Latin Help

There are quite a few nice one online (the best I've found, are in German only), but looking back to my 7 years of Latin at school and all the experiences I know from various nephews, nieces and children of friends: it really difficul to learn Latin online.

I truely admire, what and how you did that, Lucifer!

Well, thanks. Like I said, this is the really basic stuff, and the other stuff (pronounciations and such) I got off of my friend.

There are other non-neuter i-stem nouns besides mare, maris - I think the only change in their declensions is that the genitive plural is ium instead of um. The way you tell if the word is an i-stem is if the nominative singular ends with an s, and either the nominative and genitive singulars are the same number of syllables long, or if the stem contains a cluster. So navis, navis (ship) is an i-stem, and so is urbs, urbis (city).

Then there are third-declension adjectives, which are all i-stems, but since you haven't gotten into adjectives at all, I won't confuse people further.

Also, all third declension vocatives are the same as the nominative singular. In fact, all vocatives are the same as the nominative singular, except in the second declension. A vocative is really just for if you're addressing someone (or something) directly. So if you're addressing someone named Quintus, you just say "Quinte" instead. That's really the only use for it.

I should add that I think mare, maris is the only neuter third-declension i-stem. I think the rest are m or f or c.

dolor, -is;
lex, legis.

pars, partis;
turris, turris;
finis, finis.

Since the declinations are called differently in German (more according to the original Latin, here 'consonant declination' and '-i declination', both called 'mixed declination') I'm not that sure, if it's the same, you talk about.

Sorry not to check back in this weekend.

Here are some notes on deponent verbs such as loquor.

This assumes you know how to conjugate a verb in Latin and are
familiar withe the third conjugation.

Let's take a normal verb of the third conjugation, such as rego (I
rule).


Here is how it is conjugated in the present tense, active voice:

rego -- I rule
regis -- you rule
regit -- he rules
regimus -- we rule
regitis -- you (pl.) rule
regunt -- they rule

Now for the passive voice:

regor -- I am ruled
regeris -- you are ruled
regitur -- he is ruled
regimur -- we are ruled
regimini -- you (pl.) are ruled
reguntur -- they are ruled

The weird thing about deponent verbs is that they only have the form of
the passive voice, but the meaning is active. So far as I am aware,
Latin is the only language with this peculiarity.

So for loquor:

loquor -- I speak
loqueris -- you speak
loquitur -- he speak
loquimur -- we speak
loquimini -- you (pl.) speak
loquuntur -- they speak

Ah, thanks for the help there. Now I'm learning something too.

And as an example:

"Cor ad cor loquitur" ("Heart speaks to heart")
was the motto of John Henry Newman.

So what's the difference between loquor and dico?

Excellent question. "Loquor" is used the way we generally use "speak",
implying conversation. "Dico" is used more the way we generally
use "tell", implying a more one-sided imparting of information.

dicere = to say

loquire = to speak, to talk

Would you use loquire in a sentence the same way you use dicere, followed by a direct quotation, as opposed to how you use inquit, in the middle of a quotation? Or can you even use it with a quotation, rather than just saying "they spoke" or "he spoke" or something indirect of that sort?

Hmm, not sure about it.(My school time is ages ago, and when I get Latin historic textes, I only try to get the idea of what they say - if I can't avoid them, I mean:wink: )

As far as I remember, it's more used the 'indirect' way, as you wrote at the end of your response.

Well, to begin with, the infinitive form would be "loqui", not "loquire" since
this is a deponent verb. But getting on to the question...

If one uses loquor with a quotation, generally it is like sic locutus
est: "veni, vidi". Or haec verba loquitor, "veni, vidi".
(Thus he spoke "I came, I saw") (These words he speaks, "I came, I
saw")

Ave Walter!

I could try a "mendacium necessarium" but it really was written totally without thinking

Walter~
You say you had seven years of Latin in school.
Is that common in Germany?

Well, kind of.

I attended a "modern languages gymnasium" - which isn't a gymn, but soemthing between a highschool and a college: you get your "licence" there to go to university after having passed the "Abitur" after nine years. (This will be reduced to 8 years now, and today there are different kinds of 'gymnasiums' than at my time.)

I started in 5th class (= 1rst on the gymnasium) with English, Latin (or French) in the 7th, French (or Latin) in the 9th.
(Nowadays, you can of course even at my old school choose Spainish, Italian, Russian, Dutch as languages).


Since last year, English is compulory from 1rst class primary school onwards.


My niece, ten years back, had had nine years Latin (= all the time), 7 years Greek and only three years English.

Since she studied Business Administration, he had to learn a lot of English besides going to univeristy. Obviously she did quite well, since now she's in charge of a German branch of an US automotive factory. :wink:

Wow, sweet, I wish there was something like that here. I always hear about mega-language learning schools in places like Germany and Japan, but everyone here just assumes that if you take two years of Spanish in high school you're set for life. Which, I guess if you were born here, you kind of are. Meh.

It sucks that Canada only lets you learn French. The other languages would have to depend on the teachers there. I think it was foolish of them to remove Latin from the curriculum in Canada because with the increasing number of science students, Latin would actually be useful. Besides, fewer, and fewer people in Canada are actually speaking French because of the overwhelming number of immigrants, and such. I think even Chinese is more common than French now.