Latin Lessons (under construction)

This is not an exhaustive lesson in grammar.

These are just the bare bones to help us dive more deeply into the meaning of our prayers and the Latin Mass.

Immersing ourselves in the language of the early church will help us on our spiritual journey and communion with the Lord.

Latin is a very expressive language and can convey an entire thought with a single word.

In English word order is important for determining meaning.

Latin, being an inflected language, uses suffixes for much of the meaning.

NOUNS

Suffixes provide the following information:

       Gender (masculine, feminine or neuter)

       Number (singular or plural)

       Case (6 cases, case shows noun’s function)

    Nominative  (nom., subject of the verb)

    Genitve (gen., possessor of another noun, ownership)

    Dative (dat., indirect object of the verb, recipient of direct object)

    Accusative (acc., direct object of the verb)

    Ablative (abl., adverbial use)

    Vocative (voc., direct address)

Most of the above is embedded in the suffix. (Gender is sometimes arbitrary.)

Declension is the key to understanding gender, number and case of nouns. (Except for irregular ones)

Latin nouns have 5 declensions, each with its own set or pattern of case endings. 

1st Declension--ae (gen.)

Lacrima, -ae  means tear, tears.

Lacrima belongs to first declension of pattern endings.

First declension endings are built around “a”.

First declension nouns are generally feminine.

The First declension genitive singular always  ends in “ae”.

Singular:

Nom. Lacrima

Gen. Lacrimae (Drop the genitive ending to get the stem, Lacrim)

Dat. Lacrimae

Acc. Lacrimam

Abl. Lacrima

Voc. Lacrima

Plural:

Nom. Lacrimae

Gen. Lacrimarum

Dat Lacrimis

Acc. Lacrimas

Abl. Lacrimis

Voc. Lacrimae

Latin dictionary entry for a noun (lacrima) includes the 

Nominative (subject of verb) singular form–lacrima

Genitive singular form–lacrimae

Gender–f

VERBS

Verb characteristics:

Person

Number

Tense

Voice (active or passive, performing or undergoing)

Mood (relationship between action of verb and reality)

Latin is compact. “I am singing” in Latin is “Canto”.

The verb contains the action and who is doing the action.

The suffix (personal ending) of the verb shows who is doing the action.

A Latin dictionary shows four main forms (principal parts) of the verb, from which all forms of the verb can be made.

Present, active, first person–Amo

Infinitive–Amare

Perfect, active, first person–Amavi

Past participle–Amatum

The suffix/ending shows the characteristics (person, number, tense, voice, mood) of the verb.

Drop the -re ending of the infinitive to get root of the verb.

Latin verbs have mainly 4 conjugations. The conjugation pattern can often be determined from the infinitive ending. ( -are, -ere, -ere, -ire)

1st Conjugation

Amare, -are, 

Present

       amo (I love)

       amas (you love)

       amat (3rd person loves)

       amamus (we love)

       amatis (you love)

       amant (they love)

Perfect

       amavi (I loved, have loved)

       amavisti (you loved)

       amavit (3rd person loved)

       amavimus (we loved)

       amavistis (you loved)

       amaverunt (loved)

Imperfect

       amabam (I was loving)

       amabas (you were loving)

       amabat (3rd person was loving)

       amabamus (we were loving)

       amabatis (you were loving)

       amabant (they were loving)

This website and the links to videos helping with pronunciation will be using the ecclesiastical pronunciation, which is slightly softened, as opposed to classical pronunciation.