GREAT new site has come into existence - the http://tarheelreader.org website . tarheelreader.org is amazing - with a growing collection of elementary readers in Latin - something we all desperately need, but which no-one has - until now - written.
I have made two so far that deal with numbers - one simply is counting up to 20, the other is the two times table ( Scinsne bis bina qvot essent? ).

I will add more of this type, as they are very useful......

I would not worry about your class being retrograde - Latin tuition in most places is awful. Use your class for what it is.....but study alone. Latinum will help. So will your friends on this forum.


Evan Millner.

 

[cinefactus]

I have put the request for translation assistance here.

 

[cinefactus]

[
Thank you, you taught me so much . Btw guys do you know a site where I can learn good latin vocabulary? I know that I can find many words in my book, but I want to know wich are the most common and most important to know.

Try here or here. You should be able to find a link which explains in great detail why these words were chosen!

 

[Tiro]

Try here or here. You should be able to find a link which explains in great detail why these words were chosen!

Thank you mate, now the only thing I got to do is learning 1400 words, this is gonna be fun.

 

[Quasus]

...now the only thing I got to do is learning 1400 words, this is gonna be fun.

Errandō discitur. (seufzend um die vergebliche Beredsamkeit)

 

[Tiro]

...now the only thing I got to do is learning 1400 words, this is gonna be fun.

Errandō discitur. (seufzend um die vergebliche Beredsamkeit)

Errando abl gerund? Discitur - he is being taught? (not sure how to translate gerunds)
By making mistakes he is being taught? xD
Btw wasn't serious about learning all those words.

 

[Quasus]

Btw wasn't serious about learning all those words.

3rd person sg. of intransitive verbs can have an impersonal meaning: discitur man lernt. (I hope no one will mind a little German). Errandō is indeed abl. ger., here it answers the question "how?" Fazit: man lernt indem man sich irrt. It's a common saying. (The sense of humour lacked me, and I desided that you had been earnest. I was wrong, all the better!)

Gerund is "a declinable version of the infinitive". In German it can be rendered by the substantivated infinitive with prepositions (I presume, durch Irren may be grammatically correct in our case, although I doubt if it sounds good).

 

[Tiro]

Btw wasn't serious about learning all those words.

3rd person sg. of intransitive verbs can have an impersonal meaning: discitur man lernt. (I hope no one will mind a little German). Errandō is indeed abl. ger., here it answers the question "how?" Fazit: man lernt indem man sich irrt. It's a common saying. (The sense of humour lacked me, and I desided that you had been earnest. I was wrong, all the better!)

Could you plz tell me what intransitive verbs are, "man lernt" is active not passiv in German but passive in latin, why? I am very confused. =(

 

[Quasus]

Could you plz tell me what intransitive verbs are, "man lernt" is active not passiv in German but passive in latin, why? I am very confused. =(

Intransitive verbs don't need a direct object, they express an action by themselves, e.g. sleep, go, etc. Transitive verbs need an object: e.g. I can't say simply "I sell". I sell what? I have to supply an object: I sell aeroplanes.

The impersonal use of 3rd p. pass. is a pecularity of Latin. Now you needn't be too concerned about it.

 

[Tiro]

Intransitive verbs don't need a direct object, they express an action by themselves, e.g. sleep, go, etc. Transitive verbs need an object: e.g. I can't say simply "I sell". I sell what? I have to supply an object: I sell aeroplanes.

The impersonal use of 3rd p. pass. is a pecularity of Latin. Now you needn't be too concerned about it.

Okay thx.

 

[Imber Ranae]

Could you plz tell me what intransitive verbs are, "man lernt" is active not passiv in German but passive in latin, why? I am very confused. =(

There's no indefinite pronoun in Latin equivalent to German "man", so you must use the impersonal passive to express generalizations in Latin. Errandō discitur "It is learned (i.e. one learns/people learn) by making mistakes."

 

[Tiro]

scitur simiis loqui esse(or est not sure) incallidum.
It's known that talking with monkeys isn't smart.
Did I get it?

 

[Quasus]

scitur simiis loqui esse(or est not sure) incallidum.
It's known that talking with monkeys isn't smart.
Did I get it?

Your word choice is somewhat dubious, but you got the grammar question.