Help! I'm studying Latin!

Verbs: Which conjugation is it in? Part 1

2012-01-26T23:37:00.002-06:00

I've recently been fielding some questions about verb conjugation. As in: how do I know what conjugation any given verb is in. No problem.

Since you are memorizing the principal parts of verbs (and you should), you will probably have noticed the patterns in the chart.

	1st Conj	2nd Conj	3rd Conj	3io	4th Conj
1st and 2nd principal part endings	-ō/-āre	-eō/-ēre	-ō/-ere	-iō/-ere	-iō/īre

And really, that's about all there is to it. If your verb has the -ō/-āre pattern, it's first conjugation. Very, very simple. There are no tricks. You can even ignore the macrons!

Next up: a quiz.

Catullus project

2012-01-17T20:34:00.002-06:00

I'm starting to work on a project that will help students working on their own be able to read Catullus's poetry. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Catullus may have had a bit of, well, questionable content in his poetry. However his poetry can really resonate with young people—I know it did for me.

It is grossly incomplete and in the beginning stages of work, but I'm working in sort of a greatest hits order—the stuff students are likely to read anyway. If you want, you can check out the first one that I've got complete in both Latin and English.

If you were a student studying this poetry, what else would you like to see?

Free book

2012-01-13T15:43:00.002-06:00

Well, not perfectly free. Let me explain.

Here's the story. I've got this book I published. Now, naturally I'd like for you to buy it. Preferably lots of copies so I can go on vacation with my family in Bora Bora—or somewhere else equally ridiculous. No actually, the money would go to more mundane stuff like groceries. I digress.

I've got 8 copies. One of them is free for you if you meet the following criteria:
• Teach Latin to young kids (or have done so)
• Homeschool
• Have an active blog that gets more than 300 hits per month
• Will write a review of the book (and link to the Amazon page)

If this is you, and you want a free book—drop me an e-mail. Or, if you want, check out the free eBook version I keep at my website.

Reading out loud

2012-01-04T10:30:00.001-06:00

Here is me reciting Catullus 101.

Do you see what I did? Yes, I read it out loud.

This is really key to making progress with Latin. Or any other language really, but especially with Latin since you won't be hearing much of it.

So here's a New Year's resolution for the silent Latin readers: read out loud. It will help.

Verb endings

2011-12-21T21:04:00.001-06:00

I'm sure you've noticed by now that Latin has a whole disconcerting fleet of endings. Endings for nouns, adjectives, verbs, everything. Any properly transitive verb has 134 possible forms. This seems really daunting. The truth is that you really only need four, yes four, to deal with the most common forms: 3rd person singular and plural. All tenses, voices and moods.

	Singular	Plural
Active	-t	-nt
Passive	-tur	-ntur

This will get you about 85% of the way home. And yes, I'm aware that there is more to the ending than the chart. This is meant to be quick and dirty. Of course, you'll want to get all the way there, but sometimes quick and dirty is what you need.

	Main	Passive	Perfect
1st S	-o/-m	-r	-i
2nd S	-s	-ris	-isti
3rd S	-t	-tur	-it
1st P	-mus	-mur	-imus
2nd P	-tis	-mini	-istis
3rd P	-nt	-ntur	-erunt

Obviously there are a few more wrinkles, but this will allow you to get to person and number immediately in only 19 endings. What's cool about this setup is that the perfect tense immediately announces itself with it's odd endings (32%). This is good. It means you now know tense for nearly 1/3 of all verbs. If you know the -ba- signal for the imperfect (13%), you can almost (but not quite) assume the rest is present tense (40%). (Of course I'm making some pretty free assumptions here, they aren't necessarily true. I'm trying to show you how easy this can be.)

So here's the upshot: Four endings get you nearly everything you need to know about a verb. Four.

Note: All percentages drawn from a most excellent book, though not really meant for students as much as teachers. Distler, Paul. Teach the Latin, I Pray You.

Latin Adjectives, part 4

2011-12-13T15:21:00.001-06:00

Now for the quiz. Or maybe you need to study! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Highlight the blank areas after the work answer for the answer.

1. One of these things doesn't matter. Case, number, gender, declension. Which?

Answer: Declension.

2. One of these noun/adjective pairs doesn't match. Which one?

illi viri
omnis oppidis
diebus longis
Answer: omnis oppidis

3. You look up an adjective in the dictionary. You find this:

fortis, -e – adj – strong, brave

What declension endings do you use?

Answer: 3rd declension

4. Using the adjective, match it with the bold word in the sample sentence.

fortis, -e – adj – strong, brave

Sample sentence: Puer parvus cibum ad mulierem iacit.

Answer: fortem

5. You look up another adjective in thedictionary. You find this:

miser, -era, -erum – adj – poor

What declension endings do you use?

Answer: 1st/2nd declension

6. One of these ablative noun/adjective pairs is wrong. Which one

mari lato
igne omne
viro forti
muliere callida
Answer: igne omne

7. What's the problem with #6?

Answer: 3rd declension adjectives use i-stem endings, and the ablative case singular goes one further and uses -i as its ending.

How did you do?

Latin resources

2011-12-07T19:22:00.001-06:00

This is a re-post from my other blog, Dead Linguist. I think you'll find these videos useful. I hope.

1. The introduction

2. A bit of history

3. Resources for beginners

3 1/2. Resources for not-so-beginners

4. Sample of real Latin

Latin Adjectives, part 3

2011-12-06T18:51:00.001-06:00

Last time we looked at how adjective/noun pairs do not care about agreeing in declension. This time, I want to talk a little bit about 3rd declension adjectives. They can be a little tricky.

The first think you need to know is this: they are all 3rd declension i-stem. But with one added surprise. This is really important. Important enough to merit a declension chart. So here it is.

	Nom	Gen	Dat	Acc	Abl
M/F sing	omnis	omnis	omni	omem	omni
N sing	omne	omnis	omni	omne	omni
M/F pl	omnes	omnium	omnibus	omnes	omnibus
N pl	omnia	omnium	omnibus	omnia	omnibus

See how in the ablative singular it is omni, instead of the omne we might expect? Why is that? I don't know but, it isn't a problem. This pattern makes the 3rd declension adjectives just a shade more like the 2nd declension.

The one last thing that is tricky about 3rd declension adjectives is the number of nominative singular forms each has.

If the pattern is -is, -e, then you have a two nominative adjective. Genitive is the same as the first nominative, as you see in the chart. If the pattern is -er, -ris, -re, it is three nominatives. Like the 2nd declension -er adjectives, sometimes they keep the e. Sometimes not. The English derivative will usually help keep you on track with the e. If the adjective looks like a noun, you have one nominative for all three genders. It is very typical for these to end with an -x. To show examples:

omnis, -e — 2 nominative singular forms. See the -is, -e?
acer, -cris, -cre — 3 nominative singular forms. See how the 1st one looks a little like a 2nd declension adjective?
loquax, -cis — 1 nominative singular form. See the -x, -cis?

Next time, a quiz.

Latin Adjectives, part 2

2011-12-02T16:36:00.001-06:00

Last time we looked at how declension doesn't matter to noun-adjective agreement in Latin. What matters for Latin adjectives is case, number and gender. The reason this problem pops up is that many textbooks—rightly, I should add—teach the two types of adjectives separately. Usually 1st/2nd declension adjectives first and 3rd declension adjectives second.

For whatever reason, some students want this to happen:

civis Romanis or civus Romanus

After all, both words end in -is, right? (Yet another reason students should learn macrons, then the -is of the 3rd declension and the -īs of the 1st/2nd declension look different. But I digress.) Here is what really happens:

civis Romanus

They are this way, because they need to agree in case (nominative), number (singular) and gender (masculine). So not this:

animalibus magnibus

But this:

animalibus magnis

Case, number, gender. Let the declension of the adjective follow the dictionary listing. I bring this up, because 3rd declension adjectives aren't just 3rd declension. They're also i-stem (which I should cover in a post some time). Why? All 3rd declension adjectives are i-stem. So we can't say:

cive forte

Because cive is ablative, singular, masculine and forte is nominative, singular and neuter. Talk about a mismatch. This is the right way:

cive forti

Even though it doesn't look quite right, it is. Remember that adjectives pick up the extra -i in the ablative singular.

Next time, the ugliness of the 3rd declension adjective.

Latin Adjectives, part 1

2011-11-29T18:53:00.001-06:00

Latin adjectives aren't all that difficult if you've got the nouns under control. After all, they have the same three features that nouns have: case, number and gender. And those are the features to focus on. Pay no attention to that declension behind the curtain—to steal a line. The reason some students like to fix on declension matching as well as case, number and gender is that 1st and 2nd declension nouns and adjectives are taught first. They see this:

casae rubrae

Excellent! The adjective has the same ending as the noun. All is good. Well, of course they have the same ending. Case, number and gender are all the same. Since the declension also matches—first declension in the example—the endings are identical. That's the real explanation.

Naturally enough, when a noun and adjective happen to be in the same declension, this will rightly be the situation. Whenever vir (2nd declension) is modified by magnus, -a, -um (1st/2nd declension), we will see identical endings.

viro magno
viris magnis

Again, all is right with the world. I know what your thinking: what if declension is different? No problem. We still agree in case, number and gender.

manui dextrae

Dative, singular and feminine. The endings are different because manui is 4th declension and dextrae is 1st declension. If you want to say

manui dextrui

you need to remember that only case, number and gender count. Pay no attention to that declension behind the curtain. Next time: 3rd declension adjectives.

Holiday breaks

2011-11-22T12:00:00.000-06:00

Learning a language is a tricky business. Learning a dead language is a trickier business. One of the roadblocks making it harder is that dead languages are taught in school—whether in a formal school or a home school. It isn't something one learns naturally like, say, French. There's TV in French. Movies. Radio. Restaurants. Other people. All sorts of ways to learn French that have nothing to do with school.

Latin is different that way. It typically happens in a school like setting. However, language is like math in one special way. Both need daily work to keep you from forgetting the newest concepts you've learned. I can add but not solve differential equations. I assure you, I passed a college-level calculus class and could at one time. Same with stuff like Genitive case, if you are a beginner.

So what's to be done? Well, I suppose it depends on your student. Kids who are pretty motivated to learn Latin will be too happy to spend loads of time working on Latin. They're easy, because they'll just do it. Kids who are less motivated may need some encouragement to spend some daily time with Latin. I'd tell you how to motivate them to spend five minutes each day working on Latin over a school break, but I haven't the first clue.

Drop me a comment and tell me your dirty and not-so-dirty tricks to get the unmotivated to sacrifice a few minutes on school breaks.

Indirect Speech, Part 4

2011-11-20T16:15:00.001-06:00

You have survived the gauntlet of indirect speech in parts 1, 2 and 3. Now is the quiz. Don't worry, it's easy. Give it a try. After the spot it says answer, drag your mouse across the blank area to highlight the answer. Let's start easy.

1. Combine sentence 2 into sentence 1.

Sentence 1: Ambulas.
Sentence 2: Lux fit.
Answer: You can't do that. You need a verbum sentiendi (head verb).

2. Combine sentence 2 into sentence 1.

Sentence 1: Audis.
Sentence 2: Sol fulget.
Answer: Audis solem fulgere.

3. Combine sentence 2 into sentence 1.

Sentence 1: Iohannes cattum videt.
Sentence 2: Cattus mures capit.
Answer: Iohannes videt cattum mures capere.

Now for some tricker things.

4. Combine sentence 2 into sentence 1.

Sentence 1: Maria vidit cervum.
Sentence 2: Cervus viam transivit. (But at the same time as sentence 1.)
Answer: Maria vidit cervum viam transire.

5. Combine sentence 2 into sentence 1.

Sentence 1: Cervus putat.
Sentence 2: Cibus erat trans viam.
Answer: Cervus putat cibum fuisse trans viam.

Ok, that's not so rough. Let's get rid of the ambiguous statements in the next two by using the passive.

6. Sentence 1 is ambiguous. Sentence 2 has a passive sentence that cures the ambiguity. Replace the indirect speech of sentence 1 with sentence 2.

Sentence 1: Caesar videt viros gladios tenere.
Sentence 2: Gladii ab viris tenentur.
Answer: Caesar videt gladios ab viris teneri.

7. Sentence 1 is ambiguous. Sentence 2 has a passive sentence that cures the ambiguity. Replace the indirect speech of sentence 1 with sentence 2.

Sentence 1: Audio cattum murem cepisse.
Sentence 2: Mus a catto captus est.
Answer: Audio murem a catto captum esse.

Now for the big question.

8. Latin uses a tricky accusative as subject and infinitive construction to get indirect speech. What one word does English use to show this? What word (for this purpose) is missing from Latin?

Answer: That

How did you do?

Hire me

2011-11-17T16:46:00.001-06:00

Yes, if these bits of encouragement and explanation are useful and you like the style, why not hire me? I'm friendly and know what I'm talking about. I've got years of experience with Latin—teaching and textbook development. If you don't need a Latin teacher, why not take a peek at books I've written?

Latin curriculum review

2011-11-16T12:48:00.001-06:00

I'm putting together a page of what is available for Latin programs. My intention is that this is aimed at home-school and self-study Latin students. You can see it here. Right now it's not much more than a rough draft in sections, but I figure it is of more value to you as a published page than waiting for me to get my act together and finish it. So read it and learn about the textbooks available.

Indirect Speech, Part 3

2011-11-14T20:32:00.001-06:00

Last time we covered the basics of indirect speech. Here's a sample to refresh your memory before we head to the details.

Latin: Puto Iohannem ambulare
English: I think that John is walking.

But what if we think John was walking earlier? Or that he will be walking later? Right now, all we say is that we think that he is walking right now. How do we deal with tense? All we have is an infinitive. Well, infinitives have tense. So let's stack them up.

Future: Puto Iohannem ambulaturum esse.
Present: Puto Iohannem ambulare.
Past: Puto Iohanem ambulavisse.

The key thing to remember is that the time of the infinitive is relative to the time of the main verb. So the future sentence in English is "I think that John will walk." He hasn't yet, but I think he will. The past in English is "I think John has walked." There's still some tweak left to tense. Check this:

Main verb Imperfect: Putabam Iohannem ambulaturum esse.

See what I did? I changed the main verb, but left the indirect speech as future. This might be said in English as, "I was thinking that John would walk." Of course "would" isn't the only word I could have used. We've got a lot of will/would/may/might flexibility in English, depending on our level of certainty. It's almost baroque really. But I digress. Latin keeps it clean and simple. The infinitive is time relative to the conjugated verb.

What if we want to go passive? I'm going to ignore the possibility of future passive in the indirect speech (I've got a reason). Let's look at an example first.

Latin: Audio meum cattum ratum cepisse.
English: I hear that my cat caught a rat.

Or does it mean this:

English: I hear that a rat caught my cat.

Um. Uh-oh. We've just uncovered the problem with indirect speech in Latin. Both the subject and direct object are in the accusative case in Latin. Never fear! There is a way out. Here's what I want to say in Latin:

I want to say: Meus cattus ratum cepit.

But to say this leads to the trap above. Never fear. Turn the sentence into a passive version of itself.

Now it's passive: Ratus a meo catto captus est.

See how I got rid of the direct object? Good. But we're still missing our indirect speech magic. I'll perform the magic, and you see if you can explain what I did. Again with audio.

Magic: Audio ratum a meo catto captum esse.

And of course if I'm hearing the rat in the act of being caught, I'd say this:

Caught red-handed: Audio ratum a meo catto capi.

Isn't that an odd passive infinitive? I've pretty much shown you the basics and the details of indirect speech. Ready for a quiz?

A defense of Latin

2011-11-11T16:20:00.001-06:00

This is my response (paragraphs added) to one woman's anti-Latin blog post.

As a Latin teacher, this is how I make my living. But you're right. For anyone living in or around or near a large community of foreign language speakers, the conclusion, which you draw, is correct. Resoundingly so. However. (And here is my standard defense of Latin when vocabulary/grammar/writing advantages are cast aside—and frankly those are skills separate from Latin, whatever uses Latin may have in teaching them.) In order to know where you're going, you must know where you came from. Latin is our heritage as Western Christians. From antiquity through the medieval era to the Renaissance, Latin was the intellectual language of the Christian West. Even after Latin's second death in the Renaissance, people with serious educations (the American founders for Americans) were steeped in the Latin tradition. Latin is where we, collectively in the West, came from.

My secondary argument is that Americans (and I see you're living in Costa Rica, so this may be moot) live in a deeply monolingual world, which is a pity in its own right. Any foreign language will broaden a child's education, so why not pick one that will enrich their understanding of their own culture? You're shockingly fortunate to be living in a country where you and your children are able to learn a second language and culture by immersion. You're doubly fortunate to not have to do it as a disadvantaged immigrant. Maligning Latin to people who may have marginal use for low-level Spanish isn't useful.

I am also painfully aware of how ungood many Latin curricula are, so I won't build them up. I'd also tell someone who wants to learn Spanish to learn Spanish, not Latin—no matter how useful Latin may be toward learning Spanish. Yes, Latin is strangely popular among homeschoolers—I am delighted by that for reasons of light and heat at home—but it isn't for everyone.

Again, I reiterate, maybe Latin isn't for you. But to write it off as foolish or time-wasting is just as bad as me suggesting that learning Spanish is to learn the language of farmhands and fast-food workers. Que no digo. The vast and screaming majority of students don't even bother with a foreign language at all. So no matter what language (and I'm rather fond of Latin), there's work to be done.

In the Department of Education’s more comprehensive survey of college students, the proportion of students taking no language courses was 58.4 percent. (Panetta)

We in America have a privileged situation. We speak the most geographically widespread language with a very high number of native speakers and economic privilege: English. True, Latin isn't a help on that count, but at the very least it will give students a direct understanding of what their non-native English business partners went through as well as a deeper understanding of their culture's past.

But as long as elite U.S. schools and universities continue to put little emphasis on the acquisition of foreign language capabilities, American executives will be monolingual and U.S. corporations will have to try and use English or buy foreign nationals who have the language ability where the business is located. A sad commentary for the strongest and most competitive economy in the world. (Panetta)

Sure, Latin has traditionally been associated with an elitist education, but there is zero reason for that to be true. Many homeschooling parents don't know Latin, but that's no reason to give up hope. Need help? I'm here.

Note: I don't really agree with Panetta's conclusions, but his analysis of the state of foreign language teaching in America is quite damning.

Indirect Speech, Part 2

2011-11-10T08:40:00.001-06:00

In part 1, I described what indirect speech is. After all, we do have indirect speech in English. A bit of a basic feature. Anyway, in this post we're going to focus on how Latin does it.

Here is my example of English acting like Latin, which is to say it's indirect speech without "that".

English acting like Latin: I know John to be walking.

It can be broken apart into two sentences.

Sentence 1: I know John.
Sentence 2: John is walking.

Sentence one is the key bit. Look at the verb. Not just any verb will do the trick here. You can't say this:

Garbage: I dance that John is walking.

You need a special verb. Let's call it a head verb for our purposes. Why call it a head verb? First, it is easier to remember than verbum sentiendi for beginning Latin students. Second, the verb originates in your head: hear, see, think, feel, etc.

Ok, so now to make our two example sentences into Latin.

Sentence 1: Scio Iohannem
Yes, I know that scio isn't the correct verb here, bear with me for the example.
Sentence 2: Iohannes ambulat.

Again, we meet the key condition for indirect speech: a sentence with a head verb. That done we can do the grammar magic so we can combine the sentences. So you know, it's not this easy:

Latin garbage: Scio Iohannem ambulat.

What's wrong here? I dropped the second Iohannes. He only shows up once. The answer is in the verbs: how many? Two. Any way of putting them in two clauses? No. That's the problem. You only get one conjugated verb per clause. And the verb here is scio. Full stop. Ambulat needs to do something else so it can stop being a rule breaker.

What can we do? We have two options. We can either go the participle route or the infinitive route. Since we're talking about indirect speech, we're going the infinitive route. So, let's transform sentence to to prepare it to go into sentence 1. (Because the other way just doesn't work.)

Sentence 2: Iohannes ambulat.

Two things are going to happen. I'll do them one at a time. First, the verb needs to become an infinitive.

Sentence 2: Iohannes ambulare

But now we have an ungrammatical sentence. We have an infinitive, which can't have a nominative case noun as subject. Infinitives have accusative case as their subject. Strange but true. So let's fix it.

Sentence 2: Iohannem ambulare

Ok, now we're good to go. Let's line the two sentences up now.

Sentence 1: Scio Iohannem
Sentence 2: Iohannem ambulare

Oh hey, waitaminit. I see the same word twice. Iohannem. This must be where the sentences are joined. Easy! Ok, so now try it. Make two sentences out of it.

Sentence 1 and 2 together: Scio Iohannem ambulare.

And that's the majority of the work in indirect speech in Latin. A few more details are in the next post.

Indirect Speech, Part 1

2011-11-06T19:46:00.000-06:00

There's no doubt that the first time students run across indirect speech, they're somewhat surprised. After all, up to that point, it's nothing but nominative for the subject. Then we drop a bomb on them: well, actually accusative case can be a subject too. But only for infinitives.

In English, it's pretty easy to do indirect speech. Pop in your reporting method—see, hear, think, say, etc.—and add a that. You're on your way.

Direct: John is walking.
Indirect: I see that John is walking.

Latin is a bit trickier. There is no word that corresponds to "that". Well, there is, but it isn't used in classical Latin. For now, I'll pretend that medieval Latin doesn't exist. (Not true, it exists and is fabulous, but students should learn the classical version first.) Latin does something much different. It is almost as if you are joining two sentences together. English can, but rarely does, do the same thing. Let's look at a quick English example.

English acting like Latin: I know John to be walking.

See how there isn't a "that" in the sentence? Good. It is as if I joined these two sentences.

Sentence 1: I know John.
Sentence 2: John is walking.

I did some grammar magic and got our example. This is what Latin is going to do.

Next: I explain it how Latin does it.

Advanced Latin

2011-10-20T23:23:00.000-05:00

I'm teaching an advanced Latin class this year. I'm writing about this so that all of you learning Latin can see what you are working toward.

I'm using the Vulgate—the Bible in Latin—as the text for class. Given that I am working with Christian homeschoolers, it may seem like I'm trying to curry favor. I'm not. I think the Bible is a great text to start students in on unadapted Latin literature. Here's why: students should be at least broadly familiar with many portions of the Bible. This will allow them to focus clearly on the language being used and not what is happening.

Twenty years on, I still remember my first encounter with Caesar. He's considered an easy author. But I always felt I was going so slow—and I suppose I was—that I couldn't ever get a feel for the larger context of the work. Then to compound matters, Caesar was talking about things I had never heard of. Who were the Allobroges and where were they from? The Vulgate gets around this. Students know many of the stories, which are (mostly) short episodes.

After students take their work home, we meet again to dissect the text bit by bit. This week we read Psalm 23 (or is it 22?). We shredded it to bits and put it back together in class. It was amazing. The best part? We do it every week.

If you're studying Latin, keep at it. Eventually you can get to where you are reading real, Latin literature. It is closer than you think. Keep it up.

The Exile of Aeneas (Book Review)

2010-06-17T22:58:00.000-05:00

The Aeneid is the epic from antiquity that most people are the least familiar with. The Exile of Aeneas is a step toward fixing that. Instead of a translation or adaption for children, Ed DeHoratius presents the story as a series of choices for the reader. Since the story is not as familiar to students and Aeneas is an all too-human hero, students will have a chance to see the story unfold for themselves as they are faced with the no-win choices Aeneas had to make. For students who are more familiar with the story, the choices available to Aeneas are made more immediate in this style of storytelling.

Bottom line: Making the Aeneid fun.

End of the year

2010-05-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

We're grinding in on the end of the school year. From my own experience as a student, I know it is far too easy to slack off at this time of year. And from the the teaching end, everything seems to get more and more hectic. Between those two, you might be ready to let the Latin slide. Which is completely understandable.

But I've got bad news. Latin, or any foreign language for that matter, is not a skill that does well with neglect. Don't take my word for it. Check out what the Augustine Club at Columbia University has to say. They've got some other interesting web resources, but this is particularly pertinent for us.

So if the end of the year is overwhelming to you, I'm there with you. But while you are struggling, don't forget to spend some time every day with Latin (or whatever foreign language you're studying). It doesn't have to be an onerous task that makes you want to give up all hope. Just scale back your expectations for the time being. Keep at it, even if it feels like you're not making progress—your persistence will meet with success. You can master Latin. And always remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

If you need any specific help or encouragement, drop me a line at pete at pluteopleno dot com.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Slowing down to master it all

2010-04-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

I've been busy trying to break through writer's block on another project, so I've been quiet. No more.

I was working with a student this week and noticed that in certain situations he was making errors. One of the things I like to do with students is to label sentences so the structure of the language is obvious. (I'm partial to something that looks like a modified Shurley grammar but whatever you use, stick with it.) The idea is to do this so much that it becomes second nature to the students.

However. Students left to their own devices like to hurry through work. I don't know why, but I was (and occasionally still can be) certainly guilty of this habit. As a result, students make sloppy errors that mislead. They can answer questions about the reading perfectly well. They can draw pictures about the story. Or answer questions (correctly) about the grammar. But there it is, the Accusative object of a preposition labeled as a direct object.

The problem for us is to tease out which is an error from going too fast and which is an error in understanding. This is not easy, unless we take time to go over errors with students, and time is certainly a precious commodity. What is better is to encourage students to slow down. Yes, that means their studies will take longer, but over time they will master the material and need less time.

So try to convey this message: Go slow, take time now and build good Latin skills OR whip through and need to unlearn bad habits to learn the correct skills.

My coop just cancelled its weekly meeting

2010-04-02T16:02:00.000-05:00

And, in fact, mine did.

You know it's going to happen if it hasn't happened already. Something—snow, construction or something else—crops up and cancels the weekly meeting of your Latin group.

So what to do?

If your student is struggling, this is a good time to go back and review difficult concepts. If your student isn't struggling, this is a good time to go back and review difficult concepts. No matter how well or poorly you are doing in Latin, review is always good. Firming up paradigms (also known as noun and verb charts) is always good for students in grammar driven curricula. Spending time with the readings is great for students in reading driven curricula. In other words, you're going to gear your activity to the curriculum—which, if you've gotten lucky or chosen well, matches your student's learning style.

The key is to spend some time every day. Language is a use it or lose it sort of skill. So for learners of all stripes, daily practice is better than taking the week off. Even spending ten minutes each day is better than lumping in a one-day, hour-long catch up session before heading back to the coop. I can't emphasize enough that daily exposure is superior to anything else. Even if you go back to the beginning of the book and review there, you're ok. It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you're doing something instead of knocking off for the week.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Learning endings

2010-03-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

There's just no good substitute for context and multiple exposure, but those pesky endings have to be learned one way or another. Memorizing short readings isn't the worst place to start, because you're memorizing more than the words: your memorizing patterns in endings and how words come together to form sentences.

But even so, a bit of rote memorization can help students. It allows them to show mastery of a set of knowledge, and I can't think of a student who doesn't enjoy the feeling of secure knowledge on test day.

What not to do. It is probably not best to learn them the way I did in high school: as bare endings. We would chant "a, ae, ae, am, a, ae, arum, is, as, is". I clearly remember that. Or "O, S, T, M-U-S, T-I-S, N-T" as if it were a high-school cheer. The teacher was a fun woman and made it pretty painless, but she forgot to tell us that endings never occur on their own.

Here's something better. You should always practice endings with their word, at the very least. So instead of the first chant above, you can recite "ala, alae, alae, alam, ala, alae, alarum, alis, alas, alis" so you can learn two things at once: first declension endings and the word for wing. While this isn't the best way at to learn Latin, it does work. A 20-minute walk to school each day gave me plenty of opportunity to recite words to myself this way. There is a reason I know my case endings cold and always have.

Better yet. This is no doubt the trickiest. You'll have to find or make up sentences that feature the word in context. "Ala est pulchra. Alae forma habet aedificium. Alae pennas dedit Deus. Alam habet aedificium. In ala sunt pennae…" See how I've given each form of ala its own context? What's useful here is that students also learn how the cases work, which is a whole 'nuther problem. What's tricky is that you've got to work much harder to come up with these sentences. (You could also arrange these so that they drill one particular case instead of the one declension shown here.)

No matter how you do it, take time for it every day. Latin is a lot like math in that it needs a bit of daily attention rather than a heap of infrequent attention.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Flash Cards: How to use them

2010-03-12T08:59:00.000-06:00

After last week's foray into making flash cards, the time has come to learn how to use them.

First a confession, I really believe in learning vocabulary in context. Nothing can compete with reading in Latin for learning vocabulary and endings. However, as a supplement, flash cards are a very flexible tool.

The problem is this: students need to learn vocabulary and endings. Here's your opportunity: Dead time.

All the time you spend doing nothing: Waiting in line. Those minutes between class. When you're in bed but can't sleep—this works whether sleep or vocabulary learning is the goal. Riding in the car on a long trip—probably best that the driver not use flash cards, unless you tape 'em to the steering wheel like I do. No, I'm joking about that last part, but I'm serious about adding in time here and there with flash cards. This is part of the reason you should make them small. If they're big, they're hard to carry for use on a moment's notice.

You don't want to carry a huge pile of them, so bring a few with you everywhere. My wallet has its fair share of vocabulary cards in it. Remember to change them up on occasion, and you're set to go.

You can also make flash cards part of your learning routine by adding on a few minutes of work before or after class/homework time. The when and where isn't half so important as the repetition and frequent use.

Be sure to say hello to me if you see me working with my flash cards.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Flash Cards: How to make them

2010-03-04T14:07:00.001-06:00

I've been tackling a new language, and the bugaboo of all language students has reared its head: learning vocabulary. Latin is no exception. Even a Latin teacher like myself runs across unknown words.

Flash cards are an excellent solution for learning vocabulary and endings. Their biggest problem to my mind is that they rob the learning process of context. This is why I struggled throughout college to remember the difference between pairs like tamen/tandem and nempe/nuper. All flash card, no context.

So. How to make flash cards? And I do mean make by hand. I don't see the educational value of buying vocabulary cards, though they are awfully convenient. Some things, by which I mean nouns, will readily lend themselves to a card with a picture on one side and the Latin word on the other. Other things, that would be adjectives and verbs, may not be so easy to draw. Some things are impossible to draw. How do you draw an "and"?

Why do I mention drawings on flash cards? So that students can bypass English when learning vocabulary. It will help solidify the concept of the word in the target language—in our case, Latin.

But you don't have to limit yourself to vocabulary! You can also make cards to help you learn the fleet of endings that Latin throws at students.

Here is a sample set of cards.

Keep in mind, this is one possibility. You could mark noun on the card with the mouse to mean "mūs, mūris" and verb on another card to mean "rodere" (to gnaw). You could put the whole declension of a noun on back to help drill a whole set of endings at once. The limit is the space between your imagination and your learning goals, and you can't buy flash cards that are tailored exactly to your goals.

Next up: how to use flash cards.

A Sallust Reader (Book Review)

2010-03-03T15:31:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had a book show up two weeks after you needed it? Last semester I taught Cicero's First Catilinarian (and had a fabulous backup teacher too). But I wish I had more about Catiline. Enter A Sallust Reader two weeks too late.

The introduction helps get students acquainted with an author who isn't as read as he could be. Background on Sallust's life, his works and his style of writing are well worth the read for Latin and history students alike.

For Latin students, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae represents an interesting bit of reading. Sallust lived through the events he described and was quite possibly in Rome at the time. This is as close to a third-party primary source as it gets in antiquity. And what a ride! Pagán's selections for the Catilinarian section of the book are wonderful. They get right to the heart of why Catiline was an awful guy and tell the story briskly. Her notes are full enough for less advanced students, but include enough information to make them interesting for even those students who read fluently. My only gripe is that they are segregated in the back of the book.

What's more, is that this book isn't just for advanced Latin students. Motivated history students who are dealing with this bit of Roman history or the Jugurthine war will find plenty of red meat in this book, above and beyond their trusty Penguin translation.

I'd rate this book as a must add for anyone teaching Cicero's First Catilinarian.

Sneak Preview

2010-02-26T14:08:00.000-06:00

I'm working on a grammar reference for Latin students. Be certain it will have many standard features like noun and verb endings. What I really want to show you is a sneak preview of a feature that most grammar references don't have: an explanation of dictionary entries. I've added this because a Latin dictionary can be intimidating to beginning students, and a quick review never hurt any of us veterans. Without further ado, a sneak preview.

Nouns:

Adjectives:

Verbs:

Click images to englarge.

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Telling apart Dative and Ablative plural, part 4

2010-02-20T13:50:00.000-06:00

Here it is: the quiz. Can you tell them apart in context? Let's see. Review here, here and here if you need it.

Viris togatis, negotia aguntur.

1. Viris togatis: dative or ablative?

Quibus hi viri tempus suum dant?

2 Quibus: dative or ablative? (extra point: answer the question)

Pretium negotiis est carum.

3. Negotiis: dative or ablative?

Hi viri vias et theatra negotiis suis faciunt.

4. Negotiis suis: dative or ablative?

Cur theatra ab viris fient?

5. Viris: dative or ablative?

Ut alii cives spectaculis frui possint.

6. Spectaculis: dative or ablative?

Highlight from here to 1. Ablative 2. Dative (extra point: negotiis) 2. Dative 4. Ablative 5. Ablative 6. Ablative See how much more common ablative uses are? here for the answers.

If you found this helpful, stop by the Facebook page or the store to see what other items I've got to help make Latin more fun and more doable.

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Telling apart Dative and Ablative plural, part 3

2010-02-06T16:31:00.000-06:00

I got long winded last time. This should be shorter. The reason is that Ablative case is much more common than Dative case. In fact, it will show up about six times for every use of the Dative. It is almost safe to guess that an ambiguous form is Ablative unless it meets one of the conditions outlined in the previous entry. That said, I will help clarify situations where you are most certainly seeing the Ablative case. There will of course be other uses of the Ablative, but always let context be your guide in sorting Dative from Ablative. On to the obvious culprits.

1. Prepositions

Let's get this out of the way first. It's easy and a dead give away.

Karthago a Romanis deleta est.

The sentence, save “a Romanis” means “Carthage was destroyed.” The preposition “a” is a dead giveaway for what's coming next. Even the most beginning student of Latin should be thinking that an Ablative object will be coming after the preposition. “By the Romans.” There's our answer.

2. PUFFV verbs

The name sounds funny, but the verbs in this group take an Ablative compliment—fancy talk for it's-a-direct-object-in-English-but-not-Latin. These verbs are: potior, utor, fruor, fungor and vescor. Most beginning students won't see these, but they're common enough to merit high placement.

Romani provinciis potiebantur.

Again, pretty straightforward. “The Romans were taking possession…” But of what? The question screams out at us. Once we see the verb “potiebantur,” we are tipped off that the ambiguous form of “provinciis” is indeed Ablative. So we have “The Romans were taking possession of the provinces.”

3. Ablative Absolute

Everybody's favorite use of the Ablative. What? You don't have one? Oh. I thought everyone did. What makes this so easy to recognize is that it is usually a noun plus a participle in the Ablative case. There are a few other uses that don't include a participle that are easy to recgonize—“duce” and “consule” come to mind. Which leads to our example:

Cicerone et Hybrida consulibus, Catalina respublicam Romanam capere voluit.

Ok, so the “Cicerone et Hybrida” followed by “consulibus” is huge help in telling what's going on here. We have one unambiguously Ablative name joined to another not-so-unambiguously Ablative name followed by an ambiguous Dative/Ablative. The “et” sets the two consuls on equal footing case-wise and the “consulibus” must thus agree with that. So that part might translate, “When Cicero and Hybrida were consuls…” Let's try another.

Conuriationibus ruptis, Catalina ex urbe fugere temptavit.

Here the form is more ambiguous, but the noun/participle pairing should clue us in that we have an Ablative absolute on our hands. “With the conspiracies broken, Cataline tried to flee from the city.”

4. Comparatives

This is the last major tip off that you've got Ablative rather than Dative.

Maior natu fratribus sum.

This is actually pretty easy. As soon as you see the comparative form of “maior” you need to immediately start looking for either “quam” + another nominative or an Ablative noun to show what is “minor.” So, “Maior natu sum,” is pretty easy to deal with. “I am older by birth.” Again, notice that we want to know the answer to “older than whom?” So often the way we think pulls us along to find obvious answers. In this case—pun intended—“fratribus” is the only word that's an obvious answer, but it also falls into the correct case to be grammatically correct. “I am older (by birth) than my brothers.”

Next week: a short quiz to see how well you get it.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Telling apart Dative and Ablative plural, part 2

2010-01-27T10:35:00.000-06:00

In the last entry, we talked about how the neuter can be tricky to distinguish between its Nominative and Accusative forms. I brought this up because it is an easier entry point into distinguishing cases. In this post, which is nearly book length, I'll tell you some of the things that should tip you off to the Dative case.

1. Indirect object

Several verbs tip off this use of the Dative case. Dare, mittere, and habere are a few. Let's try an example.

Flumen urbibus aquam dabat

Let's ditch urbibus from the sentence for now, because it has a tricky signal: it could be Dative or Ablative. As you're working, you need to keep both possibilities in mind. Otherwise, it's pretty easily classified as a straight up garden-variety sentence. First subject (flumen), then direct object (aquam) and the verb last (dabat). The river was giving water. Ok. Now back to urbibus. As soon as we get to the verb, it makes us ask "To whom is the river giving water?" You immediately want an indirect object, so the choice between Dative and Ablative should be pretty clear cut. So, the sentence translates as "The river gives the cities water."

2. Compound verbs

These should tip you off right away. The reason is that when a verb compounds, there is no longer any need for the preposition which is now part of the verb. The object of the preposition can't hang out as it is, so it moves to dative. Let's look at a phrasal verb in English to see how we don't repeat prepositions either.

We moved out of the house yesterday.

It is as if out is doing double duty as part of the verb and as a preposition. You would never say

We moved out yesterday out of the house.

See how the preposition out is repeated in the second sentence? It sounds gross. Well, the same thing is typical for Latin. Here's an example.

Cicero senatoribus decessit.

Again, we'll strip the sentence of senatoribus while we deal with the rest. Nothing fancy. It means "Cicero left." Again, it makes us ask, "What did Cicero leave?" But first a detour into the verb. Decessit has two parts. The first is the preposition de (meaning down from), and the second is the verb form of cessit (meaning he left). Put the two together and you get your compound verb. Now, I could have just as easily have said

Cicero de senatoribus decessit.

Here it is pretty obvious senatoribus is Ablative. But now I've got de repeated in the sentence, and I don't really need that. So, here's what I can do: I ditch the preposition in favor of the compound verb. Since I still need to have the senators in a case, I use Dative to indicate that it belongs to the de in the compound verb. Ecce! That's our answer. Senatoribus is Dative, because it compliments the de in our compound verb. The sentence means "Cicero left the senators."

Bottom line: be on the look out for Dative when you see a compound verb.

3. Intransitive verbs

Yet another tip off. There is a fleet of verbs that when translated in to English seem to have their direct object in the Dative. So let's call it a Dative "direct object." Nocere, dolere, and parcere all come to mind. Let's see it in action.

Iudex latronibus non parsit.

Again, let's dispose with the ambiguous latronibus for now. The rest of the sentence is very simple. Iudex is our subject. Non negates the verb. And parsit is our verb from parco, parcere, parsi, parsus. So we get "The judge did not spare." Again, whom did he not spare? In English we expect a direct object, but in this case Latin doesn't allow for that. Why? It doesn't. Our verb is intransitive, so no direct object in the Accusative case. Just a Dative "direct object."

In this case, its "direct object" is Dative. Again, we have our answer. Latronibus is Dative. The sentence means "The judge did not spare the theives."

How will you know which verbs want a Dative "direct object"? Any dictionary should tell you this information, though the glossary at the back of your textbook may not. You may have to memorize these.

4. A linking verb

Whenever you see a linking verb, particularly if there is a gerundive hanging out, get on the lookout for Dative case. These uses of Dative are called Dative of Possession and Dative of Agent. Here are examples:

Militibus sunt castra.

Ok, this is very easy. Again we'll skip over militibus for now. We don't have enough context yet. Sunt castra is easy: There is a camp. I see the linking verb. I see the ambiguous militibus. Is it Dative or Ablative? In situations like this, pick Dative. The sentence translates as "There is a camp to the soldiers." But that sounds really bad, so we turn it around to "The soldiers have a camp." It's more idiomatic in English that way. Dative of Possession is an idiomatic feature of Latin.

Karthago Romanis delenda est.

The gerundive delenda doesn't change things up much. The linking verb est still tells us to choose Dative over Ablative. The sentence still translates the same way: "Carthage is to be destroyed for the Romans." However this sounds very clunky in English and doesn't capture the necessity of destroying Carthage. So let's deal with the gerundive first. "Carthage must be destroyed for the Romans." Again, we've got that non-idiomatic "for the Romans" going on. To smooth things out in English we might say "Carthage must be destroyed by the Romans." or "The Romans must destroy Carthage." The Dative of Agent is highly idiomatic in Latin, so any translation will necessarily vary from it.

Bottom line: Esse in all of its forms—and there are too many—is a trigger for Dative.

5. Special adjectives

Some adjectives complete their meanings with Dative case. I'll use similis as my example.

Acres, similes quercibus, folia autumno amittunt.

I've set similes quercibus off with commas, because I want to focus on that. The rest of the sentence means "Maples lose their leaves in fall." Similes means "like." And I don't mean like like. I mean similar. So now the sentence means "Maples, like, lose their leaves in fall." But that hardly seems complete. The word similis wants a Dative noun to tell you what its antecedent is like. So quercibus must be Dative since it is hanging out so close to similes. Finally we have it. "Maples, like oaks, lose their leaves in fall."

Conclusion

So often context will lead you to the right resolution in the Dative/Ablative confusion. We've seen five ways that context leads us to the right answer. In several cases, particularly 1, 3 and 5, the sentence sounds incomplete without the information the Dative case supplies. In 2 we saw how compound verbs have the preposition and force the former object of preposition into the Dative case. In 4 we saw the very idiomatic Dative of Possession and Dative of Agent.

Next time: signals for the Ablative.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Telling apart Dative and Ablative plural

2010-01-21T10:52:00.000-06:00

This is going to be the first of three or four entries about how to tell apart the Dative and Ablative plural. I remember struggling with this discrimination as a beginning student. We're going to get there with a detour through the neuter rule.

First some practical info. Here are the forms:

Decl. Dat. Abl.
1 -is -is
2 -is -is
3 -ibus -ibus
4 -ibus -ibus
5 -ebus -ebus

Even the most cursory glance should tell you that they are the same. In fact, some textbooks even consider them to be the same thing in the plural. Run off and check that old edition of Pharr's Aeneid you've got kicking around. (Yes, I'm joking, I don't expect that you actually own that.)

The reason you want to be able to know the difference is that Dative and Ablative have very different uses and translations.

Now, before I get into a detailed discussion, I want to point out the Neuter Rule which we have all come to know and love. Nominative and Accusative share forms for all neuter forms, yet we manage to work with that. Look at the example:

Flumen per oppidum fluit.

This is pretty easy. Flumen could be a subject or direct object, and for the time being we don't have any other signals to help us out. The "per" signals in a big way: there's an object of a preposition coming, and it will be in the Accusative case. Which of course we see in oppidum. Finally we come to fluit which is looking for a singular subject and no direct object. Flumen must be the subject. So we get "the river runs through the town."

Getting more advanced, but not much:

Puella oppidum videt.

Puella is clearly the subject (let's ignore the possibility of Ablative). Then comes oppidum. Now, it is clearly not a subject. If it were, there would be a conjunction putting it on equal footing with puella, but there isn't. It must be the direct object. Here comes the trick:

Animal flumen transit. or even Flumen animal transit.

Both sentences mean the same thing. In both cases animal has a form that allows it to be either the subject or direct object. Same for flumen. Transit wants a singular object, and both nouns can fill that role. So how can we tell if it is "the animal crosses the river" or "the river crosses the animal"? Grammatically, Latin doesn't make that discrimination for us, so that's a dead end. Context to the rescue. Only one possibility makes sense, so that's what we go for. The animal crosses the river.

Next time: http://magisterpetrus.blogspot.com/2010/01/telling-apart-dative-and-ablative_27.html">Signals for Dative plural.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

National Latin Exam

2010-01-06T12:12:00.000-06:00

Deadlines for the National Latin Exam are drawing close.

16 January is the deadline for mailing in your application form. 26 January is the last day to apply with the late fee.

Why the fuss? Students who score well on the Latin III or higher exams are sent an application for a $1,000 scholarship, which is potentially renewable. In 2006 there were 26 of these. Of course there are strings attached, but who doesn't want to take a year of Greek or Latin in college?

The tests are administered during the week of 8–12 March. For Chicago area hoemschool students, I can administer the test for free if you come to me. Please drop me a line at pete at pluteopleno dot com to arrange the details.

If you are looking for help, let me know what you are looking for. Rates for one-on-one tutoring (via phone or e-mail) are at an introductory price of $25/hour through the Ides of March. Send me an e-mail at pete at pluteopleno dot com with your phone number and we can discuss your needs.

Scary stuff: Linguistic comparisons

2009-12-28T10:46:00.001-06:00

Ok, I was reading a book about Latin's history the other day. I know—just what you do for fun too. I'll put up a review of that book later. Anyway, this entry may not be of much use in helping you puzzle Latin together, but it may give you some insight into how languages relate to each other. On with the show.

In any history of Latin in its earliest days, the ancient languages of Italy come up. So far as linguists can tell, there are two main groups. The first group is the Etruscan language. It is a language that no one fully knows. It is limited to a handful of inscriptions, many of which are funerary. Etruscan played an important role in the development of Latin—particularly the Latin alphabet—though it lent many words to Latin as well.

The other group of languages is the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin is one of these. The others include Oscan, Faliscan and Venetic, although Venetic may not be Italic. It's always hard to be certain about things this far in the past, but to my inexpert eyes Venetic seems similar enough to Latin. We know about Venetic—hold your breath for it—through inscriptions.

The thing that struck me was from an inscription from Este. Because I have a font that can show you the Venetic alphabet, I'll take a stab at transliterating it back into Venetic. I promise zero actual accuracy on my transcription, though I've made efforts at it.

Now on to the serious part. It is transliterated as:

mego donasto sainatei reitiai egeotora aimoi ke louderobos

Which corresponds to the Latin:

me donavit sanatrici reitiae egetora aemo liberisque

And in English:

Egetora gave me to Reitia the healer for Aemus and his children.

There's all sorts of fascinating stuff here, but the one that struck me was the use of ke. Why? Because Latin has a very similar word it can use to mean "and." The word is "-que." I put a hypen in front of it to show you that in Latin it attaches itself to the end of a word instead of being its own independent word. As you can see, "ke" is its own word. Obviously these words are related. Here's my guess at how.

At one point, there was a word *ke either in Latin or Italic—the star is there to show you that it is not an actual word, but a hypothetical form that ought to have existed. You should not be surprised to find out that a language can go from a "qu" sound to a "k" sound. In English we have King and QUeen. More importantly in Latin we have "quomodo"—with the qu sound—which becomes the Spanish word "como"—with the k sound. So it is very possible to switch between those sounds. So *ke become ke in Venetic and -que in Latin.

I mention all of this because there is another Indo-European language that uses a very similar sounding word to mean "and." It is Greek, and the word is και, which you might write as "kai" with our alphabet. This word is the same in ancient and modern Greek—so far as my barbarian eyes can see. Again, it is easy enough to get from an "e" (like the "ay" in way) to an "ai" sound (like the word eye). Latin itself made that change, otherwise we would have "praedictions" and "praedispositions." But we don't, because Latin went from an "ai" sound to an "e" sound for the vowel combination of "ae."

So *ke made its way from whatever ancient language—probably Proto Indo-European—into Greek and Latin. This sort of analysis of words can help students made connections when learning a new language, but it is not always easy to spot. Suffice to say, I thought it was interesting enough to write this post.

Now, why did "-que" move to the end of words? Why did it stop being an independent word? Oh, the mysteries of Latin.

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Final M!

2009-12-11T10:04:00.000-06:00

To nasalize, or not to nasalize. That is the question.

Without a doubt, nearly no one today nasalizes the final m these days. That doesn't mean you shouldn't know about it. I've got two reasons.

1. If you know about nasalized m, certain aspects of poetry become easier to deal with. Particularly the dreaded elision of final m. But that's for advanced students. My other reason applies to everyone.

2. If you can make the sounds of nasalized m, you can quickly see why there is no -om at the end of words. This could help beginning students work through some of the pops and ticks of the second declension. The declension where o reigns supreme, until you get to the Accusative singular.

Not convinced of the value of this?

Try the experiment for the day. Say "cum" with a good French accent. Make that -um come out your nose! Now, go back and say the antiquated form of it: quom. Again, get a good French accent going on the -om. Now, obviously the initial consonant is different. The vowel sound, if you're doing it the right way, should be very similar.

Of course, you don't have to believe me about this nasalization thing. Check out what other folks have to say here and here (because quoting Cicero is pretty much an argument ender).

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