Introduction(la)

SALVETE！Just to keep learning things interesting.

Salve(te)!

In Latin, we use salve to greet someone. When you want to say hello to more than one person, you use salvete.

Ave and avete are more formal greetings.

Vocative

Let's have a look at the following sentence.

Salvete, Stephane et Marce!

Stephanus and Marcus are being addressed in this case; you are saying "salvete" to Stephanus and Marcus. Most* masculine words ending in -us (2nd declension) will get the ending -e in this situation. Names ending in -a don't change. (Salve, Livia!)

This is the vocative case, used for people being addressed.

• *Words ending in -ius, however, change to -i (not -e)

When translating vocatives to English, we keep the nominative/normal form.

Nomen mihi est

This is the most common way to say "my name is". For now, we will not go too deep into the grammar of this construction, but it is a useful phrase to know. Remember that Latin has no strict word order.

Latin	English
Nomen mihi est Marcus.	My name is Marcus.
Tibi nomen est Livia.	Your name is Livia.
Nomen ei Lucius est.	His name is Lucius.
Nomen ei est Lesbia.	Her name is Lesbia.

How are you?

You will learn two ways to ask how someone is doing in this skill.

1) Quid + ago? -> Quid agis?

Literally, this means "What are you doing?"

Subject	Verb
ego	ago
tu	agis
is, ea	agit

2) Quomodo + se + habeo? -> Quomodo te habes?

Literally, this means "How do you have yourself/How do you feel?"

Subject	Verb
ego	habeo
tu	habes
is, ea	habet

Se is the reflexive pronoun. (-self in English)

Subject Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun	English
ego	me	myself
tu	te	yourself
is, ea	se	himself/herself

Adverbs

Bene (well) and male (badly) are adverbs. Adverbs are words that give more information about verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. In English these forms usually get -ly added, while in Latin adverbs of 1st and 2nd declension adjectives end in -e.

• Bene dormio. - I sleep well. (and not "I sleep good.")

-ne

You stick the suffix -ne to the first word of a sentence to indicate that it is a yes/no question. The -ne is not mandatory and can be omitted.

Latin	English	Potential answers
Estne Roma in Italia?	Is Rome in Italy?	(Yes, it is./No, it is not.)
Roma in Italia est?	Is Rome in Italy?	(Yes, it is./No, it is not.)

First conjugation (-are)

Habitare/habito (to live somewhere, to reside) is a verb that follows the first conjugation. You can recognize these verbs by the -a- in the verb stem. (The -a- merges with the -o for the first person singular.)

Subject	Habitare	Amare (to love)	Stare (to stand)
ego	habito	amo	sto
tu	habitas	amas	stas
is, ea	habitat	ama t	stat

New Vocabulary

Latin	English	Additional Info
nomen	name	3rd, neut.
Italia	Italy	1st, fem.
Roma	Rome	1st, fem.
Romae	in Rome
habito	I live, I reside	(habitare, 1st conj.)
me habeo	I feel, I am doing (well/poorly/...)	(se habere, 2nd conj.)
ago	I do, I act	(agere, 3rd conj.)
salve(te)	hello
quid	what
quomodo	how
ubi	where
bene	well
male	badly, poorly
ita	yes, so
minime	no, not at all

No Articles

There are no articles in Latin! The sentence "Ego vir sum." could mean "I am a man." but also "I am the man." However, don't forget to use the correct articles when translating into English!

Personal Pronouns

Personal subject pronouns are used for emphasis and can be left out.

Example: Ego vir sum. = Vir sum = Sum vir.

Latin	English
ego	I
tu	you (sg)
is, ea*	he, she
nos	we
vos	you (pl)
ii, eae*	they

• *Forms of the demonstrative pronoun is, ea, id

Word Order

Latin is very flexible. The most common structure is SOV (subject - object - verb), especially in prose, but there are many other possibilities, depending on what you want to emphasize.

Gender

Latin has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. In this first skill you will only encounter masculine and feminine nouns.

First declension nouns are (generally) feminine nouns ending in -a in the nominative case. Examples are femina and puella.

Second declension nouns are (generally) masculine nouns ending in -us and (generally) neuter nouns ending in -um in the nominative case. Examples are the names Stephanus and Marcus. Vir and puer are masculine nouns that follow the second declension as well.

To Be

Let us learn the singular forms of the verb to be (esse, sum).

Latin	English
sum	I am
es	you are
est	he, she, it is

Cases

Latin uses grammatical cases: words change when they get a different function in a sentence.

Nominative

The nominative case is the form of a noun you will find a dictionary. It is used for the subject of a sentences and for predicates following a form of "to be".

You can find a subject by asking the question "Who/What + verb?"

Example:

• The man is sleeping. Who is sleeping? -> The man

• I love you. Who loves you? -> I

The predicate is the second part of a sentence following the "X is Y" pattern.

Example:

• I am a man. -> a man

• These women are engineers. -> engineers

Declension	Ending
1st	-a
2nd (masc.)	-us
2nd (neut.)	-um

Translation of Names

A little convention: we will not accept translations of names as alternatives in this course. Marcus's name is Marcus, not Mark, and Stephanus is not Stephen or Steven.

New Vocabulary

Latin	English	Additional Info (Declension, gender, etc.)
femina	woman	1st, fem.
vir	man	2nd, masc.
puer	boy	2nd, masc.
puella	girl	1st, fem.
pater	father	3rd, masc.
mater	mother	3rd, fem.
soror	sister	3rd, fem.
frater	brother	3rd, masc.
non	not
et	and
sed	but
quis	who?	who is he？（Quis est is?）
dormit	he, she sleeps
studet	he, she studies
scribit	he, she writes
in urbe	in the city
domi	at home

New Sentence

Puella dormit.

The girl is sleeping.

Livia non est vir.

Livia is not a man.

Corinna non est puella, sed femina est.

Corinna is not a girl but a woman.

Tu femina non es, sed puella es.

You are not a woman, but you are a girl.

Stephanus studet et scribit.

Stephanus studies and writes .

Ea domi dormit.

She sleeps at home.

Puer in urbe dormit.

The boy sleeps in the city.

Frater domi scribit.

The brother writes at home.