Latin for Beginners: Part II Lesson 1

PART II

WORDS AND FORMS

LESSON I

FIRST PRINCIPLES

19. Subject and Predicate. 1. Latin, like English, expresses thoughts by means of sentences. A sentence is a combination of words that expresses a thought, and in its simplest form is the statement of a single fact. Thus,

Galba is a farmer Galba est agricola

The sailor fights Nauta pugnat

In each of these sentences there are two parts:

Subject

Galba Galba The sailor Nauta

Predicate

is a farmer est agricola fights pugnat

2. The subject is that person, place, or thing about which something is said, and is therefore a noun or some word which can serve the same purpose.

a. Pronouns, as their name implies (pro, “instead of,” and noun), often take the place of nouns, usually to save repeating the same noun, as, Galba is a farmer; he is a sturdy fellow.

3. The predicate is that which is said about the subject, and consists of a verb with or without modifiers.

a. A verb is a word which asserts something (usually an act) concerning a person, place, or thing.

13 20. The Object. In the two sentences, The boy hit the ball and The ball hit the boy, the same words are used, but the meaning is different, and depends upon the order of the words. The doer of the act, that about which something is said, is, as we have seen above, the subject. That to which something is done is the direct object of the verb. The boy hit the ball is therefore analyzed as follows:

Subject	Predicate
The boy	hit the ball (verb) (direct object)

a. A verb whose action passes over to the object directly, as in the sentence above, is called a transitive verb. A verb which does not admit of a direct object is called intransitive, as, I walk, he comes.

21. The Copula. The verb to be in its different forms—are, is, was, etc.—does not tell us anything about the subject; neither does it govern an object. It simply connects the subject with the word or words in the predicate that possess a distinct meaning. Hence it is called the copula, that is, the joiner or link.

22. In the following sentences pronounce the Latin and name the nouns, verbs, subjects, objects, predicates, copulas:

1.	America est patria mea America is fatherland my
2.	Agricola fīliam amat (The) farmer (his) daughter loves
3.	Fīlia est Iūlia (His) daughter is Julia
4.	Iūlia et agricola sunt in īnsulā Julia and (the) farmer are on (the) island
5.	Iūlia aquam portat Julia water carries
6.	Rosam in comīs habet (A) rose in (her) hair (she) has
7.	Iūlia est puella pulchra Julia is (a) girl pretty
8.	Domina fīliam pulchram habet (The) lady (a) daughter beautiful has

a. The sentences above show that Latin does not express some words which are necessary in English. First of all, Latin has no article the or a; thus agricola may mean the farmer, a farmer, or simply farmer. Then, too, the personal pronouns, I, you, he, she, etc., and the possessive pronouns, my, your, his, her, etc., are not expressed if the meaning of the sentence is clear without them.

14

LESSON II

FIRST PRINCIPLES (Continued)

23. Inflection. Words may change their forms to indicate some change in sense or use, as, is, are; was, were; who, whose, whom; farmer, farmer’s; woman, women. This is called inflection. The inflection of a noun, adjective, or pronoun is called its declension, that of a verb its conjugation.

24. Number. Latin, like English, has two numbers, singular and plural. In English we usually form the plural by adding -s or -es to the singular. So Latin changes the singular to the plural by changing the ending of the word. Compare

Naut-a pugnat The sailor fights

Naut-ae pugnant The sailors fight

25. Rule. Nouns that end in -a in the singular end in -ae in the plural.

26. Learn the following nouns so that you can give the English for the Latin or the Latin for the English. Write the plural of each.

agri´cola, farmer (agriculture)1 aqua, water (aquarium) causa, cause, reason do´mina, lady of the house, mistress (dominate) filia, daughter (filial) fortū´na, fortune

fuga, flight (fugitive) iniū´ria, wrong, injury lūna, moon (lunar) nauta, sailor (nautical) puel´la, girl silva, forest (silvan) terra, land (terrace)

1. The words in parentheses are English words related to the Latin. When the words are practically identical, as causa, cause, no comparison is needed.

27. Compare again the sentences

Nauta pugna-t The sailor fights

Nautae pugna-nt The sailors fight

In the first sentence the verb pugna-t is in the third person singular, in the second sentence pugna-nt is in the third person plural.

15 28. Rule. Agreement of Verb. A finite verb must always be in the same person and number as its subject.

29. Rule. In the conjugation of the Latin verb the third person singular active ends in -t, the third person plural in -nt. The endings which show the person and number of the verb are called personal endings.

30. Learn the following verbs and write the plural of each. The personal pronouns he, she, it, etc., which are necessary in the inflection of the English verb, are not needed in the Latin, because the personal endings take their place. Of course, if the verb’s subject is expressed we do not translate the personal ending by a pronoun; thus nauta pugnat is translated the sailor fights, not the sailor he fights.

ama-t	he (she, it)	loves, is loving, does love (amity, amiable)
labō´ra-t	“   “   “	labors, is laboring, does labor
nūntia-t2	“   “   “	announces, is announcing, does announce
porta-t	“   “   “	carries, is carrying, does carry (porter)
pugna-t	“   “   “	fights, is fighting, does fight (pugnacious)

2. The u in nūntiō is long by exception. (Cf. § 12. 2.)

31. EXERCISES

I. 1. The daughter loves, the daughters love. 2. The sailor is carrying, the sailors carry. 3. The farmer does labor, the farmers labor. 4. The girl is announcing, the girls do announce. 5. The ladies are carrying, the lady carries.
II. 1. Nauta pugnat, nautae pugnant. 2. Puella amat, puellae amant. 3. Agricola portat, agricolae portant. 4. Fīlia labōrat, fīliae labōrant. 5. Nauta nūntiat, nautae nūntiant. 6. Dominae amant, domina amat.

DOMINA