Latin at LOCS:
Grammar 6 & Logic/Rhetoric
How can I help at home?
 Try the study tips listed below.
 Check your student’s assignment notebook. Make sure he is keeping up with his daily
assignments.
 Read the blog for more information.
 Encourage your student to work ahead on homework when a busy week is approaching.
 Help your student develop a homework schedule. Encourage him to avoid putting off
homework until late at night. Encourage him to work daily on long-terms projects to avoid
that last-minute crunch.
 Consider setting a memory goal for the weekly quiz. Some families try to master new
vocabulary and grammar by Sunday or Monday. When Wednesday’s quiz rolls around, your
student won’t be scrambling at the last minute to start studying new material.
 Continually review vocabulary and grammar from past chapters. Clearly students will need
more than 20-25 in their working memory. Foreign language study is by its very nature a
cumulative endeavor.
 Ask your student to tell you what she is learning in Latin. Ask her to teach you some Latin
words. Ask her to explain Latin grammar in simple terms. You may be surprised by how
much you learn!
 Look at the basic Latin terms described below. Knowing even a few simple elements of the
language will help you communicate with your student about his needs.
 Flip through your student’s textbook. The textbooks explain the material in a clear,
understandable manner, even for someone who has not studied Latin. If your student is in
Intermediate or Advanced Latin, you can at least see the new material your student is
learning. If you’re truly interested, we can briefly loan you a copy of the Beginning Latin
textbook.
 Try always to present a positive attitude about Latin. At Live Oak, we cherish the richness of
the Latin language. If you wonder why we do, just ask! We’re happy to share.
Study Tips:
 Encourage your student to visit the Ecce Romani web resources found at
www.phschool.com. The first page of each chapter provides the URL along with a web code
for the chapter. These drills include vocabulary, grammar, and culture review. Daily review
(even for 10 minutes) is an invaluable advantage in studying a new language.
 Consider making vocabulary flashcards. The simple act of writing the Latin on the front and
the English on the back will create a motor memory for your student. Then the flashcards
can be easily carried around for studying during free moments. Grammar charts can also be
written on cards for quick review.
 Drill your student orally and in writing. Write down or say the Latin word and ask for the
English translation. Give her the English word and ask for the Latin. You can use a small
white board for quick drilling. Written practice is essential for success on the test, which
asks for written answers and correct spelling.
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Practice all of the forms of a word given on the vocabulary sheet. If the vocabulary list has
the verb to love, your student should learn all of the forms listed, which would be amō,
amāre, amāvī, amātum. While this may seem tedious, it will save much effort in later
lessons.
Avoid studying vocabulary simply from a printed list. Many students unconsciously form
the memory of the ORDER of the words on the list. For example, the student sees the Latin
word lupus. He knows that lupus was right underneath puer. The translation of puer is boy,
and wolf is the next thing under boy. The student then has a hard time actually remembering
the translations. He can’t remember the answers if the questions aren’t asked in exactly the
same order.
Some Basic Terms:
 Declension: In Latin, nouns and adjectives decline, following a pattern of declension.
Nouns and adjectives have suffixes that change according to their job in the sentence.
These noun jobs are matched to certain cases in Latin. Below are the 5 major Latin
cases:
 Nominative: the nominative case is used for subject nouns and subject
complements (also known as a predicate nouns and predicate adjectives).
 Genitive: the genitive case can be described in very simple terms as the “of” case.
Its most common use is to create a possessive noun (Tom’s book OR the book of
Tom). There are several other less common uses for the genitive case, but they
may all be translated with “of” and the noun.
 Dative: the dative case is used for indirect objects. These nouns can usually be
translated using “to” or “for” along with the noun.
 Accusative: the accusative case is used for direct objects and objects of the
preposition. Some prepositions call for the accusative case, while others call for
the use of the ablative case (below). Knowing which case is required is simply a
matter of memorization.
 Ablative: the ablative case is used for objects of the preposition (see
“accusative” above) and some special uses. The ablative case can be used as an
ablative of means, ablative of separation, ablative of instrument, etc. While the
list of these special uses may seem daunting, it really shouldn’t be. In simplest
terms, the ablative ending can be added to a noun to show that it should be
translated with a preposition that is left unstated. In other words, you need to
provide the preposition that fits the context, usually “by,” “with,” or “from.” If
you have an ablative and you don’t have a preposition, select a preposition that
fits the context of the sentence and use it.
 The Declensions: There are five basic patterns of endings (declensions) that
nouns can follow. All nouns are classified as either 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th
declension. Adjectives are even simpler, with only two patterns: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd,
which use the same endings as their respective noun declensions.
 Conjugation: In Latin, verbs are conjugated. Verbs in English are conjugated, but
English verbs are so simple that we rarely notice. In the examples below, I have matched
the Latin words to the English word order for greater clarity:
 I see the dog. (simple present tense)Ego videō canem.
 You see the dog. (simple present tense)Tu vidēs canem.
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 She (or he or it) sees the dog. (simple present tense)Ea videt canem.
 We see the dog. (simple present tense)Nōs vidēmus canem.
 Y’all see the dog. (simple present tense)Vōs vidētis canem.
 They see the dog. (simple present tense)Eī vident canem.
Notice that the only English verb that is different is the one that follows “you,” which
merely adds an –s. In Latin, the verb ending is different for each of these subjects.
 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th conjugation: Just as with nouns, verbs can be classified in
different groups according to which pattern of endings they use. There are 4 basic
patterns, with a few twists. First, the 3rd conjugation has a wacky cousin sometimes
called the 3rd conjugation i-stem (because it adds an –i- in certain endings). The other
twist is irregular verbs, which have no real set pattern. In English, the verb to be is an
example of an irregular verb: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been.
Person: verbs (and personal pronouns) have a characteristic called person. For a verb,
the person tells us who the subject of the sentence is. In fact, because the verb tells us the
subject, the subject may sometimes be left unstated. In the examples above under
“conjugation,” you could remove the first word of each Latin sentence and still have a
complete, meaningful sentence. The verb ending indicates the proper subject.
 First person subjects: I (singular) and we (plural)
 Second person subjects: you (singular) and y’all (plural). There is no actual
second person plural pronoun in English, so we have chosen y’all as the fastest
equivalent to speak and write. 
 Third person subjects: he/she/it (singular) and they (plural)
Number: nouns, adjectives, and verbs have number. Number simply refers to whether
the word is in the singular or the plural.
Tense: verbs have tense which tells the time at which the action of the verb takes place.
Students may begin to feel that Latin has far more tenses than English, though this is
untrue. Every Latin tense has an equivalent English translation. However, English uses
helping verbs to form the many tenses, moods, and voices of verbs. In Latin, each of
these has a different ending to indicate the tense (or mood or voice). The three simplest
tenses are described below:
 Present: Present tense verbs are exactly the same as they are in English, though
these Latin verbs can be translated in three different (but very similar) ways. For
example, the Latin verb ambulō can be translated as “I walk” OR “I am walking”
OR “I do walk.”
 Imperfect: Imperfect is a type of past tense. It is often one of the first forms of
past tense that students learn in Latin because its endings are easy to form and
remember. It is best translated with a past tense form of to be and the –ing form
of the verb. For example, ambulābam is translated “I was walking.”
 Future: The future tense functions in Latin just as it does in English. We use the
helping verb will along with the base form of the verb. For example, ambulābō is
translated “I will walk.”
Gender: All nouns and adjectives in Latin have a gender, either masculine, feminine, or
neuter. These genders are merely a grammatical gender. For example, the Latin word
for table is mēnsa. The grammatical gender of this word is feminine. Clearly a table can
be neither male nor female, yet the Latin word is considered feminine for grammatical
purposes. Many other languages (particularly the Romance languages) have this feature.