Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Imperatives & The Weather

DIES IV – SEPTEMBER XVI

I’ve noticed that I have been slacking a bit with updating this blog, for that I apologize. I have been keeping up my studies, but with a busy work schedule, I am finding it hard to transcribe my notes here. I have a few days off class, we are not back until Monday, October 19th, so the hope is to get this blog caught up.

On the fourth day of class we reviewed Latin verbs and discussed Imperatives a bit further. If you recall there are, five parts to a verb:

i) Person
ii) Number
iii) Tense
iv) Mood
v) Voice

And three types of Moods:

i) Indicative (I call, you see, we praise, etc.)
ii) Imperative (call, see, praise)
iii) Infinitive (to call, to see, to praise)

You use the imperative to give a command, and usually in English you do not use a pronoun for the subject. For example:

·Call!
·See!
·Praise!

3 Steps to Forming Imperatives in Latin

Forming imperatives are very similar to the three steps to forming a verb:

i) Find the conjunction
ii) Find the stem
iii) For singular use the stem and for plural ad an ‘et’ to the end of the word:
Verb
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3

voco
1st Conjunction
voca
voca
vocate
video
2nd Conjunction
vide
vide
videte
laudo
1st Conjunction
lauda
lauda
laudate

·Lauda! = the subject is you (s.) = Praise!
·Lauda me! = the subject is you (s.) = Praise me!
·Me lauda! = the subject is you (s.) = Praise me!
·Me ladate! = the subject is you (pl.) = Praise me!
And so on…

Finally we got into a bit of the weather:

·Nubilum est = it is cloudy
·Serenum est = it is sunny
·Sedum est = it is hot
·Pluit est = it is raining
·Nivit est = it is snowing

If you can believe it, today on October 14th, nivit est!

Next time we will discuss the months of the year and start Latin nouns.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Verbs – English Grammar / Latin Verbs

DIES III – SEPTEMBER XIV (Cont’d)

This is taking me a little longer to backdate all my notes, and for that I apologize. My hope is to catch up to the point where I am posting the same evening after the class.

So to continue with the third day of class we started with some English grammar before moving on to Latin verbs.

5 Parts of a Verb
1) Person
· 1st (I, we)
· 2nd (you)
· 3rd (he, she, it, they)

2) Number
· Singular
· Plural

3) Tense
· Present Tense (I call)
    ·simple present (I call)
    ·progressive present (I am calling)
    ·emphatic present (I do call)
· Past Tense (I called)
· Future Tense (I shall call)

4) Mood
· Indicative (I call)
· Imperative (call)
· Infinitive (to call)

5) Voice
· Active (he calls)
· Passive (he is called)

English and Latin Differences
1) English uses pronouns (I, we, you, he, she, it, they), Latin does not.
2) Endings of a word are different in Latin
3) In Latin there is a clear difference between ‘you’ singular and ‘you’ plural

In Latin there are 4 conjunctions, and to date we have only learned the first two. In order to demonstrate the first to conjunctions we were taught the words laudare (to praise) and monere (to advise).

When you want to say something like I praise the word looks like this – laudo.
For we praise – laudamus
They praise – laudant

As you can see, there are no pronouns (I, we, they) in the above examples and the endings of each word are different. You (singular) praise and you (plural) praise would look like this – laudas and laudatis.

Now the whole you singular and you plural thing was never really explained to me. In English the word is just you and very rarely do you have to explain which number you are referring to. In French, you also have two forms, tu for you singular and vous for you plural, which when I first learned them, I never really understood why there were two forms. It wasn’t until the third day of Latin class, some 11 years after taking French that the different forms of you finally made sense. You singular would be me address just one person – you can learn from my Latin blog. You plural would refer to me addressing a whole audience – you all can learn from my Latin blog. I’m a little embarrassed that it took me that long to figure it out. But I digress, back to Latin verbs.

The full breakdown of laudare to praise, which is in the 1st conjunction, would look like this:

PERSON
SINGULAR

PLURAL

1st person
laudo
I praise
laudamus
we praise
2nd person
laudas
you praise
laudatis
you praise
3rd person
laudat
he/she/it praises
laudant
they praise

Monere to advise is in the 2nd conjunction and looks like this:

PERSON
SINGULAR

PLURAL

1st person
moneo
I advise
monemus
we advise
2nd person
mones
you advise
monetis
you advise
3rd person
monet
he/she/it advises
monent
they advise

In Latin vocabulary Latin words are always listed with the I form and the to form of the word. For example the word praise would be listed as laudo, laudare. Whereas advise would look like moneo, monere.

I’m led to believe that most Latin verbs follow the first 2 conjunctions, so in order properly create the endings all you need to do is follow these three simple steps:

1) Find the Conjunction
1st conjunction verbs typically end in are in their to form and o in their I form. For example:
laudo, laudare
servo, servare (I save, to save)

Where 2nd conjunction verbs end in ere and eo respectively:
moneo, monere
video, videre (I see, to see)

2) Find the Stem
In 1st conjunction the stem is –a
Example: lauda-, serva-

2nd conjunstion is -e
Example: mone-, vide-

3) Add the personal ending
PERSON
SINGULAR
PLURAL
1st person
-o*
-mus
2nd person
-s
-tis
3rd person
-t
-nt

*Note: In the 1st conjunction the vowel (-a) is dropped for the personal ending. Hence lauda- becomes laudo.

Next post will be the fourth day of class where we discussed imperatives further and dived into the world of small talk, yup, the weather. Until next time VALE!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

DIES - Day (of the week)

DIES III - SEPTEMBER XIV

The third day of class we got into a little bit of Latin small talk. You know, just in case you wake up one day in Rome around 45 B.C. you won't seem too out of place. The following phrases my help you out:

Salve - Hello (s.)
Salvete - Hello (pl.)
Vale - Good-bye (s.)
Valete - Good-bye (pl.)

Ut vales? - How are you (s.)
Ut valetis? - How are you (pl.)

Some responses might be:

Bene - Well
Satis bene - Quite well
Optime bene - Very well
Quam optime - As well as possible
Male - Not well
Pessime - Awful

Here are a few more Latin words to kick around to trick the locals into thinking you are supposed to be there:

Dies - Day
Hodie - Today
Hic dies - This day

Next you will probably want to know what day of the week it is, I know I sure would:

Lunae dies - Monday (named for the Moon)
Martis dies - Tuesday (named for Mars)
Mercurii dies - Wednesday (named for Mercury)
Iovis dies - Thursday (named for Jupiter)
Veneris dies - Friday (named for Venus)
Saturni dies - Saturday (named for Saturn)
Solis dies - Sunday (named for the Sun)

Next post I will continue with the verbs we learned on the 3rd day of class.

NUMERI - Numbers

DIES II - SEPTEMBER XI

The second day of class - my first - we began simply with numbers, pronunciation and the explanation of verbs. As pronunciation can be pretty tedious to write, and since you can easily find out what a verb is I thought I would stick with the numbers from 1 to 10.

I would be later told these are the Cardinal numbers:

 1 - unus
 2 - duo
 3 - tres
 4 - quattuor
 5 - quinque
 6 - sex
 7 - septem
 8 - octo
 9 - novem
10 - decem

*Side Note: I actually wrote those numbers from memory, aren't you proud of me? I know I am. And yes I did check to make sure they were correct.

COMMENTARIOLI LATIN - Latin Textbooks

DIES I - SEPTEMBER V

The first day of class I was still fighting my way out of the back woods of Algonquin Park, so I didn't make it to class. I later found out neither did the Professor. The first day is usually a write off anyway.

Students were give the names of the textbooks to buy, Wheelock's Latin 6th Edition Revised and 38 Latin Stories 5th Edition. Regrettably by the time I found out on the next class the bookstore would already be sold out and I would be without a textbook. I decided to jump the queue and order them from Amazon, but it seems they also were backlogged. There must be an onslaught of Latin students this year.

Today the textbooks were delivered, so it is time to get studying. Just a few more posts to write first.

Salve! From Learnin' Latin

I recently decided to take a course in Latin at the local University, so as a way to help myself learn I decided to create this blog, Learnin' Latin.

I'm now three weeks into the course, learning 2nd declension nouns, and well, I am already confused. I seem to have the verbs down pat, at least the first two conjunctions anyway, but beyond that I'm a bit lost.

My hope with this blog is to not only connect with others learning Latin but also use it as a way to help (force) me to study as I go. The plan is to write a new post for each class that I learn something new. At three classes a week this blog should be updated pretty regularly.

Wish me good luck, or BONAM FORTUNAM!