Self teaching Latin

Original post by J_Alom

So I want to teach myself Latin (GCSE and upto A-level standard)- but I want to do it without going to classes or paying for a tutor.

If anyone has done latin, could they recommend any books that I could use?

N.B: I dont have a time limit, I want to learn for the sake of it.

Thanks in advance!

Our school used a series of books called Ecce Romani, which were quite good IIRC. Was a while ago now.

EDIT:

Original post by llpokermuffinll

What's the point? Latin is not spoken anywhere! Rather learn something like German / French / Spanish / Portuguese / Arabic / ...

You don't learn a dead language to speak it. You usually learn it because you're interested in that era of history, the language or just for 'the fun of it'. Lots of modern languages have roots in Latin, and the strict rules which govern it tend to improve your own written English.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 4

Georgey1993

Original post by llpokermuffinll

What's the point? Latin is not spoken anywhere! Rather learn something like German / French / Spanish / Portuguese / Arabic / ...

For a linguist, Latin is very useful, for example I study French and Spanish and can understand quite a bit of Afrikaans, and one can see the links between the languages through latin.

Latin is also spoken in the Vatican City :smile:

Reply 5

OP

Original post by llpokermuffinll

What's the point? Latin is not spoken anywhere! Rather learn something like German / French / Spanish / Portuguese / Arabic / ...

I know Arabic, Latin always fascinated me + it allows for some bragging rights!

Reply 6

awais590

12

Original post by J_Alom

So I want to teach myself Latin (GCSE and upto A-level standard)- but I want to do it without going to classes or paying for a tutor.

If anyone has done latin, could they recommend any books that I could use?

N.B: I dont have a time limit, I want to learn for the sake of it.

Thanks in advance!

Original post by Georgey1993

Hey!! This is so weird, I want to learn latin as well....Maybe we could be latin buddies haha and compare our progress!

yeah, i actually wanted to learn too, but i think i'm gonna learn in the summer, after all of these exams, maybe i'll flick through a few text books beforehand :dontknow:

Reply 7

Oh, just throwing it out there. I should still have all my notes somewhere, so if you have any questions when you do start teaching yourself feel free to PM me. No promises that I can actually help, but I'll give it a good go :-)

Reply 8

DeeWave

13

Maybe use Cambridge Latin Course?

Caecillius est in Horto ...

Reply 9

OP

Original post by awais590

yeah, i actually wanted to learn too, but i think i'm gonna learn in the summer, after all of these exams, maybe i'll flick through a few text books beforehand :dontknow:

thats my plan, something to do in the summer.

Reply 10

OP

Original post by DeeWave

Maybe use Cambridge Latin Course?

Caecillius est in Horto ...

i think im going to do this in the summer, thanks for the info!

p.s. what does the last part mean?

Reply 11

Caecillius is in the garden.

(Caecillius being a person)

Reply 12

DeeWave

13

Original post by J_Alom

i think im going to do this in the summer, thanks for the info!

p.s. what does the last part mean?

'Caecillius is in the garden'

It's a classic phrase from the first translation IIRC. Anyone who's done Cambridge Latin Course will remember it fondly! :smile:

Reply 13

LostHorizons

13

I did an Open University course which assumes no prior knowledge of Latin and teaches you up to about AS level (the link is here), which I found really, really good. You might be able to do the course for free, and you pretty much entirely self teach (you send in 4 assessments and sit an exam, but you don't have actual classes, you just learn from the books provided). The course uses this book and this book, which would probably still be of use to you if you didn't want to do the course itself. One teaches you grammar, with lots of exercises to test you on what you've learned, and a good deal of vocabulary (in each section of the book, there's a list of 'set words' to learn as well as lots of other words which might come in handy), and the other book is a Latin play which you can use to practise translation. The only drawback is that those 2 books don't have the answers/English translations in them, and I don't think you can buy an answers booklet so you wouldn't be able to check your answers and translations without doing the Open University course itself, but the book alone does explain different aspects of grammar and translation in quite a lot of detail. :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 14

Original post by DeeWave

'Caecillius is in the garden'

It's a classic phrase from the first translation IIRC. Anyone who's done Cambridge Latin Course will remember it fondly! :smile:

Definitely. And of course, "Matella est in atrio", "Quintus est in triclinio" etc.
Grr, that family needs to die.
Oh wait, volcano. :giggle:

EDIT: Wait, volcano was Pliny :< Grr.

Reply 15