Basic Sentence Practice 1 Flashcards
Use this deck to learn about the basic grammatical structures that govern Latin sentence creation, along with some of the most foundational Latin vocabulary terms.
What is a case?
A case is a grammatical category for a noun, such as the subject, direct object, agent, possessor, etc.
Nouns in a dictionary setting are shown in the Nominative case – the “normal” or “subject” case.
What is a declension?
A declension is a group of nouns that have the same case endings to indicate what part of a sentence a word is. Each declension also has a “theme letter” that normally exists in the root of the word. Words within a declension sometimes have related meanings.
There are five declensions in Latin.
What is the Genitive case?
The Genitive case is used to form the possessive of a noun (e.g. John’s dog).
The Genitive ending is normally given after the Nominative (“normal”) form of the noun, preceded by a hyphen to show that it is only a word ending, and is used to determine which declension a noun belongs to.
The marker for the first declension is -ae. The marker for the second declension is -ī.
How do you change the case of a noun?
Take the Genitive form of the noun.
Drop the ending to get the root of the noun.
Add the appropriate case ending to this root.
Translate to Latin.
(a) farmer
agricola
farmer - agricola, -ae (masculine). Note that the Genitive ending (-ae) means that agricola is a first declension noun. The first declension contains mostly feminine nouns.
Also note that in Latin, you should not translate articles: there is no difference in translating “a farmer,” “the farmer,” or “farmer.”
What is a macron?
A macron is a horizontal bar accent above some vowels in Latin.
Macrons help with pronouncing and differentiating certain words. Normally, a vowel with a macron is longer than one without. Macrons also sometimes affect word stress.
Latin vowels with macrons: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū
Translate to Latin.
(a) woman
fēmina
woman - fēmina, -ae (feminine). Remember that the line above the “e” in fēmina is called a macron.
What is a diphthong?
A diphthong is two vowels pronounced as one.
Diphthongs affect word stress like macrons. In this case, they count as long vowels (vowels that have macrons).
The diphthongs in Latin are:
- ae (“eye”)
- au (“ow”)
- oe (“oy”)
- ei (like “eight”)
- eu (like “Europe”)
What are principle parts?
Latin verbs are normally shown with four parts, which are called the verb’s “principle parts.”
The four principle parts are:
- the present tense first person singular (I verb)
- the present infinitive (to verb)
- the perfect tense first person singular (I verbed)
- the past participle (verbed)
What is a conjugation?
A conjugation is a group of verbs that have similar structure and follow similar rules for forming tenses. The endings of verbs in the same conjugation are normally the same. There are four and a half conjugations in Latin.
The second principle part ending is always the same for verbs of a given conjugation.
The first conjugation principle part endings are: -ō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus
What are the present tense endings for first conjugation verbs?
How do you conjugate verbs in the present tense?
Drop -re from the end of the second principal part.
Add the correct present tense ending.
(Remove the macron in front of a
final -t or -nt)
e.g. “We praise”
(First person plural ending: -mus)
laudāre > laudā- > laudāmus
Remember: The first person singular present tense is a principal part: laudō. Because it would otherwise be “laudāō,” the -ā- is also dropped.
Translate to Latin.
The farmer praises.
Agricola laudat.
to praise - laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātus.
What is the Accusative case?
The Accusative case is used to indicate the direct object of a verb.
Normally, Accusative endings include a vowel and an -m in the singular and a vowel and an -s in the plural.
Translate to Latin.
They praise the farmer.
Agricolam laudant.
Because agricola is a first declension noun, the accusative singular ending is -am.
Translate to Latin.
He praises the forest.
Silvam laudat.
forest - silva, -ae (feminine).
Translate to Latin.
The woman praises the farmer.
Fēmina laudat agricolam.
In Latin, word order does not normally determine meaning, so all of the following mean the same thing:
Fēmina agricolam laudat.
Laudat fēmina agricolam.
Agricolam fēmina laudat.
etc.
What do adjectives look like?
Adjectives of the first and second declension will be shown with three endings, which are the masculine (-us), feminine (-a), and neuter (-um).
Use whichever ending agrees with the noun being described (e.g. “a small farmer” would be “agricola parvus” not “agricola parva”).
Adjectives must agree with their noun in case, number, and gender (whenever possible).
What are the noun endings for first declension?
What are the noun endings for second declension?
Translate to Latin.
We praise you.
Tē laudāmus.
