Download Key Grammatical Terminology - New Hartford Central Schools

Latin IA Key Grammatical Terminology
Chapter 1
• noun – names of people, places, things, qualities, or acts.
• adjectives – words that describe people, places, things, qualities, or acts.
• verbs – words that denote actions (ex. sit, jump, climb) or existence (ex. is, am, are).
Chapter 2
• subject – person or thing doing the action of the verb.
• verb – action word or existence (ends in ‘t’ or ‘nt’). Often called the ‘main verb’.
• compliment – completes the pattern of a linking verb and the description of the subject.
• linking verb – links two things (nouns or adjectives) making one the subject and the
other a compliment linked by the verb ‘to be’. The verb ‘to be’ or ‘esse’ and any form of
the verb is the only linking verb that exists.
o two examples
 Cornelia est puella Romana. (usually, but not always, the subject and
compliment and any adjectives describing them have the same endings)
 subject – Cornelia
 linking verb – est
 compliment – puella
 adjective describing compliment – Romana
 Cornelia et Flavia sunt puellae Romanae.
 subjects – Cornelia, Flavia (more than one requires a plural linking
verb and compliment)
 linking verb – sunt
 compliment – puellae
 adjective describing compliment – Romanae
Chapter 3
• number – describes how many of something are described (nouns or adjectives)
o singular – one noun or adjective (puer – a boy)
o plural – more than one noun or adjective (pueri – the boys)
• case – describes the function of a noun or adjective in a sentence and consists of 5 terms
(nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative) that perform specific functions in a
sentence.
• nominative – the case used as the subject of a sentence or as a compliment.
• root – the base of the noun that doesn’t change, to which all of the noun’s endings are
added to.
o Take the dictionary entry ‘puella, puellae – f., girl,’ go to the second word and cut
off the ending ‘ae’ what is left ‘puell’ is the root.
o ex. of a 3rd declension noun: ‘vox, vocis – f., voice’ the root is ‘voc’.
Chapter 4
• declension – one of 5 families of noun endings, each noun belongs to one declension
only and uses only that declensions endings.
• decline – when you add the endings to the root of a noun, especially in a chart form
writing out all the endings, you are declining a noun or adjective; it also describes when
you analyze a word to determine its case and number.
• direct object – the person or thing receiving the action of the verb.
o Sextus Corneliam vexat. Sextus annoys Cornelia.
o Sextus – subject = nominative case
o Corneliam – direct object = accusative case
o vexat – verb, also a transitive verb
• accusative – case used most often as the direct object of the sentence.
• gender – nouns and adjectives have one of three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter
(this does not describe any physical characteristic, no real reason they are assigned a
particular gender).
• transitive verb – verbs that use a direct object (most verbs).
• intransitive verb – verbs that do not use direct objects.
Chapter 5
• conjugation – one of 4 families of verb endings, each verb belongs to one conjugation
only and uses only that conjugations endings (infinitives end in ‘are, êre, ere, & ire’);
note that there are irregular verbs that do not belong to these conjugation families such as
sum, esse and possum, posse.
• stem – the base of a verb that doesn’t change, to which all verb endings are added to
o Take the dictionary entry of a verb ‘ambulo, ambulare, ambulavi, ambulatus – to
walk,’ go to the second word and cut off the ending ‘re’ what is left ‘ambula’ is
the root. Except for the first person singular which cuts off the vowel also (it
would be a difficult to pronounce mouthful to try and say things such as
‘ambulao’ so the Roman’s cut the extra vowel and left it as ‘ambulo’).
o Note: this does not work for irregular verbs sum, esse and possum, posse.
o Note: there will be a slight change to this when we get to chapter 10 and we cut
off the final 3 letters of the infinitive form and will discuss what specific vowels
will be added back, depending on which verb conjugation the word belongs to.
• conjugate – when you add the endings to the stem of a verb, especially in a chart form
writing out all the endings, you are conjugating a verb; it also describes when you
analyze a word to determine its person, number, and tense.
• infinitive – an unconjugated verb, the ‘to verb’ form of the word, not the form of the verb
that means things like ‘I run’ or ‘he sits’.
• complimentary infinitive – an infinitive that is used with 4 special verbs to complete the
thought of the main verb.
o used with the verbs: errâre, to wander, rîdêre, to laugh, ascendere, to climb,
dormîre, to sleep
Chapter 6
• impersonal verb – verbs that only use the subject ‘it’ in a specific pattern
o necesse est – it is necessary.
• masculine – usually belong to 2nd or 3rd declension.
• feminine – usually belong to 1st or 3rd declension.
Chapter 8
• person – refers to who is doing the action of the verb.
o Note: usually in Latin sentences it is understood as part of the verb and not stated
separately as a pronoun or noun, but it can.
 ex. ambulat = he walks, he is walking, he does walk or she walks, she is
walking, she does walk
 ex. Marcus ambulat = Marcus walks, Marcus does walk, Marcus is
walking
• number – describes how many of something are doing the action of the verb.
o singular – one person or thing (sedet – he sits)
o plural – more than one person or thing (sedent – they sit)
• pronouns – pronouns tell who is doing something ‘I, you, he, she, it, we, they’ in Latin
certain pronouns agree with certain verb endings.
o ego = I, and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘o’ or the irregular verbs ‘sum’
or ‘possum’
o tu = you (singular), and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘s’ or the irregular
verbs ‘es’ or ‘potest’
o is/ea = he/she, and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘t’ or the irregular verbs
‘est’ or ‘potest’
o nos = we, and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘mus’ or the irregular verbs
‘sumus’ or ‘possumus’
o vos = you (plural), and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘tis’ or the irregular
verbs ‘estis’ or ‘potestis’
o ei/eae = they, and it works with regular verbs ending in ‘nt’ or the irregular verbs
‘sunt’ or ‘possunt’
• vocative – case used to address someone directly and let them know you are talking
directly to them and not anyone else. It’s similar to shouting someone’s name.
o Note: we don’t spend much time on this because you will recognize it when you
see it because it will usually be set off by comas and be in a sentence that ends
with a question mark or exclamation point.
o Endings look the exact same as the nominative form of the noun. The exception to
this is for 2nd declension nouns that end in ‘us’ in the nominative singular, then
the singular vocative noun ends in ‘e’. But the plural form of this 2nd declension
noun in the vocative looks exactly like the nominative plural of this noun.
 ex.: Sextus – becomes ‘Sexte’ & servus – becomes ‘serve’.
Chapter 9
• preposition – are used with one of two cases accusative or ablative to form prepositional
phrases.
o prepositional phrases using the accusative case
 per – through, along
 prope – near
 ad – to, toward
 in – into
o prepositional phrases using the ablative case
 e, ex – from (e used when the word following it starts with a consonant; ex
used when the word following it starts with a vowel)
 a, ab – away from (a used when the word following it starts with a
consonant; ab used when the word following it starts with a vowel)
 sub – under
 cum – with
 sine – without
 in – in, on
• ablative – this case is almost always used with a preposition.
Chapter 10
• conjugation – the 4 families of verb endings, whose infinitive ends in ‘are, êre, ere, &
ire’. Each conjugation uses different vowels as part of its stem depending on what tense
we are discussing. In the present tense:
o Verbs of the 1st conjugation have infinitives that end in ‘are’ and they cut off the
‘re’ and add their verb endings to them.
 ambulo
 ambulamus
 ambulas
 ambulatis
 ambulat
 ambulant
nd
o Verbs of the 2 conjugation have infinitives that end in ‘êre’ and they cut off the
‘re’ and add their verb endings to them.
 terrêo
 terrêmus
 terrês
 terrêtis
 terrêt
 terrênt
o Verbs of the 3rd conjugation have infinitives that end in ‘ere’ and they cut off the
‘ere’ and add their verb endings to them, keeping in mind that new vowels are
added to the stem between the endings and the stem. (The big difference is that
the infinitive ending doesn’t include the macron or flat line over the first e of the
infinitive ending).
 discedo
 discedimus
 discedis
 disceditis
 discedit
 discedunt
o Verbs of the 3rd -io conjugation have infinitives that end in ‘ere’ and they cut off
the ‘ere’ and add their verb endings to them, keeping in mind that new vowels are
added to the stem between the endings and the stem. However, these words add
the exact same vowels as 4th conjugation. You need to memorize which verbs act
like this and you can only recognize it by looking at the dictionary entry and the
first word with ends in ‘io’ instead of the usual ‘o’.
 arripio
 arripimus
 arripis
 arripitis
 arripit
 arripiunt
o Verbs of the 4th conjugation have infinitives that end in ‘ire’ and they cut off the
‘ire’ and add their verb endings to them, keeping in mind that new vowels are
added to the stem between the endings and the stem.
 audio
 audimus
 audis
 auditis
 audit
 audiunt
• tense – the time when the action of the verb takes place (present = now).
• imperative – a verb form that is used in a command. It orders a noun to do an action.
o Singular form comes from the infinitive form and cutting off the ‘re’ provides the
singular form. parare – para! Prepare!
o plural form comes from the infitinve form and cutting off the ‘re’ and adding ‘te’
provides the plural form. parare – parate! Prepare!