Reminder

Since we are not studying any new material next week, there is no Monday assignment. Tuesday is a review day. See next week's schedule here.

Highlights from Wed. 9/28

In 38 Stories we saw some names, such as Iuno, that are third declension. It's good to get accustomed to how they look before the third declension is formally introduced.

Many third declension nouns have an -o at the end of their nominative form. Then a consonant is added to their stem to make the other forms. With Iuno, the stem of the other forms is Iunon-. The case ending tags are added to that stem.

When deciding which word in the sentence is the subject, make sure to match it up with the verb. For example, we read the sentence "Verba dat in ventis." 'Words' (Verba) can't be the subject, because the verb  'he or she gives' (dat) is singular.

Open thread for Ch. 5 quiz (Sept. 29)

If you have comments or questions about the ch. 5 quiz, share them in the comments!

Highlights from Tues. 9/27

When translating there is a good chance that the first word will be either the subject or the direct object. Always check if the ending of the first word is a nominative tag (these can include -a, -us, -um, -ae, i) or an accusative tag (these can include -am, -um, -as, -os, -a).

If the first word in the sentence is a direct object, the subject of the sentence will usually be a pronoun (like I, you, he/she, we). You will get this subject from the ending of the verb (servabis famam = you will save (my) reputation).

The first two sentences come from the Roman lawyer Cicero’s speech against an irresponsible young aristocrat who attempted a takeover of the city. The aristocrat’s name was Catiline and the speech is called In Catilinam, “Against Catiline.” Wheelock really loves this speech so we will be seeing more sentences from it.

Open thread for September 28 homework

If you have comments or questions about Wednesday's assignment, share them in the comments!

Open thread for September 27 homework

If you have comments or questions about the online exercises, chapter summary, or Tuesday's assignment, share them in the comments!

Schedule for Weeks 6 and 7

Mon. 9/26 Summarize the chapter 5 grammar in your own words or complete four of the "unit 5" exercises at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/latin/wheelock/contents.htm. (This will be checked at the beginning of class on Tuesday.) No class.

Tues. 9/27 Prepare to translate Sententiae Antiquae 1-3, 6-8, 11-12 and Exercitationes 14-15.

Wed. 9/28 Prepare to translate "The Adventures of Io" (38 Stories p. 6). Bring "Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes" to class.

Thurs. 9/29 Ch. 5 quiz


Mon. 10/3 No Monday assignment

Tues. 10/4 Exam review in-class

Wed. 10/5 Personal review day, no class

Thurs. 10/6 Exam 1 on Chs. 1-5 (Vocabulary section will cover the vocab. lists from 1-5, grammar and translation sections will be approximately twice as long as a quiz)

Highlights from Thurs. 9/22

Future and Imperfect

How to recognize them

-Future: tag –bi- attached before the personal ending (the thing you get the subject from)

*3^rd and 4^th conjugations are different

-Imperfect: tag –ba- attached before the personal ending

*this works for all verbs

> exceptions to the above are covered on Wheelock p. 41

How to form them

-Take the second principle part, take off the –re, add –ba- or –bi-, depending on whether you want to form the past or future, and add the personal ending that will give you the form you want.

How to translate it

-the future is translated like the English future: I will ______.

-the imperfect is translated as a past progressive: I was ____________ing. “Progressive” means you are talking about something that happened regularly or over time in the past: “I was going to the gym” rather than “I went to the gym”

Quiz corrections policy

Starting with the Ch. 4 quiz, corrections may be done only by a student who has failed the quiz (gotten 60 or lower).

Highlights from Wed. 9/21

English to Latin sentences are an opportunity to look at how a Latin sentence is constructed. Word order is not significant, as long as clauses (parts of the sentence separated by commas or other punctuation in English) are kept together. Think about such things as: if an adjective in the sentence is describing something, does its ending match that of the word it is describing? If the subject is plural, do you have a plural form for the noun? Do you have an accusative (direct object) ending on whatever item the verb is most concerned with, the thing that is being given or being seen or being helped ?

Open thread for Ch. 4 Quiz (Sept. 22)

If you have comments or questions about studying for the Ch. 4 quiz, share them in the comments!

Printing/saving the online exercises

I did the first vocabulary exercise for Ch. 4, at the University of Victoria website. When I clicked on "check" a little box popped up with my score, and a button underneath it that said "OK."

If you have difficulty printing the last screen out, it may be because you have not clicked on "OK" to make the little box go away. Once I did that, my page printed just fine.

You may also want to temporarily undo the "Block pop-up windows" thingie, in case that is preventing the little box from popping up, and thus freezing up your screen in some way.

Highlights from Tues. 9/20

Be able to answer the following questions:

Which endings of a neuter noun are different from those of a masculine noun?

How would you say “of the little girls”?

How would you say “for the bad sailors”?

What set of endings or tags do you use with the word femina, “woman”?

What set of endings do you use with the word oculus, “eye”?

What set do you use with the word periculum, “danger”?

How do you know what set of endings to use with each word? Will a noun ever take more than one set of endings ? Does an adjective use more than one set of endings? Why?

What are the endings we have learned for verbs and what do they indicate?

Open thread for September 20 homework

If you have comments or questions about Wednesday's assignment, share them in the comments!

Highlights from Thurs. 9/15

Chapter 4 introduces neuter nouns, the present tense of “to be” and some special things you can do with Latin adjectives.

You will know a noun is neuter when you come across it because the nominative ends in –um. The accusative also ends in –um, and the nomiative plural and accusative plural end in –a. All the other tags are the same as for masculine second declension nouns. The full set of forms is found on Wheelock p. 32.

Since it’s necessary to have neuter adjective endings to go with neuter nouns, the second declension neuter endings are used for this purpose.

The present tense of "to be" is irregular mainly because it uses two stems, su- and es-. The forms are found on p. 34 of Wheelock.

When the noun that goes with an adjective is left out, it is called a substantive adjective. Only three nouns will be left out: man, woman and thing. If "man" has been left out, the adjective will have masculine endings; if "woman" has been left out, the adjective will have feminine endings; if "thing" has been left out it will have neuter endings. You add the word "man", "woman" or "thing" back in when you do an English translation of the sentence.

 

Open thread for September 20 homework

If you have comments or questions about the online exercises, chapter summary, or Tuesday's assignment, share them in the comments!

Schedule for Week 5

Monday 9/19 Summarize the chapter 4 grammar in your own words or complete four of the "unit 4" exercises at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/latin/wheelock/contents.htm. (This will be checked at the beginning of class on Tuesday.) No class.


Tuesday 9/20 Prepare to translate Sententiae Antique 7-12 and Exercitationes 9-11 (Both are on Wheelock p. 37.)

Wednesday 9/21 Prepare to translate "The Tragic Story of Phaethon" (38 Latin Stories p. 4). Bring Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes to class.

Thursday 9/22 Quiz on Ch. 4; introduction to Ch. 5.

Highlights from Wed. 9/14

Most prepositions in Latin are also used as verb prefixes. This is a way of creating new verbs in Latin that are easy to translate if you know the original verb. For example, voco means "call" and devoco (voco prefixed with the preposition de-) means "call away."

Names in Latin usually take the same case endings as regular nouns. For example, the name Gaius is second declension so the accusative form would be Gaium. The nominative is considered the "normal" form so when translating into English, always translate the name back into its nominative form. This is because English doesn't have cases.

Gaium video > I see Gaius.

Open thread for Ch. 3 Quiz (Sept. 15)

If you have comments or questions about studying for the Ch. 3 quiz, share them in the comments!

Highlights from Tues. 9/13

When translating a sentence, figuring out the verb makes translating the rest of the sentence easier: if you know what action is being done, you have a better idea of who the subject might be, whether there will be a direct object, etc.

Punctuation is also very important. Two parts of speech we recently learned about are vocatives and apposition (which is a kind of explanatory note, like "Gaius, my friend"). These parts of speech almost always have commas before and after them. If you notice this, then you can identify these parts of speech correctly and not as the subject or direct object or whatever.

When you are looking at the vocabulary, think about how the same stem can be used in related words (like fili- in daughter and son). Also make sure you understand all the abbreviations that are being used and ask me if there is something you don't understand.

Open thread for September 14 homework

If you have comments or questions about the reading "Pandora's Box" (38 Latin Stories p. 3), share them in the comments!

Chat with me on Facebook

Our class now has a Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002925766292

I will be available to chat on Facebook during office hours (Monday 3:30-4:30 and Wednesday 3:30-4:30) and at other times when I'm online.

Alternative to chapter summaries

Starting next week, you will have the option of doing online exercises instead of the weekly chapter summaries. The exercises are found here, at the University of Victoria's website:

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/latin/wheelock/contents.htm

Select the chapter we are on (or 'unit' as they call it) and do at least four sets of exercises. Print the final screen and hand it in instead of your chapter summary, and you're done!

These exercises are designed to provide extra practice with vocabulary and endings.

Highlights from Thurs. 9/8

Chapter 3 introduces the second declension. The second declension tends to have o and i in its endings, rather than a. It also has masculine and neuter nouns, rather than feminine as in the first declension. The second declension nouns in Chapter 3 are masculine. (Some of the tags for a neuter noun are different, and those will be introduced in Chapter 4.)

The masculine endings are us, i, o, um, o, (e) / i, orum, is, os, is

A couple of things to remember about these endings:

-Some second declension masculines end in –er in the nominative case. You will know this because of how they are written in the vocabulary:

puer, pueri

ager, agri

-Another thing about these few –er nouns are that sometimes the whole p-u-e-r is used as the stem, and sometimes the –e- drops out (like it does with ager). 

Open thread for September 13 homework

If you have comments or questions about summarizing Ch. 3, Sententiae Antique 1-6 or Exercitationes 8,9,11, share them in the comments!

Schedule for Week 4

Monday 9/12: Write a summary of the chapter 3 grammar in your own words. (This will be checked at the beginning of class on Tuesday.) No class.

Tuesday 9/13: Prepare to translate Sententiae Antiquae 1-6 (Wheelock pp. 28-29); Exercitationes 8,9,11 (Wheelock p. 28).

Wednesday 9/14: Prepare to translate "Pandora's Box" (38 Latin Stories p. 2). Bring Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes to class.

Thursday 9/15: Quiz on Ch. 3; introduction to Chapter 4.

Highlights from Wed. 9/7

Wheelock sentences

In translating sentences remember to look closely at the tags and think about what noun 'job' is indicated by each tag: subject, direct object, "of", etc.

Quiz tomorrow on Ch. 2

The format will be similar to last week’s quiz on Ch. 1. For the vocabulary, you will give the definition for some words, and for some you will fill in part of the vocabulary entry – for example, the second principal part of a verb or the genitive form of a noun.

The second section will ask for selected forms of one noun and one verb. For example, I might ask you to write out all the singular forms of porta and the plural forms of servo.

The third section will again be four Latin sentences and an extra credit English-to-Latin sentence.

Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes

The Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes chapter for this week covers everyday items, such as combs and wine jugs. These everyday items tend to have greetings to their owner written on them using the imperative. The imperative is also used for curses, as we will see in the fourth inscription, written on a wall outside someone’s house.

Open thread for Ch. 2 Quiz (Sept. 8)

If you have comments or questions about studying for the chapter 2 quiz, share them in the comments!

Quiz tomorrow

This is to let you know that the Chapter 2 quiz is still scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday Sept. 8.

Highlights from Tues. 9/6

Translation:

Up until now we have been working with sentences that loosely follow a subject-object-verb word order. Now, with the genitive, dative and ablative there is an "everything else" category, sometimes located after the direct object: S-O-(everything else)-V. If you are not sure how to translate the "everything else," start by translating the main parts of the sentence (the subject-object-verb).

Know:

What does an accusative case noun do?

What does a genitive case noun do?

What does an ablative case noun do?

What are the other noun cases and what do they do?

How do you decide if a verb is first conjugation or second conjugation, and why does that matter?

‘Catullus Bids His Girlfriend Farewell.’

Catullus was a Roman poet who lived in the time of Caesar Augustus, and many of his poems are about his affair with a married Roman woman, Clodia. This poem is about their breakup. (What we are reading is a prose adaptation.) He switches from first person to third person and then back to first. He is more passionate in first person, and more detached in third person.

Open thread for September 7 homework

If you have comments or questions about Sententiae Antiquae 8-15 and 18-20, share them in the comments!

Web pages that discuss Latin nouns

Web pages that talk about Latin noun cases:

Declining a Latin Noun

Latin noun cases 

Highlights from Thurs. 9/1

Chapter 2 of Wheelock focuses on how to put tags on nouns. We’ve talked about how nouns have different roles they play in a sentence, such as subjects and direct objects. We’ve also talked about how noun tags can replace English prepositions such as “to” or “for.”

Latin has five different tags noun tags for the subject, the direct object, the preposition “of”, the preposition “to” or “for,”  and adverbial phrases such as “towards the street,” “with a pen.”

These different roles a noun can play in Latin are called cases, and the tags are commonly referred to as “case endings.”

The cases have names derived from Latin, which you will need to learn:

The subject case is called the nominative.

The “of” case is called the genitive

The direct object case is called the accusative.

The “to” or “for” case is called the dative.

The adverbial case is called the ablative.

There is also a sixth case called the vocative. This is for talking to people; saying “Hey, Julius” instead of “Julius is our emperor.” The vocative tag is almost always identical to the nominative tag, so it is not that important to focus on the vocative.

Like verbs, Latin nouns are divided into groups. These groups of nouns are called “declensions.” The declension we learn in this chapter, the first declension, has its tags written out on pages 14-15. Nouns in the first declension are almost always feminine gender.

Adjectives function essentially the same as nouns; if you want to add an adjective to a sentence, you give it the same ending as the noun. (Exceptions to this will come up once we learn the third declension.)