| . |
|
- Ablative
- One of the six recognized cases in Latin. The ablative case
signifies that a noun is either the object of a preposition
that takes the ablative case, or is being used in one of several adverbial usages which
students of Latin must simply learn.
- Ablative Absolute
- This is a real killer construction. It's very efficient, and it's used all the time in
real Latin. It consists of a noun or pronoun in the ablative case with a participle agreeing with it. So much for why it's called ablative.
It's called absolute because none of the words are tied directly into the grammar
of the main clause of the sentence. In English, we have something we call a nominative
absolute. Like this: The door being open, all the flies were coming in.
Here's a simple one in Latin: His verbis ab orator dictis, omnes se contulerunt,
with these words having been said by the orator, everyone departed. Still
confused? Get more help in my notes at Wheelock Chapter 24,
or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 24.
- Ablative of Cause
- An example may be more useful than a definition that merely rephrases the name. In
hac urbe, multi cupiditate pecuniae novas res petebant, in this city,
many were anxious for revolution because of the desire of money.
- Ablative of Description
- We sometimes see the ablative case used to describe something. Like, Hoc erat
monstrum magnâ magnitudine, it was a monster in or of huge size.
- Ablative of Degree of Difference
- Here's another instance of a use of the ablative case which is nearly perfectly
explained by its name. There are two ways to show comparison between two things. One is
with the adverb quam, and another is to put the thing something is being
compared to in the ablative case. So for the sentence This city is bigger than that
city, Latin could write either Haec urbs maior est quam illa urbs,
or Haec urbs maior est illâ urbe. Latin can also put a word into
the ablative case to specify by how much something possess a quality. Like this: paulô
post, after by a little.
- Ablative of Manner
- If Latin wants to indicate the way in which an action is performed, it can use either an
adverb, or a word in the ablative case with the preposition cum.
The preposition is somewhat optional in this construction, however. When the word
isn't modified by an adjective, cum is always used. But if it is
modified, the cum is optional. Study these examples: Caesar
Galliam cum virtute vicit, Caesar conquered Gaul with courage (or
courageously); Caesar Galliam magnâ cum virtute vicit or Caesar
Galliam magnâ virtute vicit, Caesar conquered Gaul with great
courage.
- Ablative of Means
- The means by which an action is accomplished in indicated by the ablative case: Caesar
omnem Galliam exercitu vicit, Caesar conquered all of Gaul with his
army.
- Ablative of Respect
- Latin can put a noun into the ablative case to indicate in what respect a statement is
true, or to specify something about another noun. Caesar virtute praeerat,
Caesar excelled in virtue. Rex quidam, Cepheus nomine, hoc regnum
illo tempore obtinebat, a king, Cepheus by name, held the kingdom at that
time.
- Ablative of Separation
- Usually Latin expresses motion away from something with one of the prepositions ab, ex, de plus the ablative case.
But if the idea of separation is strongly implied in the verb itself, then Latin can, and
typically does, omit the preposition. This is called the ablative of separation. Caesar
nos timore liberavit, Caesar freed us from free.
- Ablative of Time
- A word denoting a unit of time can be put into the ablative case to indicate the time at
which, or within which a certain act takes place. Like this: Caesar paucis
horis ad urbem pervênit, Caesar arrived at the city within a few
hours; or Caesar diê eâdem ad urbem pervênit, Caesar
arrived at the city on the same day.
- Absolute (in Degrees of
Adjectives)
- The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs can be used without
direct reference to anything else. We call this the absolute use, and find different ways
to translate them. For the comparative, we'd say rather instead of more.
For the superlative, we'd say very, instead of most. So here, if the
adjective fortior being used absolutely, you'll translate it as rather
brave, instead of braver. Fortissimus used
absolutely would be very brave, instead of most brave.
- Accusative
- One of the six cases in Latin. Nouns in the accusative case
will be the direct object of a preposition, the direct object
of a verb, or the subject of an infinitive in indirect statement.
- Accusative of Duration of Time
- One of the time expressions in Latin. It indicates the length of time over which a
certain action took, is taking, or will take place. Multos annos Caesar in
Galliâ erat, Caesar was in Gaul for many years.
- Active
- See Voice.
- Adjective
- A word that qualifies a noun. Its etymology--thrown (iacio) and near
(ad)--isn't a particularly useful guide to its meaning, other than indicating that
adjectives are typically near the nouns they qualify. Blue skies, tall
building. Adjectives can be in the positive, comparative, or superlative degrees. For
more talk about this, see my Wheelock notes, Chapters 26 and 27, or the
RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 26 and 27.
- Adverb
- A word that qualifies a verb or an adjective. A common formation of adverbs in English
is an -ly suffix added to an adjective. True = truly; helpful =
helpfully. In Latin, adjectives become adverbs by adding suffixes to the
adjective in the positive, comparative, or superlative degrees. For more info, see my
Wheelock notes, Chapter
32, or listen to the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials, Chaper 32.
- Agglutinative
- One of the three broad categories into which languages are divided: the other two being
Isolating and Inflectional. An agglutinative language is marked by a tendency to express
grammatical relations by a prefix or a suffix, but the sounds of these affixes are always
clearly distinguishable from the words they're modifying. For example, the English word thought
can be modified by the suffix less and ness, sounds that have no meaning
independent of their use as affixes: thoughtless or thoughtlessness.
Though English has features of aggultination, it is primarily and Isolating language.
- Agreement
- This word, and the verb agree, refers to grammatical corelation of related
words. That is, in many constructions, the properties of one word has to be reflected in
another word. For example, adjectives have to agree with the nouns they're
modifying by taking on the number, gender, and case of the nouns: Video equum
celerem, I see the swift horse A verb has to agree with its
subject in person and number: Haec puellae ad urbem pervenerunt,
these girls arrived at the city. A pronoun has to agree with its antecedent in number and gender: Haec urbs, quam
Caesar cepit, parva erat, this city, which Caesar captured, was small.
- Alphabet
- A system of symbols that attempts a complete acoustic map of speech, where each letter
should represent one particular sound. Obviously, modern alphabets fall considerably short
of the mark, but the international phonetic alphabet, a creation of linguistic professors,
comes close. An alphabet is different from other methods of recording language, such as a
syllabary--f y kn rd ths, yr rdng sllbry. The Latin alphabet (really a modification of the
Greek alphabet) is the one most western languages use today.
- Allomorph
- An alien being from another planet: allo from the Greek word other and
morph from the Greek word meaning shape or form: Even the
President was unaware of the extent of the conspiracy to conceal the allomorphs recovered
at the Roswell crash site. For more on allomorphs, see the Art Bell WebSite.
- Antecedent
- From the Latin words cedo meaning to come and ante
meaning before. An antecedent is a word or idea to which a pronoun is referring.
For example: Betty is a friend of mine. We all like her. In the second sentence,
the word her is referring you to Betty which came in the first sentence.
Hence we can say that Betty is the antecedent of her. More help on this
is in my stuff: notes for Chapter 9 and Chapter 17.
- Anticipatory Clause
- The subjunctive can be used in subordinate clauses that express something that is
expected or anticipated: Expectabam dum frater rediret, I was waiting
until my brother should return.
- Apposition
- From ad, near and positus, placed.
It describes the construction in which one noun is placed next to another so as to modify
it. George, a friend of mine, is going to meet us at the theater. Friend
is in apposition to (or with) George. In Latin, the word in apposition will take
on the same case as the word it's next to: Videsne Brutum, amicum Caesaris,
do you see Brutus, the friend of Caesar?
- Auxiliary Verb
- In English, our verbs get helped along by all kinds of little words that change the
verb's tense, mood and voice. These are called auxiliary or helping
verbs. Like this he will be seen. Latin doesn't do this. All its
helpers are attached to the end of the verb. The English example in Latin is videbitur,
where vide- is the verb, and bi and tur
are helpers.
- Back Formation
- A term used by linguistic pedants to conceal the fact that they have absolutely no idea
how a word got to look the way it does. Another expression used for the same purpose is by
analogy: The ablative plural is manibus, by analogy to the third declension.
- Case
- A grammatical role or function a noun, adjective, or pronoun (or any word acting as a
noun, adjective or pronoun) plays in a sentence. Latin and Greek indicate such roles
principally by adding endings to the word, called case endings (duh!). By
contrast, English indicates different case principally by position, though there still
exist some case endings: e.g., Jerry's friend. Latin recognizes as many as
seven such cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative,
Vocative, Locative. More stuff on
case can be found in my notes to Wheelock Chapter 2, or the
RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 2.
- Clause
- This is basically a subject and a verb, and whatever other helpful words that are
related to them. You might think of a clause as a thought, like this tree is tall.
That's a clause. Now a sentence can be made up of just one clause, like the example I just
gave you. Or it can be made of several clauses. See the related topics Simple Sentence, Compound
Sentence, Complex Sentence, Independent (or Main) Clause, Subordinate Clause, Coordinating
Conjunction, Subordinating Conjunction.
- Complex Sentence
- A sentence with one or more subordinate clauses.
- Compound Sentence
- This is a sentence composed of more than one clause and whose
clauses are given equal importance. The tree is tall and it's green. This could
also be written in a way that abbreviates the second clause: The tree is tall and
green. Clauses in compound sentences are linked together by what's called coordinating
conjugations, such as and, but, or, nor, because they coordinate
instead of subordinate clauses.
- Conditional Sentence
- A complex sentence consisting of a subordinate clause in
which a condition is stated that affects the realization of the main clause. The
subordinate clause is called the protasis (PHAH dah sis) and often contains the
conjunction if or when, and the main clause is called the apodosis
(ah PAH dah sis). Conditional sentences are classifiable into two large
catagories depending on the nature of the condition stated in the protasis: Open or Simple
Conditions, Unreal Conditions. More on this in the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's
Self-Tutorials for Chapter
33, or the online Grote's notes for Chapter 33.
- Copulative Verb
- See Linking Verb.
- Cum Clause
- A subordinate clause introduced by the conjunction cum can take a verb
in the subjunctive mood: Cum haec intellegerent, irâ commoti sunt, since
they understood this, they were enraged. See my notes on Wheelock, Chapter 31 for
more on cum clauses.
- Dative
- One of the cases in Latin. Words in the dative case can often be translated into English
with the preopositions to or for.
- Dative After a Compound Verb
- You're going to see the dative case after compound verbs (a verb that's formed from a
stem verb and a prefix attached). For example, occuro comes from preposition ob plus the verb curro,
to run. We have curro, which means to run, turning into
to run up to with the addition of the prefix ob. Hence it will
be followed by the dative case. For more on this, listen to the RealAudio lesson for
Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chapter 35, or the online
Grote's notes for Chapter 35.
- Dative of Possession
- The verb sum is often coupled with a dative case to show possession. So we
have, Filii duo ei erant, there were to him two sons, or he
had two sons; Nomen mihi est Exiliens, my name is Skippy.
- Dative of Purpose
- A common idiomatic use of the dative is to indicate the purpose of something: Hunc
librum dono misi, I sent this book as a gift; Haec
pecuniam tibi auxilio erit, this money will be as a help to you
(will be helpful to you). This last construction is an example of what's often called
the double dative.
- Dative with Special Verbs
- This isn't really a grammatical catagory like the others; it's just a list of verbs in
Latin that take the dative case which we English speakers strongly expect an accusative.
That is, the Latin verbs are intransitive, whereas the English
verbs are transitive. Here are some: placeo, please;
displiceo, displease; servio, serve;
confido, trust; ignosco,
forgive; credo, believe; resisto,
resist; studeo, study; impero, command;
noceo, harm; pareo, obey; persuadeo,
persuade; faveo, favor; parco, spare.
- Declension
- A pattern of case endings. There are five declensions in Latin.
- Defective Verb
- Some Latin verbs don't have all four principal parts.
Like our verb can in English. It has no future, future perfect, pluperfect, or
present perfect. The dictionary will list these verbs as best it can. Have a look at a
couple of defective Latin verbs: coepi, coepisse, ceptus. This verb
doesn't have a present system, so the dictionary just starts with the perfect tense (which
is really its third principal part if it had had the first two), then the perfect
infinitive, followed by the perfect passive participle. Another common occurrence is that
a verb will lack the perfect passive participle. When this is
the case, dictionaries will either put a blank when it would be, or will stick in the
future active particple: fugio, -ere, fugi, -----, or fugio,
-ere, fugi, fugiturus.
- Demonstrative
- A word that points to something: this, that, these, those, etc. Demonstratives can be
used either as adjectives or as pronouns, that's why they're more properly called just demonstratives,
and not demonstrative pronouns, or demostrative adjectives.
Adjective: This car is blue; Pronoun: I don't like that.
The main demonstratives in Latin are ille, hic, iste. Hie thee to my notes on
Wheelock, Chapter
9 for more talk on this, or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 9.
- Deponent
- A word describing the phenomenon of a verb setting aside some or nearly all of its
active forms and translating the remaining passive forms as if they were active. For
example, the form miratur is morphologically
passive, but because it comes from a deponent verb, it is translated as if it were active:
he is wondering. Verbs that are deponent are so indicated by passive forms in the
dictionary entry, where a non-deponent verb would have active forms. The verb above would
be listed: miror, -ari, miratus sum. One feature of deponent verbs that
beginning students must bear in mind is that their perfect participles are nearly always
translated as if they were in the present tense. Hence, Caesar ad Galliam profectus
copias magnas coegit, Caesar, setting out for Gaul, collected together
a huge force. For a thrilling discussion on deponent verbs, see my
online notes to Wheelock's fourth edition, Chapter 34, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 34.
- (empty)
- Finite Verb
- I don't know whether anyone else uses this term, but I use it to refer to a verb that
has person (of which you can say first , second or third person). It helps distinguish
them from forms that don't have person: infinitives, participles, and gerunds. So we say, In
the sentence Caesar urbem capere non poterat, the verb poterat
is the finite verb.
- Future Active Participle
- A participle formed from the fourth principal part of the verb + ûr +
the first and second declension adjectival endings -us, -a, -um. It's
hard to translate into English literally, but the formulas about to or going
to can be used as stand-in's until the construction can be studied and a more
felicitious translation found: laudaturus, about to praise. A
note: the future active participle is one of the rare active forms in deponent
verbs.
- Future Passive Participle
- A participle formed from the first principal part of the verb + nd +
the first and second declension adjectival endings -us, -a, -um. It's
hard to translate into English literally, but the formulas about to be
or going to be can be used as stand-in's until the construction can be
studied and a more felicitious translation found: laudandrus, about
to be praised. A very common use of the future passive participle is in construction
is know as the passive periphrastic.
- Genitive
- One of the six cases in Latin. In addition to a few specialized uses
which have to be studied separately, the genitive case very often shows possession, and
therefore can be translated with our preposition of or the ending -'s.
- Genitive of Description
- The name practically tells you everything about this construction. The genitive case can
be used like an adjective: equus magnae celeritatis, horse of
great speed.
- Genitive of the Whole
- Also call the Partitive Genitive. Word that denote a part of something--words like much,
many, some, a few, a part--can be followed by a dependent genitive, which names the
whole of which it is a part. Latin is more fond of this constuction than English, so
sometimes we have to change things to get passable English. For example, multi amicorum
meorum in ea urbe habitant doesn't need any help: many of my friends
live in that city. But Caesar multum pecuniae non habuit
does: Caesar didn't have much money not much of money.
- Genitive (Subjective and
Objective)
- Let's look at two different expressions with possessives in English: (1) the cat's
meow, (2), the song's performance. Grammatically, the words cat's
and song's are both in the possessive (aka genitive) case, but there's a
different kind of relationship each has to the nouns they're governing. In cat's meow,
the word meow expresses a kind of action, and the cat is seen as
performing the action. In the song's performance, the word performance
is also a kind of action, but here the song is seen as receiving the action of performance.
So, in cat's meow, the word cat is genitive, but it's also the subject
of the action implied in meow: a cat meows. And in the song's performance,
the word song is the genitive, but it's also the object of the action implied in performance:
a song is performed. So--we're almost done--we call the cat's meow an example of
a subjective gentive, and we call the song's performance an example of
an objective genitive. Brilliant, eh? In Latin, adventus Caesaris,
the arrival of Caesar is a subjective genitive, and timor
periculi, the fear of danger is an objective genitive. Are you
wondering why you need to know this to study Latin? Good question. Sometimes the
difference between a subjective and objective geniitive will be important in Latin. For
example, if you want to say my fear in Latin, you've got to say the fear of
me, right? And that can be either the fear that I have, or the fear that I inspire in
others. The first one, because it's a subjective genitive, would be meus timor,
where meus is from the possessive adjective meus, -a, -um. The second,
because it's an objective genitive, would be timor mei, where mei is the
genitive of the 1st person singular pronoun.
- Gerund
- A verbal noun. That is, a verb treated as if it were a noun. In English, there are two
forms for gerunds. We can use the infinitive, as in To know me is to love me, and
the stem + -ing, as in Seeing is believing. Latin uses the infinitive for the nominative case, and the first principal part + nd + 2nd
declension, neuter endings for the other cases. The gerund is considered to be neuter in
gender. The only help that's available is the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's
Self-Tutorials for Chaper 39.
- Gerundive
- A gerundive is an adjective. That's how you can keep it distinct from a
gerund (above) which is a verbal noun. The gerundive is morphologically
the future passive participle of the verb: the
first principal part + nd + -us, -a, -um. One common use
is the future passive periphrastic. Another is with
the proposition ad to show purpose. And example of the latter is Ad
urbes conservandas omnia paravit, he did everything to save the cities.
- Historical Present
- Very often a story will refer to a past event in the present tense. This is to give the
event some vividness that a past tense would lack. We do this in English frequently, when
we say So I sezs to him, I sezs... instead of So I said to him, I said...
- Hortatory or Jussive Subjunctive
- One use of the subjunctive mood is to give a command, or inducement to do something in
the first or third persons. (A command in the second person is usually given in the
imperative mood.) Examples, Veniant, let them come; fugiamus,
let's run away.
- Independent (or Main) Clause
- This is clause in the sentence that conveys the principal idea. If
you can take a clause as is out of a sentence, and make a whole sentence out of it without
changing anything, then you what you have is an Independent (or Main) Clause. For example:
George, who is a friend of mine, is on his way here. This is a complex sentence because it has a subordinate clause in it.
The main clause is George...is on his way here. This can stand alone as a
sentence, but the subordinate clause who is my friend can't.
- Indirect Command
- One of kind of noun clause is the indirect command. It's exactly what it sounds like, an
orignal command that reported as the object of a verb. In English, an indirect command is
verb often expressed by nothing more than an infinitive. Direct: Get lost.
Indirect: I'm telling you to get lost. Latin expresses its indirect
commands in a subordinate clause introduced by ut, for a positive
command, or by ne, for a negative command. The verb is subjunctive. Like
so: Caesar eis persuasit ut sibi pecuniam traderent, Caesar
persuaded them to give him the money.
- Indirect Question
- A question that is reported as the object of another verb. In English, we have Where
are you? as a direct question. In this sentence, I wonder where you are,
the question is dependent on the main verb wonder. Hence we call the second
instance of the question indirect. In Latin, the main verb of an indirect
question is in the subjunctive mood: Direct: Quid mihi placet what do
I like? Indirect: Scis quid mihi placeat, you know what I like.
Click, don't walk, to Grote's notes, Chapter 30, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 30.
- Indirect Statment
- A question that is reported as the object of another verb. Like this: The direct
statement, Caesar is coming, become indirect as the object of a verb like I
think or say or hear or believe. Any kind of a verb that
connotes a mental or sensate activity. So in English, we could say I think that Caesar
is coming, or we could omit the conjunction that and just say I think
Caesar is coming. Very little is changed in the original direct statement when it
becomes indirect. In Latin, by contrast, the subject nominative of the original statement
becomes accusative, and the original main finite verb becomes an infinitive. So, keeping
with the same example, Caesar venit becomes Puto Caesarem venire. For
this reason, an indirect statement is sometimes referred to as an example of an
accusative-infinitive construction. Note that there is no Latin word for our English that.
For further details--and there are a lot of them--see Grote's notes, Chapter 25, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 25.
- Infinitive
- One of the verb forms that doesn't have person. This one is often translated with our
English thingie to plus the meaning of the verb, but not always: Haec
urbs capi non poterat, this city was not able to be destroyed
or could not be destroyed.
- Interrogative
- It means asking a question. You'll hear this in
expressions like interrogative pronoun and interrogative adjective. The
former means a pronoun that asks a question, like quid, what?
or quis, who? The latter means an adjective that asks a
question, like qui homines, which men? or quae femina,
which woman. More on this in Grote's notes Chapter 19, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 19.
- Intransitive
- When the energy depicited in a verb doesn't affect anything but the subject itself--that
is, when the verb has no direct object--we say that the verb is intransitive. That's
because there's no transition of engery from a subject to an object. In English, sneeze
is intransitive, but push is not. We say push--as in they're pushing
the envelope--is a transitive verb. Beginning students of
Latin experience some difficulty grasping this concept because most verbs in English can
be used transitively or intransitively depending on the context. For example, we can say The
bird is flying, (intransitive), but we can also say I'm flying a kite
(transitive). Latin verb typically don't have this kind of dual possibility. They're
either transitive or intransitive.
- Imperfect Subjunctive
- First principal + re + primary personal endings: laudaret.
- (empty)
- (empty)
- Labial
- Referring to any sound made with the lips: the p and the b.
- Locative Case
- One of the six cases in Latin. This case is pretty rare, and it
looks like other, more popular cases. It's the case a word is in when it's showing
location (hence the name locative). You'll see only certain words in the locative
case--obviously only words that connote place. Like humi (from humus),
on the ground. Also the names of cities and small islands are used in the locative
case to show place where, instead of what we'd expect: the preposition in
plus the ablative case. See Place
Constructions. More on this is available in the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's
Self-Tutorial for Chaper 37.
- Linking Verb
- Also called a copulative verb.(Don't look up copulative verb. You'll be sent
right back here.) Verbs that link the subject directly to something in the predicate that modifies it are called linking verbs. When this
happens, the thing out in the predicate is in the nominative case and is therefore called
a predicate nominative. Caesar videtur esse
bonus dux, Caesar seems to be a good leader. Invenite plurima in
Grote's notes, Chapter
4 or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 4.
- Litotes
- Pronounced lie TOE teez, this construction a way to affirms a postiive by
denying the negative. In English, we can say not bad, when we mean good;
not far when we mean nearby.
- Morphology
- This isa bombastic term I use sometimes in weak moments when I get writer's block. It
basically means form, and I'll use it to refer to the grammar of a word that
contained in its form. So I'll say, the morphology of this word is passive, but we
have to translate it as if it's active. Translation: if we look at the way the
word is spelled, we see that it has a passive form, but we have to translate it as if it's
active.
- Nominative
- One of the six recognized cases in Latin. It's the form of the word
that's used in referring to the word in class. For example, if the teacher asks What's
the Latin word for 'tree,' the student should answer 'arbor,' which
is the nominative case of the word. A word in the nominative is often the subject of a
verb, but not always. A word in the nominative can be found in the predicate
of the sentence, if it is referring to the subject. This use of the nominative is called
the predicate nominative.
- Noun
- A word signifying a thing, place, idea, or an action that is being conceived of as an
idea; tree, city, truth. See also Noun
Clause.
- Noun Clause
- A clause that functions as a noun in a sentence by being the subject or object of a
verb. Sometimes called an object clause. Dixit Caesarem ad urbem venturum esse.
You'll often see noun clauses as the object of verbs of
fearing: Vereor ne pecuniam omnem amittam, I'm afraid that
I'll lose my money. Another common use of a noun clause is as a noun clause of fact: Accidit
ut Ceasar in urbe esset, it happened that Caesar was in the city.
- Optative Subjunctive
- This, somewhat rare, subjunctive is limited to certain stock invocations of something
wished for. It's nearly always introduced by an adverb, like this: Utinam veniat!
would that he would come or golly, I wish he'd come.
- Participle
- An adjective derived from a verb. In the expression the singing nun, singing
is derived from the verb to see, and here it's agreeing
with nun. Participles perserve tense and voice from their verbal heritage. In the
example above, the participle is present and active, since singing is something
the nun does (active) and this quality is seen as an ongoing, continuous state (present).
A verb can have as many as four participles: the future active and passive, the present
active, and the perfect passive. Since they are adjectives, it follows that they
will have to agree in number, gender, and case with the nouns they're modifying.
Accordingly, participles will have to decline according to declensional patterns.
Participle discussion can be found at Grote's notes to Wheelock, Chapter 23, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 23.
- Partitive Genitive
- See Genitive of the Whole.
- Passive
- See Voice
- Passive Periphrastic
- This is a very common construction using the gerundive of the
verb linked to the subject through a conjugated form of the verb sum. It's
called periphrastic because it contains the additional sense of obligation or
necessity that has to be periphrased in the English translation. Like this: Haec
urbs conservanda est, this city is to be (ought to be, should be, must be,
has to be) saved. More help on this at Grote's notes Chapter 24, and
the RealAudio lesson for the
same chapter.
- Perfect Active System of Tenses
- Verb tenses in Latin divided into three different systems, depending on which principal part of the verb they use in their formation. The
perfect system active of tenses consists of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect in
the active voice, and they are all formed from the third principal part of the verb.
- Perfect Passive System of Tenses
- Verb tenses in Latin divided into three different systems, depending on which principal part of the verb they use in their formation. The
perfect passive system of tenses consists of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect
in the passive voice, and they are all formed using the fourth principal part of the verb
linked to the subject with a conjugated form the verb sum.
- Perfect Subjunctive
- Active: third principal part + eri + active primary personal endings.
Passive: fourth principal part and the present subjunctive of sum: laudaverit;
laudatus sit.
- Person
- In the patois of grammar, this means the position a being has relative to the speaker of
a sentence. What? Like this: If a reference is being made to the speaker or to a group of
people to speaker is identified with, we call that the first person. If a reference is
being made to the speaker's direct audience, we call that second person. And if a
reference is being made to the thing that the speaker is speaking about (and if it's not
his audience), then we call that the third person. And there you have it. Have I
(first person) explained it (third person) clearly enough to you
(second person)?
- Personal Pronoun
- These are pronouns which also convey grammatical person: lst: ego, nos, etc.; 2nd, tu,
vos, etc.; 3rd. is, ea, id, etc.
- Place Constructions
- In expressions of place where, to which, and from which, when you have the names of
cities and towns or with the word domus, Latin doesn't use the
prepositions we'd expect. Place where is the locative case.
Place to which is simply the accusative case of the name without the preposition ad.
Place from which is the ablative case without the prepositions ex, de, ab,
etc. Place where: Hercules Thebis (locative) habitabat,
Hercules lived in or at Thebes. Place to which: Hercules Thebas
rediit, Hercules returned to Thebes. Place from which: Hercules
Thebis veniebat, Hercules was coming from Thebes. (Note that in these
examples, the word for Thebes is plural because the noun in Latin is grammatically
plural--Thebae, -arum--even though there's only one Thebes.)
- Pluperfect Subjunctive
- Active: third principal part + isse + active primary personal endings.
Passive: fourth principal part and the imperfect subjunctive of sum: laudavisset;
laudatus esset.
- Predicate
- The part of the sentence left over after you take the subject out. That is, the subject
of a sentence is what you're talking about. The predicate is what you're saying about it.
For example, in this sentence the subject group is underlined, and the predicate is in
blue: The tree that's on the hill is a real monster.
More help can be had in my notes to Wheelock Chapter 4, or the
RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 4.
- Predicate Nominative
- When you have something in predicate that's directly referring to the subject, it'll be
in the nominative case. That's what we mean by a predicate nominative. Here's one: Haec
filia Claudia appellabatur, this girl was named Claudia. Do you see? Claudia
is tied to the subject by the linking verb appellabatur.
- Preposition
- A word. Usually a little word. Its job is to link a word to the sentence often by
showing how the word is physcially related to what's happening. Some examples in English
will help: George is walking toward the city; Betty is with her friend
Martha. You may think of prepositions as duct tape. They bind things together in all
kinds of different ways. When you learn a preposition in Latin, you're going to have to
take note of the case it takes its objects in. The dictionary will tell you in this way: de
+ abl. Do you see? This means that de is a preposition
and that it takes its objects in the ablative case. Some prepositions take the ablative
case, others take the accusative. There are even some that can take either. In these
instances, the meaning of the preoposition changes slightly. For example in +
abl. means in, as in place where. But in + acc.
means into, as in motion into. By the way, they're called prepositions because
most often they're placed (positum) before (pre) the
word they're governing. Though sometimes they come after. One maddening thing about
prepositions in general is that often Latin cases have meanings that
we have to translate into English by using one of our prepositions, even though there's no
preposition in the Latin. For example, the genitive of the word for girl in Latin
is puellae. We'll have to translate this as of the girl.
- Present Active Participle
- A participle formed from the first principal
part of the verb, with the third declension adjectival ending -ns, -ntis.
It shows time contemporaneous with that of the main verb.
- Present System of Tenses
- Verb tenses in Latin divided into three different systems, depending on which principal part of the verb they use in their formation. The
present system of tenses consistes of the present, future and imperfect and they are all
formed from the first principal part of the verb.
- Present Subjunctive
- 1st conjugation verbs: replace the thematic vowel â with ê.
2nd, 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs: first principal part + â + primary
personal endings: laudet < laudo; moneat < moneo; duat <
duco; capiat < capio; veniat < venio.
- Primary Sequence
- This is one of the categories of the rules of the Sequence
of Tenses. If the main verb of a sentence is in a primary tense (present, future, or a
perfect that can be translated with the auxiliary have), then any
subordinate subjunctives in the sentence must be in one of these three tenses: present, to
show time contemporaneous with or subsequent to that of the main verb, perfect, to show
time prior to that of the main verb, or a periphrastic future (the future active
participle plus the present subjunctive of the verb sum) to show time
subsequent. Get more help in my notes at Wheelock Chapter 31,
or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 31.
- Principal Parts
- The building blocks of verbs. They are the stems or roots of all the tenses of a verb.
Typically a verb will have four principal parts, unless it's a defective
or deponent verb. The first principal part is the stem for the
present system of tenses active and passive, the second principal is there to give you
more information about the first principal part (namely to indentify the stem vowel and
hence its conjugation), the third principal part is the stem of the perfect system active,
and the fourth principal part is use as the participle in the
perfect system passive.
- Pronoun
- A word that stands in for (pro) a noun. Like this: Everybody knows
Betty. She's very popular.
- Proper Noun
- I'm not sure what this means. I think it means a personal name. Like Bob. The
word proper probably comes from the French propre which means one's
own. So not all boys can be called Bob. Only those boys whose propre
name is Bob. If this isn't right, please contact me immediately: dagrote@email.uncc.edu.
- Proviso Clause
- The conjunctions dum, modo, and dummodo, when they
mean provided that or if only, take the subjunctive mood: Urbs
salva erit, dum tu exeas, the city will be safe provided that you leave.
- Purpose Clause
- A subordinate clause that indicate the purpose for which the action of the main clause
is undertaken is called a purpose, or final, clause: Haec dixit, ut (ne) veritatem
sciretis, he said these things so that you would (not) know the truth.
- Question
- Don't be stupid, Larry. You really don't know what a question is? Okay, here goes. It's
a sentence that seeks information. In English, we can make questions by using interrogatives or auxiliary verbs or sometimes both: What
is wrong with you?, Are you coming? Whom do you see?
Since Latin doesn't have auxiliaries like us, it mostly used
interrogatives. Quid novi? Venisne? Quem vides?
- Quîn Clause
- This is always hard for beginning, and even intermediate students, to grasp. The
conjunction quîn means but that, and since no one goes around
saying but that anymore, it's not a terribly helpful definition. Quîn
is often used to link a negatived main clause, usually expressing a doubt,
with a subordinate clause. The verb in the subordinate clause is subjunctive. Like so: Non
dubium quin Caesar fortis sit, there is no doubt that Caesar is brave.
- Relative Clause
- A subordinate clause introduced by a relative pronoun. Relative clauses modify
something, called the antecedent, in the main clause of
the sentence in the way an adjective would. Hence a relative clause is sometimes referred
to as an adjective clause. Puellam vidi, quae ad urbem nostram
pervenit, I saw the girl who had arrived at our city. The mystery of
relative clauses revealed at Grote's notes, Chapter 17, or
the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 17.
- Relative Clause of
Characteristic
- When a relative clause is modifying an antecedent that is indefinite, or when the
relative clause is stating something hypothetical or conditional about its antecedent, its
verb is in the subjunctive: Nemo est qui haec faciat, there is
no one who would do these things.
- Relative Clause of Purpose
- A common use of the relative clause is to show purpose. In this usage, the verb is in
the subjunctive mood, and the best way to translate it into English is with an infinitive:
Legatos Caesar misit, qui haec nuntiarent, Caesar sent
messengers who would announce these things or better to announce these things.
- Result Clause
- A subordinate clause that indicate the result of something expressed in the main clause
is called a result, or consecutive, clause: Tantâ cum celeritate cucurrit, ut
amicum sequeretur, he ran with such great speed that he caught up with his
friend. Tantâ cum celeritate cucurrit, ut nemo eum sequeretur, he
ran with such great speed that no one caught up with him.
- Resumptive Relative
- The Latin relative pronoun often stands at the beginning of a sentence and refers to
something in the preceeding sentence, or it may refer to the whole sentence as its
antecedent. We call this use of the relative pronoun the resumptive relative
because it resumes the line of thought from the last sentence. Did you get that,
Larry? resumes, resumptive? You can translate it either as it is,
which drives English purists out of their minds, or you can replace the relative with its
equivalent of the demonstrative. Example: Quae cum dixisset..., when
he had said which things, or when he had said these things (haec).
-
- Secondary Sequence
- This is one of the categories of the rules of the Sequence
of Tenses. If the main verb of a sentence is in a secondary tense (perfect, future
perfect, or a pluperfect), then any subordinate subjunctives in the sentence must be
in one of these three tenses: imperfect, to show time contemporaneous with or subsequent
to that of the main verb, pluperfect, to show time prior to that of the main verb, or a
periphrastic future (the future active participle plus the imperfect subjunctive of the
verb sum) to show time subsequent. Get more help in my notes at Wheelock Chapter 31,
or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 31.
- Sequence of Tenses
- The dirty little secret about the subjunctive mood is that it doesn't allow verbs to
show absolute tense. Instead, verbs in the subjunctive mood indicate only aspect of
action: whether the action is conceived of as a progressive act, or whether it is
conceived as a complete act. That may seem like nothing but cheap metaphysics, but it has
some real consequences in Latin grammar. Verbs in subordinate clauses that required the
subjunctive show action relative to the time of the main verb of the sentence: either
before it, after it, or contemporaneous with it. You'll want to go to my Wheelock, notes
on Chapter 30
or listen to the RealAudio lesson for Chapter 30 for more on
this, but in summary the sequence of tense are the rules that state the tenses that are
permissable in subordinate subjunctives and what temporal relationship they indicate. See Primary and Secondary
Sequence.
- Simple or Open Conditions
- When there is no expression of doubt implied as to the fulfillment of a condition stated
in the protasis of a conditional statement, we call the condition simple or open. The mood
of the verbs in such protases is always indicative, and the mood of the verb in the
apodosis is also most often indicative, although it's not always necessary. One further
thing, a future simple or open condition often goes by the special name future more
vivid. Get more help in my notes at Wheelock Chapter 33,
or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 33.
- Simple Sentence
- This is a sentence consisting of only one clause. The river is wide is a simple
sentence. See Clause for more stuff.
- Subject
- Sentences can be thought of as a subject (what you're talking about) and a predicate (what you're saying about it). Usually the subject will be
the thing performing the action of the finite verb, or will be
receiving the action of the verb if the verb is passive. In the sentence George talks
too much, George is the subject of the sentence, and the subject of the finite verb talks.
In Latin, the subject of a verb will be in the nominative case.
- Subjunctive Mood
- One of the ways a Latin verb may appear is the subjunctive mood or mode. The word subjunctive
gives some indication as to the use of the subjunctive mood: sub,
under, and junctive from the Latin verb iungo, which means join.
The subjunctive mood is called the under joined mood, because most of its uses
are in subordinate clauses. The hard thing for us to get used to is that the subjunctive
mood doesn't really mean anything in itself. The subjunctive mood is simply feature of
Latin syntax for which we have to find English equivalents. This means that to become
comfortable with this mood, we have to learn (1) to recognize the form when we see it, and
(2) to study the different constructions in which it appears in Latin. Learning the forms
is a matter of elementary grammar. You can find help in my Wheelock notes for Chapters 28, 29, and 30. Learning the
constructions is harder, and that takes lots of reading experience. The main uses of the
subjunctive in Latin are: Anticipatory Clause, Clause of Fear, Conditional
Sentence, Cum Clause, Hortatory
or Jussive, Indirect Question, Optative,
Proviso Clause, Purpose Clause,
Quîn Clause, Result Clause,
Relative Clause of Characteristic.
Related to these constructions are the rules known as the Sequence
of Tenses. Good luck!
- Subordinating Conjunction
- This is a word that joins (conjunction) two clauses in a way that attributes a
supporting role to the clause it's in. Like this: After it rained, many
mushrooms were found in the forest. See there. The most important idea is mushrooms
were found in the forest,the after clause tells you a little something more
about it. Some other subordinating conjunctions in English are: although, as if,
because, if, when, while.
- Subordinate Clause
- This is a clause that's a dependent part of a complex
sentence. They are usually introducted by a subordinating
conjunction, and can't stand by themselves as a sentence if taken out. For example, George,
who is a friend of mine, is on his way here. This is a complex
sentence because it has a subordinate clause in it.
The main clause is George...is on his way here. This can stand alone as a
sentence, but the subordinate clause who is my friend can't.
- Subordinate Clause in Indirect
Statement
- Briefly stated, all subordinate clauses within indirect statement have their verbs in
the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive observes the sequence of tense that is set, not by
the main verb of the indirect statement, but by the main verb of the sentence. Study these
examples: Dixit virum quem vidisses inimicum esse, he said
that the man whom you saw was an enemy. Dicit virum quem videris
inimicum esse, he says that the man whom you saw is an enemy. Things get
much more interesting when you're talking about conditional sentence that are put into
indirect statement. In a conditional sentence the apodosis is the main clause, so that's
what becomes accusative-infinitive. The protasis, however, is a subordinate clause, and
that always becomes subjunctive in indirect statement, even if it was originally an
indicative. Like so. Direct: si hoc dicit, vertatem scis; Indirect:
Caesar putat, si hoc dicat, te veritatem scire. See that? Now for
something really hair-raising. Suppose the original statement had been a present contrary
to fact, in which you have an imperfect subjunctive in the protasis and the apodosis, and
you want to report it as indirect statement. You'd end up with this: Caesar putat,
si hoc dicat, te veritatem scire. What? Why not use the imperfect
subjunctive in the protasis, you ask? Because it violates the sequence of tense! After a
present tense, putat, all subsequent subordinate subjunctives will follow
the primary sequence of tense, and the imperfect subjunctive isn't allowed. In summary,
then, often the original nature of a condition will be masked when it's put into indirect
statement. There you go.
- Transitive
- If a verb trakes a direct object, it's called a transitive verb. This means that there's
a movement of engery from a subject, through the verb, and onto an object which it
directly affects. That's why we use the words trans (across) and it
(from the verb eo, to go). There's a transition of
energy. What makes this concept a little difficult to grasp for English speaking students
is that English verbs nearly always be used both intransitively and transitively.
Consider. You can run an engine (transitive) or you can run in the park
(intransitive). Latin verbs don't usually have this capacity:
they're either transitive by nature, or intransitive.
- Unreal or Contrary to Fact Conditions
- When there is doubt expressed as to the fulfillment of a condition stated in the
protasis of conditional statement, you have an unreal condition. The mood of the verb in
the protasis of unreal conditions is always subjunctive; the verb in the apodosis is also
subjunctive. Most of the time, these conditions are best known by names that specify the
time of the conditions. A future unreal condition is called a future less vivid: Si
hoc dicat, veritatem scias, if he were to (or should) say this, you would
know the truth. A present unreal condition is called a present contrary to fact:
Si hoc diceret, veritatem scires, if he were saying this, you would
know the truth. A past unreal condition is called a past contrary to fact: Si
hoc dixisset, veritatem scivisses, if he had said this, you would have known
the truth. Get more help in my notes at Wheelock Chapter 33,
or the RealAudio lesson for Wheelock's Self-Tutorials for Chaper 33.
- Verbs of Fearing
- Verbs that indicate fear or some kind of warning are followed by a object or noun clause, which amounts to little more than a subjunctive
clause introduced by ut or nê. What makes the noun
clause interesting after a verb of fearing is that the ut's and the nê's
are used in a way that completely inverts our English expectations. In English we say I'm
afraid that he'll come, or I'm afraid he won't come. Latin would translate
the first Vereor ne veniat, and the second Vereor ut
veniat. (Ite cogitate, go figure!) Listen to Grote's RealAudio lesson
for Wheelock's Self-Tutorial for Chaper 40.
- Vocative
- One of the six cases in Latin. It's the form a word has when it's
being directly addressed, as in Ave, Caesar, hail Caesar.
It had nearly disappeared as an identifiable form of the noun by the classical
period, being almost always the same as the nominative case of the noun. The only place it
differs is in nouns of the second declension whose nominative ends in -us:
Et tu, Brute, You too, Brutus?
- Voice
- A term used to describe the relationship between a subject of a verb and the action of
the verb. In Latin, there are two voices that are recognized by the verb form. Either the
subject is performing the action (active voice) or receiving the action (passive voice).
Active: Romani Caesarem laudaverunt, the Romans praised Caesar.
Passive: Caesar ab Romanis laudatus est, Caesar was praised by the
Romans. The whole truth on voice is at Grote's notes, Chapter 18, and
RealAudio lesson for the Self-Tutorials in the same chapter.
- (empty)
- (empty)
- (empty)
- Zenomorph
- See allomorph.
- (empty)
Revised: January 06, 2000.
Copyright © 1999 by Dale Grote.
I'm giving this stuff out for free anyway. Don't annoy me off by stealing it and tryingto
pass it off as your own. All trademarks or product names mentioned herein--there'
aren't any--are the property of their respective owners. (Got that, Larry!)
|
|
|
|
. |