I need a Latin expert

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Archbishop_10-K

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Can anyone here help me with Latin? I need help for two reasons:

1.) I take Latin III in high school and I just bombed a test a couple days ago. Ever since moving to this new school, I don’t get anything anymore.

2.) I want to write a Latin poem, but I have no freaking idea how to do it.

Any help would be appreciated, esp. if one of you would like to be my tutor.

Pretty please!!!
 
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mercygate:
What’s Latin III? Virgil?

What did you bomb?
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Hahahaha, we haven’t even started reading any famous Romans’ works yet. My district has us use the Cambridge Latin Course. cambridgescp.com/latin/clc/clc_home.html

As far as the test, the parts I failed miserably on were all grammar related. I have no idea what perfect active participles, gerundives, subjunctives, passive periphrastics, ablative of means, and all that stuff are. Also, we’re given short stories to translate, and I’m terrible at translating sentences. I’m not even sure how I made it this far.
 
Archbishop 10-K:
Can anyone here help me with Latin? I need help for two reasons:

1.) I take Latin III in high school and I just bombed a test a couple days ago. Ever since moving to this new school, I don’t get anything anymore.

2.) I want to write a Latin poem, but I have no freaking idea how to do it.

Any help would be appreciated, esp. if one of you would like to be my tutor.

Pretty please!!!
Click to expand...
Hi!

I studied latin for 6 years…but its been a while since I’ve done any translation. I could try to help you but I can’t promise I’ll know the answer to everything.:o
 
You may want to pick up another text as an additional help (I suggest Wheelocks). Also, any specific questions?
 
Archbishop 10-K:
Hahahaha, we haven’t even started reading any famous Romans’ works yet. My district has us use the Cambridge Latin Course. cambridgescp.com/latin/clc/clc_home.html

As far as the test, the parts I failed miserably on were all grammar related. I have no idea what perfect active participles, gerundives, subjunctives, passive periphrastics, ablative of means, and all that stuff are. Also, we’re given short stories to translate, and I’m terrible at translating sentences. I’m not even sure how I made it this far.
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Subjunctive is a mood that is translated should or would/ For example. Subjunctive is less of reality kind of, than indicitive.

Optem is present, first person, singular, subjunctive, active. It means to desire.

You translate it normally to mean “I would desire” or “I could desire” or "I should desire.

You use it in conditional clauses.

Ablative of means(Instrument) expresses the means by which an action is done. You do not use a preposition with it. For example.

nautae gladiis pugnant - The sailors fight with swords.

gladiis means swords and it is the ablative.

**Perfect active participles **don’t exist I don’t think. The only participles that exist are the present active, perfect passive, and the future active and the future passive.

The Passive Periprastic is the future passive participle with the verb sum. It expresses something that is to happen. It is translated as “have to” or “must” or “should”. The diference between the passive and the active periphrastic and passive periphrastic is as follows.

passive - optatus est - he has been desired
active periphrastic - optaturus est - he is about to desire
passive periphrastic - optandus est - he has to be desired.

I do not know what gerundives are because I have not covered those yet in the latin I have taken. I am taking another semester of latin next semester.
 
in studying Latin, or any other language, you must have first a thorough command of English grammar and usage, so that you know what all the parts of speeches, cases, and tenses are. You have to know how to properly, grammatically express yourself, and to parse sentences, in English before you can translate between English and the other language. Start paying attention in English class, go back to your 8th grade English book and make sure you have mastered grammar.
 
I second the Wheelock advice. Talk your parents into going to the bookstore (Barnes & Noble, Borders) and looking through the Wheelock stuff and buying it for you. Spend Christmas vacation going back to basics. Get the elementary stuff and work your way up to where you are. You will be surprised how fast this goes, since you have already been over the territory before. Get a study partner who also bombed the test (or maybe somebody who aced it!) and work together to bring yourself up to speed.

Ask the teacher to recommend someone to work with. (That will show your commitment and goes a long way toward producing a positive attitude towards you as well as encouraging the teacher to be helpful.)

Make Latin a hobby rather than a chore. Memorize stuff. You want to write poetry? Start reading some and putting it into your memory bank. Having the forms in your head in real sentences is really good. “Manus manum lavat.” “Lavat manum manus?”

Vita pauperum est simpliciter atrox, simpliciter sanguinarius atrox in Liverpoolio. (The life of the poor is simply atrocious, simply bloody atrocious in Liverpool.) [James Joyce]
 
I just looked at the Cambridge web site. Awesome! Immerse yourself in the tools. Everything you need seems to be there.

Still, Wheelock might provide a slightly different angle and help you conceptually.
 
**Perfect active participles **don’t exist I don’t think. The only participles that exist are the present active, perfect passive, and the future active and the future passive.
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Oh dear… kinda goes to show how clueless I am.

Thankfully, I do have a copy of Wheelock’s laying around, so I guess I should start wiping the dust off and get cracking.

BTW, can anyone link me to some Latin poetry? Preferably something more like Aquinas’ rhyming poems (e.g. Veni Sancte Spiritus), rather than those classical Roman ones which take too long to figure out how to do.
 
I’m so glad to hear that you’re studying Latin. Don’t give up.
The gerundive is the future passive participle .It behaves like an adjective. A gerund is a verbal noun, declined like a noun, but only in the singular.
 
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